ZAP! It only took a moment, but now the sensitive electronic parts you manufacture are ruined. What’s worse is that you may not be aware of this, and the quality problem only shows up when irate customers return your non-functional components.  Electrostatic discharge (ESD) may simply be a split-second, unwanted current passing from one object to another; however, it is the costly cause of failed and contaminated components, downtime and safety issues.

A daunting range of products are available to reduce ESD in your environment. For the first-time purchaser especially, it is easy to become unsure of which solutions are best for your specific situation. The answer to this is to follow a problem-solving process, rather than concentrate on each possible product. What does such a process look like?

To successfully reduce ESD in your environment, you must apply some Operations Management skills. First, you will investigate your environment. Second, you’ll review your processes. Only then will the most appropriate solutions to ESD reduction be clear. At that point, you will be able to intelligently apply products to your environment with the following variables in mind:

  • the level of risk you’re willing to accept
  • your budget for ESD countermeasures
  • your countermeasure knowledge.

Investigate Your Environment

Potential ESD risks always exist. Look carefully at your work environment. Are people permitted to casually walk in and out of the area which needs to be protected? Are they leaving food, papers or plastic items on work benches? Do you see creams or solvent cleaners around? These are all high ESD hazards and must be removed.

Relative humidity within the workplace can also be a static charge buildup risk. If this is not above 40% relative humidity, the static buildup can be high and stored charges will exist on nonconductors. Once the physical sources of ESD risk have been taken out of the work environment, you may want to proactively (rather than reactively) continue by using an ionized air blower. These blowers neutralize conductive surfaces by blowing positive and negative ions over them at the same time.

ESD caution signage is available. Make sure these are put up in your workplace, and that everyone understands their meaning.

Review & Improve Your Processes

Flowchart and review your work processes. Are there any steps which could be shortened or eliminated? Material handling in particular creates significantly increased risk of ESD events. Soldering guns are another risk because of emitted heat and split solder. You can improve your processes so that soldering guns are removed from the work surface at appropriate times. Any time someone is going to handle an integrated circuit, they must be grounded. Wrist straps, floor mats and footwear sole grounders are available to accomplish this. You can use them individually or layer them to increase protection levels.

Material handling is obviously impossible to completely eliminate from the manufacturing process. However, various means of protecting items during transit are available. Items can be plaed under covers or within liners. They may be put in bags or containers. Special kinds of tapes, labels and even lotions are also available that reduce ESD risk.  Depending on your budget, a variety of these may be best suited to mitigate ESD in  your environment.

The most active feedback of ESD risk comes in the form of two devices: workstation ESD monitor or grounding tester.

Workstation ESD monitors are very helpful when diagnosing and troubleshooting static control problems. They will measure variables such as:

  • ESD events and, depending on the model, what parts have been damaged
  • Static voltage
  • Ionization balance
  • Ionization decay.

Grounding testers monitor key indicators including:

  • if wrist straps have been properly plugged in
  • the body voltage of the operator
  • whether work surfaces and tools are correctly grounded.

Ensure that work surfaces and grounded connections are inspected for compliance with your new ESD risk minimization standards at least once per day. All of these actions are products used intelligently in combination will significantly reduce ESD hazards in your environment.

For a FREE ESD Evaluation of your work area, call Global Test Supply at 888-610-7664 to setup an appointment.

You are welcome to publish this article for free of charge on your website, newsletter or e-zine provided:

  • You do not alter the article in any way,
  • You include the entire article, including the About the author section,
  • All hyperlinks remain intact,
  • You agree to indemnify the author,
  • You provide a courtesy copy of your publication to the author.

Jason Kanigan is a technical writer for Global Test Supply, a distributor of test and measurement equipment.