June 2016 – Ground Zero Electrostatics Blog

29 Jun

Custom Matting: A Ground Zero Specialty

If you’ve ever worked with an X-Acto Knife or a box cutter, you know there are some dangers, just as there are with any knife. Remember, pay attention to what you’re doing! Never use a dull blade! Cut away from your body!

And of course, wear cut resistant gloves. Yes, we know you’re a man, and men don’t need certain protections… Okay, so both genders have their issues, but this one rule is the one we most often neglect – and that neglect leads to injuries.

You’re being careful, cutting along, everything’s going smoothly and SLICE!

Yes, that’s right, you’ve just sliced open your finger, there’s blood everywhere – you have to go to the emergency room and get stitches.

It kind of ruins your day.

OSHA reports that nearly 40 percent of all injuries attributed to manual workshop tools in the US involve knives with retractable blades.

And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 250,000 serious hand, finger and wrist laceration occur annually in the private industry.

So that scenario we described above? It’s far more common than you might think. And, in the interest of your safety and our bottom line, we took action.

A Cut Above

So what did Ground Zero do to help insure your workplace safety?

In an earlier post, we talked about ESD mats – what they are and how they work, but today we’d like to get… a little personal, if that’s okay with you.

Most table and bench mats are built with either two or three layers. The top layer is resistant to chemicals, solder and flux, making it usable and easy to clean. The bottom layer is either a durable anti-skid surface and/or an adhesive backing, both to ensure safety on the work area.

Three-layer mats have the added bonus of a conductive scrim layered in the center that can coordinate with your personal wrist-strap constant monitors.

As you can imagine, all of these layers make the mats a little thicker than cardboard or just a vinyl mat. And, as you know, when cutting with an X-Acto knife or box cutter, the thicker the material you’re trying to cut is, the more prone the blade is to slipping, leading to that ER visit.

So to help promote the safety of our customers’ workplaces, we decided to offer custom cut matting.

That’s right, any of the mats we sell can be custom cut to your specifications (with a small margin of +/-1/8^th of an inch). Plus, each and every custom cut mat comes with an ISO certification showing it has been tested and met the latest professional standards.

So which would you prefer, a trip to the emergency room, or the ability to get to work on with your new ESD mat right out of the box – with all of your fingers intact?

Oh, and finally: a little safety advice, whether you want it or not. When using a knife or blade of any sort, stay sharp! Follow all of those rules we mentioned above, ‘cause we all know a lot of us do ignore them and they were created for our safety.

We would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider; contact us today for more information

22 Jun

Are You Grounded: A Look at Cables, Clamps, and Drums

Do you remember the cell phone gas fire scares of the early 2000’s? Because of a couple of erroneously spread Internet rumors, people all across the world became convinced that use of their cell phones while at the gas pump could lead to explosions, injuries, even death!

Despite the fact that the rumors were all proven to be false, several gas station chains, including the one whose safety report was misquoted to create the rumors, posted stickers warning against cell phone use. One Chicago suburb even passed a law banning the use of cell phones at gas stations.

If you look closely, those stickers are still on a majority of gas pumps, at least in the US and Canada. But while there has never been a case where cell phones caused gas fires, the same is NOT true for static electricity.

We’ve talked a lot in the past about the danger even a small electroStatic discharge (ESD) can pose to sensitive electronics. But in a combustible atmosphere, that tiny spark can cause a lot more damage than the cost of replacing a damaged circuit board.

Static is Everywhere

Walking across a room, rustling your clothing, even just the act of raising your arm to scratch your nose can generate a sufficient static buildup to create a subsequent ESD if not dissipated. Under normal conditions, you won’t even notice the buildup until you feel the shock of the discharge being released.

When you’re not working with sensitive electronics, you probably don’t even consider this to be a problem, certainly not in your home or driving in your car. But like all charges, if it’s not given a route to ground, the charge continues to build, increasing the voltage. And if you happen to be in an area with flammable liquids, vapors and even dust, that static charge can cause explosive consequences.

The first step to avoid incidents in any environment conducive to these volatile exposures is to eliminate as many potential ignition sources as possible. But there are often unconsidered, hidden dangers, especially in an industrial setting that can act as accidental ignition switches.

Isolated Conductors = Hidden Dangers

Isolated conductors are conductive objects – metal flanges, fittings or valves in pipework systems, portable drums – which are either inherently or accidentally insulated from being grounded. Because of this, any static charge they generate becomes a potential ignition point.

The best way to avoid this problem is by utilizing bonding and grounding. Bonding is the process of joining two or more objects or containers with electrically conductive wires to neutralize the potential charge between them. Grounding is a more specific form of bonding where an object or container is connected to the ground.

There are a variety of ways to effectively employ bonding and grounding. While OSHA does not give clear directives on how to ground, they do specify when and where grounding as well as bonding procedures should exist.

Getting Grounded

The most obvious example to point to is the common ground, seen in every building – a metal rod is attached to the outside of a building and literally grounded a few inches into the soil. While this method works great for homes, the size of large industrial expanses, such as warehouses or factory floors, means other methods may be more suitable.

For manufacturing or large storage areas, there are a few options. They all involve grounding clamps connected to grounding cables.

If the area has access to the building’s main cold water pipe, a very common semi-permanent solution is to use a bronze pipe clamp as an alternative to the direct building ground. C-Grounding clamps are another popular semi-permanent solution. Of course, always check the reliability of the ground conductivity in these instances.

If you’re like many industrial complexes, though, the isolated conductors are often temporary items, like drums, containers and vessels that come and go as needed. For these instances, you can get a variety of steel- or aluminum-constructed clamps that attach to the container, connecting it through a stainless steel cable to a grounding point, making the drum or vessel safe.

Depending on the environment, you can also effectively ground using the drop valve of a mixing tank or connecting your ground cable to a previously grounded surface – a table or workstation that is already connected to the grounding apparatus.

Whatever method you choose, bonding and grounding are essential for the safety of everyone working in an industrial environment, whether they’re piecing together circuit boards, helicopters… or gas pumps.

We would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider; contact us today for more information.

15 Jun

Conductive, Dissipative, or Anti-Static Flooring?

You’re hard at work at your latest assignment. Your boss wants you to put together a complete plan for creating a large-scale electrostatic protection area (EPA) for a client who will be assembling various sensitive electronics and they want to avoid any risk of losing their investment due to electrostatic discharge (ESD).

You’ve selected the grounding cables, the workstations, the custom cut matting, containers and furniture, all designed to minimize or eliminate the slightest chance of ESD damage. But a curious thing happens when you research the proper flooring.

A simple Internet search for ESD flooring yields numerous options, more than you expect and you start to notice they all fall under 3 categories. In an instant, you’re faced with a decision, just like the game show, “Let’s Make a Deal.”

Suddenly, Monty Hall (or Wayne Brady, the current host!) is staring at you, asking do you want to choose door number one, number two, or number three: conductive, dissipative, or anti-static? The clock is ticking… How do you decide?

Door #1

For starters, let’s eliminate one of your options. Much like the ‘ZONKS’ of the game show, ‘anti-static’ is a worthless term in your ESD vocabulary. By strict definition, anti-static refers to a material that resists generating a charge. At one time it did designate a level of resistance, but was so overused and misunderstood, the term was removed from the ANSI/ESD standards.

So likewise, eliminate the term ‘anti-static’ from your discussion.

Deciding between the other two doors requires a closer look at the specific needs of the area for which the flooring is intended.

We’ve talked in another article about Ohms (Ω) and how they are the unit of measurement for resistance to electrical current.

Door #2

Because of the size and scope of most areas where it is necessary, the most common form of ESD flooring is referred to as ‘Static Conductive.’ Conductive flooring is at the low end of the electrical resistance scale.

Conductive carpeting may even be laced with carbon lines or metallic yarn fibers to encourage the flow of electricity. Because of the low electrical resistance, electrons flow easily across and through the surface, and can be grounded safely and quickly. This carpeting or vinyl tile is laid down with a conductive adhesive and grounded through the use of conductive tape or copper strips that run to a common ground.

This type of flooring is also generally a little more cost-effective than a dissipative solution.

Door #3

On the higher end of the resistance scale falls ‘Static Dissipative’ flooring. The higher resistance of these materials keeps the electrical charge more under control as it slowly flows over the surface and into a ground. Dissipative flooring is much more common in shared office environments where everyday shoes are more common, as opposed to a location where every element, from furniture to footwear, is controlled.

In our example above, the client will be assembling sensitive electronics like circuit boards and such in a large-scale environment. In this instance, a vinyl tile, or a poured epoxy flooring with conductive properties would most likely be the best option.

In an office setting where a company has their own IT department that fixes and assembles computers within the same facility, a dissipative, static resilient tiled floor would be a better fit.

But the fact is, these are very simplified examples of the myriad of variables that you can encounter when selecting the proper ESD controlled flooring. Your best option is to talk to an expert.

We’d love to be the experts you can count on for your full service, seamless ESD solutions. For more information or advice on your specific ESD flooring needs – or any other ESD questions, contact us today.

08 Jun

Edison vs Tesla: The Battle for Electric Power–Part 2

So, what exactly changed on May 1, 1893?

Lighting up Chicago

Westinghouse had managed to win the bid to illuminate the Chicago World’s Fair, the first all-electric fair in history. The previous year, financier JP Morgan had facilitated the merger of Thomas Edison’s various companies into the General Electric Corporation. GE also bid on the World’s Fair, but lost out because of the high cost of laying copper wire to accommodate DC power transmission.

27-million people witnessed President Grover Cleveland push a button bringing the fair to life and from that point forward, 80% of all electrical devices sold used AC power.

And New York…

Later that year, Westinghouse was awarded the contract to harness the power of Niagara Falls and when the plant came online in 1896, even the remaining Edison systems were forced to convert to AC power.

But the War of Currents cost everyone involved. JP Morgan, hoping to wrest full control of all hydroelectric power, manipulated the stock market to try and force Westinghouse to sell Tesla’s patents. Tesla saved Westinghouse, grateful for his patron, and asserted his own nobility over profits by tearing up his contract. Westinghouse would survive, but Tesla would forever after be in debt and mostly forgotten…

Forgotten Genius

Despite his remarkable achievements in electrical power, including radical experiments designed to transmit unlimited power wirelessly through the air to consumers – for free – Tesla is generally only remembered as the inventor of the Tesla Coil, which you probably recall best from those old Frankenstein movies. The Tesla Coil builds up lots of high voltage electricity quickly and efficiently and is also a powerful radio transmitter.

While Edison is memorialized for his inventions and quotes, Tesla is all but forgotten by the average person, even though many of the theories he proposed inspired the work of physicists like Einstein, Hawking and Heisenberg (the scientist, not Walter White’s alter ego). He also had breakthroughs in radio, radar, x-rays, solar energy, and even robotics. His technological advances were years ahead of his time, even today.

To be fair, Edison wasn’t completely wrong. DC power is still used very prevalently today – especially in computers. That thick brick in your laptop, printer and desktop cable? It’s constantly converting AC to DC to protect your sensitive electronics from the “raging waves” of alternating current.

Who knew electricity had such a “shocking” history?

We would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider; contact us today for more information.

01 Jun

Edison vs Tesla: The Battle for Electric Power

The year was 1887…

It was a battle royale – Jefferson vs Adams, the North vs the South, Hulk Hogan vs Randy Macho Man Savage, Jobs vs Wozniak, Trump vs Clinton… AC vs DC.

And when the dust settled, the guy who won really lost and the guy who lost became the champion that everyone remembers.

Back in the day before anti-trust laws forced the breakup of the remaining empire, the source of electricity – the power company – was known by one name… Edison. The name still lingers at Con-Ed in New York, SoCal Edison in California, and smaller units scattered all across the United States. But the power that comes into your house wasn’t the famous inventor’s idea.

First Meeting

In 1882, Nikola Tesla left his phone company job in his native Serbia and headed to Paris where he found employment with the Continental Edison Company. There, he so impressed his superiors that they recommended his transfer to the United States, noting that his genius rivaled that of their founder.

Tesla was excited to meet one of his heroes, a man who had accomplished so much with so little training. But this hope quickly died. The very genius that should have brought them together, because of their mutually high opinions of themselves, in fact created a rift almost immediately.

Self-taught Edison preferred to do tedious trial and error experimentation – hence his famous quote about finding 10,000 ways that didn’t work – while Tesla was a trained engineer and creative dreamer who preferred to come up with theories before testing them practically. Which drove them both somewhat crazy.

Tesla lasted less than a year working with his former hero.

While Edison is famous these days for his quotes on productivity – “Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration,” Tesla believed that mindset was Edison’s biggest stumbling block:

If he had a needle to find in a haystack he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once, with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search… I was almost a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90% of his labor.–Nikola Tesla

The War of the Currents

But the most famous falling out between the two men came to become known as the “War of the Currents.”

Edison stood by direct current (DC), while Tesla advocated for alternating current (AC).

The man who became a household name after his invention of the light bulb, the phonograph, the movie camera and countless other helpful, soon to be household items, didn’t want to bring “dangerous” alternating current into every home. He was convinced the best way, and certainly the safest way, to power the world was through single direction DC power.

But Tesla, with his theoretical approach, pointed out that DC power had severe limitations that would impact the future. In the 1880’s, DC technology only allowed for a power grid with a one-mile radius from the power source. And while DC only went one way, AC power allowed the flow of energy to go both ways, creating a much more practical solution for transmitting large quantities of energy to power an industrial city, which he predicted the United States would rapidly see more of in the coming years.

Unfortunately, Tesla did not always employ his considerable prognostication techniques to his own life. In his efforts to prove his former mentor wrong, he made a deal with a Pittsburgh industrialist whose name would also become a household word – George Westinghouse. Westinghouse paid Tesla a handsome fee, including residuals, for his AC motor and electrical transmission patents and began a campaign to make the public aware of his newly purchased invention.

In retaliation, Edison launched his own propaganda campaign against alternating current, even sending Professor Harold Brown on a “speaking” tour, where he routinely used AC power to electrocute dogs, horses, elephants and a convicted ax murderer in New York.

But everything changed on May 1, 1893—stay tuned next week to find out!