Antistatic Garments - Uses

Uses

Antistatic garments are used in many industries such as electronics, communications, telecommunications and defense applications. As computers and electronics become ever more pervasive in consumer products so an increasing number of manufacturers will need to apply anti-static control measures. One such measure is antistatic apparel because people are the greatest source of static charge in the workplace.

Transportation of electrostatic sensitive devices also requires packaging that provides protection from electrostatic hazards in the transportation or storage system. In the case of an ESD protected area designed with continuous grounding of all conductors and dissipative items (including personnel), packaging may not be necessary.

The amount of static electricity we feel varies according to factors such as our body and foot size. A larger body and bigger feet require more charge to be stored to produce the same voltage. The material our clothes are made from and the soles of our shoes can influence static electricity too. Weather affects it as well. There is more build-up of static charge when the air is dry. Most people feel harmless shocks at around 2,000-4,000 volts. However electrical components can be damaged by as little as a few volts. It is estimated that between eight percent and 33 percent of product losses—-the proportion of products which are rendered faulty—-are due to static electricity. Static electricity is generally harmless to the individual but if not controlled, electrostatic discharge can cause product damage to electrostatic sensitive devices and lead to machinery downtime, lost man-hours, returned products and warranty costs particularly in the semiconductor and electronics industries, which lead 5 billion USD of damage to products each year.