ground zero electrostatics – Ground Zero Electrostatics Blog

28 Jul

5 Reasons Why Static Programs Fail

On May 6, 1937, the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed, killing 36 people in front of national news cameras and effectively ending the Zeppelin flying experiment.

The Hindenburg was larger than 4 Goodyear blimps combined, or about as long as 2/3 the height of the Empire State Building.

It was rainy that day, and the mooring ropes dragged along the ground as the airship came down to dock in Manchester Township. The prevailing theory is that the wet dragging ropes generated a static charge that traveled up them onto the ship.

There the charge ignited the Hydrogen fuel and… boom. Once considered the future of air travel, flying airships would not be utilized, either commercially or for military use until the end of World War II.

All caused by a single spark.

Much like the Hindenburg disaster, your company’s program to control electrostatic discharge (ESD) can be toppled with a few small errors that blossom into larger problems if they aren’t properly accounted and planned for.

So today, let’s look at the 5 common reasons why your static control programs could fail.

Sure! We have ESD Protocols, Right?

Most companies that deal with sensitive electronics and circuit boards also require that their vendors, third party suppliers, and subcontractors have an ESD program in place. Often even before signing a contract, an engineer is sent in to audit the ESD practices. And from time to time they will do spot-checks to verify that those practices are still in place.

Some companies, in an effort to hold on to their contract or cut expenses, will simply throw together a minimum program that can be audited. It’s done as inexpensively as possible and often doesn’t have any true protocols – training, preventative maintenance, and enforcement fall by the wayside.

You’d never do that, right? Well, except…

This is Gonna Cost How Much?

Top management are always looking at ways to work more economically. Unfortunately, if they are not properly briefed on the importance of proper ESD protection protocols, they may see many aspects of the ESD program as expensive and possibly unnecessary.

This isn’t their fault, they just need to be better educated. Which may be your job. The fact is, the expense for good, well-developed ESD protection protocols is dwarfed by the cost to replace or repair non-functioning components, not to mention the company’s reputation.

Excellent ESD companies are led from the top down, with company leadership not only showing financial support for ESD preventative programs, but also making time to attend training themselves, praise persons and departments with the best implementation, and allocate time and funds for ongoing training and improvement of existing programs.

Otherwise, you might end up in a pinch…

Here’s a Band-Aid for that Severed Limb!

You might have heard the old saw, ‘if there’s no time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to fix it later?’

Unfortunately, many companies appear to follow a different maxim – there’ll always be time to do it over.

Like our last reason, the problem is often financial. Momentary solutions that can be quickly applied to fix individual problems becomes the norm, despite the fact that the long term expense is much higher.

The best, most cost-effective solutions are applied right the first time and “solve” lots of problems by the fact that they prevent so many of them for happening. Then you don’t get into a situation where you’re spending a lot more to fix what could have been an easily avoided minor problem, but is now mission critical.

But that’s not going to help unless…

Training? We Don’t Need no Stinking Training!

Proper ESD prevention is a team effort, but many companies underestimate the size of the team involved. As mentioned before, upper level management should take an interest in training, and in fact, every employee should be given at least a rudimentary class or video in how to follow the company’s practices.

It’s not enough to train the engineers of you haven’t informed the janitorial staff that cleans their sensitive work areas after they leave for the day how to properly do so.

Secretaries, interns, sales people – everyone who has the potential to walk into or affect an Electrostatic Protection Area (EPA) needs to know how to properly behave to minimize risk.

And finally…

We Only Use the Best – the Best We Can Afford, That Is.

Yes, it keeps coming back to price. But price should not be the only factor in deciding who to buy your ESD supplies from. Not all companies are created equally. Not all ESD products are held to the highest standard.

You want to find a vendor that can supply your ESD needs who can guarantee all of their products are properly tested, meet or exceed industry standards, and have the certification to prove it.

Always be sure to properly vet your chosen vendor, making sure they meet these requirements and be willing to ask for clients you can speak to and recommendations you can verify. If they’re reputable, they’ll be more than willing to have you check them out with their existing happy clients.

ESD prevention is no casual task. Your company may not have the risk of ending 36 lives, but putting best practices into place can certainly save jobs, computers and your clients.

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 prevention needs – or any other ESD questions, please contact us today.

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

25 May

What Are the Standards for Electrostatic Protection?

So, you’ve just been tasked with building or designing your first Electrostatic Protection Area (EPA). You’ve started doing your research, but there are so many choices, from so many different companies. Suppliers, manufacturers, third party providers… If only there was some established standard for judging the efficacy and reliability of all those pieces and parts.

Well, you’re in luck! In 2007, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in cooperation with ElectroStatic Discharge Association (ESDA) released a unified set of standards for the design, implementation and maintenance of ElectroStatic Discharge control programs.

In the midst of World War I, five engineering organizations recognized the need to develop standards that could eliminate confusion and could be adhered to across all disciplines, without regard to politics, profits or personal preferences. These groups reached out to the U.S. Departments of War, Navy, and Commerce to form an impartial third party non-profit organization, then known as the American Engineering Standards Committee.

Following the war, the organization spent the next 20 years establishing several safety protocols still observed today, like eye protection, hard hat standards and in-house electrical safety while at the same time reaching out to other similarly tasked international organizations.

When the United States entered World War II, the organization, which would eventually come to be known as ANSI, helped to accelerate the war effort and productivity, created more effective quality control measures, as well as helping to advance photography, radio, and even the development of Velcro.

In 1970’s, ANSI established a public review process and began the herculean effort of moving the United States to the metric system. While the general public never really connected with the metric system, the effort did bring ANSI to the forefront of private sector companies who discovered standardization was a way to stay more competitive in an increasingly global economy.

With the advancement of personal computers in the late 70’s and early 80’s, engineers at several companies recognized a need for more understanding of electrostatic discharge and its prevention. They formed the ESD Association, a non-profit, voluntary professional organization that for almost 35 years has sponsored educational programs and developed standards to help eliminate losses due to electrostatic discharges.

Together, leaning on the historical experience of both military and several commercial organizations, ANSI and ESDA developed the definitive standard for ESD protection, the very cleverly named ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007.

Covering about every conceivable area of ElectroStatic Discharge, the ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 utilizes both the human body model and the machine model to provide a broad set of guidelines for ESD protection.

The Human Body Model is the military standard that defines and rates the vulnerability of an electronic device to the ESD generated by a human being touching it. The Machine Model works similarly, except it rates the vulnerability of a device receiving a machine discharge into ground. It was originally developed by car manufacturers as their plants moved to more mechanized production technology. The Human Body Model is about 10 times more sensitive than the Machine Model.

There is a lot to explore in the ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 guidelines, but for the purpose of this primer, the document highlights 3 fundamental ESD control principles:

All conductors should be grounded. This includes the personnel and the surfaces they are working on. We recommend, at a minimum, personal grounding wrist straps, ESD table or bench mats, and a common ground cord.
Necessary non-conductors – certain circuit board materials, device packaging, etc. – cannot lose their electrostatic charge by being grounded and appropriate precautions must be implemented.
Static protective materials, such as ESD shielding bags or ESD totes and boxes must be utilized when transporting sensitive electronics outside a properly prepared EPA.

There are slightly less stringent standards that apply to floors and bench mats, but ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 is the highest and most comprehensive guideline so far. So when you’re shopping for the parts needed to establish your EPA area, always look for companies that maintain that standard in their products and services.

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

04 May

Finding ESD Storage Solutions

There’s a classic scene that appears, with some variation, in every James Bond film. Bond gets assigned a new mission and he goes to see MI-6’s Quartermaster, or “Q.” Q gives Bond everything he needs to complete the mission, including a few items that seem unusual or out of place.

Of course, as Bond fans know, these elements will at some point be combined to facilitate a distraction so Bond can escape. And usually that distraction is a rather large explosion.

One wonders how he was transporting the items before so that they didn’t explode in his Armani suit.

Of course, in real life, when items combine, the result isn’t usually an explosion. Or is it?

As we’ve mentioned before, the amount of Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) required to cause significant damage to sensitive electronics is far below the threshold where a human being can feel it.

By the time our bodies create a static charge that we can feel, it’s somewhere between 3 & 17 times stronger than what most electronics can handle without suffering damage.

Even just the controlled blowing of air, like the old canned air computer dust removal techniques can cause static ESD build-up that can be transferred to your sensitive electronics. And that tiny electrostatic discharge can cause latent or catastrophic failure, costing you time and money.

We’ve discussed selecting the proper shielding bags in a previous post. Another important weapon in your Electrostatic Discharge defense arsenal is anti-static ESD storage containers.

ESD Storage Containers

ESD storage containers are typically made of a conductive material, such as polypropylene or high density polyethylene and provide an added layer of protection, shielding your work areas and personnel from the harmful effects of ESD.

The conductive material provides a barrier which these fields cannot penetrate and prevents the build-up of electrostatic charge. The bins, totes and miscellaneous storage containers come in both static dissipative and conductive. Both control a potential electrostatic discharge, one by resisting it, the other by neutralizing it.

Additionally, be on the lookout for non-ESD protected items that may stray into the Electrostatic Protected Area – transparent tape, plastic sandwich bags, water bottles, Styrofoam coffee cups, even just pieces of paper – can be the source of an uncontrolled electrostatic discharge.

Of course, all of these storage solutions should be used within the minimum guidelines of an Electrostatic Protection Area, that is, wrist straps, ESD mats and a common ground.

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

12 Apr

What Are ESD Mats & How Do They Work?

Static Electricity and ESD Matting

Have you ever been working in your garage and accidentally made contact with a metal part of an ungrounded electrical appliance, like a box fan or a badly wired junction box? The jolt you receive wakes you up faster than a cup of coffee or one of those 5-hour energy drinks. Now imagine what that could do to sensitive electronics—devices and circuit boards with a much lower resistance than your skin.

Considering just the physical activity of moving your arms and legs can build up relatively large electrostatic discharges (ESD) that we may never notice, there’s very little activity that isn’t dangerous to electronic components – even their assembly. But there are steps you can take and tools that have been developed to protect your sensitive electronics. One simple, popular tool is an antistatic or ESD mat.

How Does an ESD Mat Work?

Antistatic or ESD Mats have a high electrical resistance, which allows the electrostatic discharge to “flow” across the surface of the mat at a slow rate – enough to get the ESD away from your electronics, while at the same time neutralizing what little charge inevitably does build up.

The simplest form of an ESD mat is simply that – a tabletop mat, about the size of a placemat, that you use on a desk, table or any flat surface. They typically connect with a personal grounding wrist strap – adding additional protection by drawing any ESD charge away from the person working on the device.

ESD mats also use a common ground to draw the electrostatic discharge away from offending areas. Without that ground, the mat could, in theory, protect the item being worked on at first, but would then transfer the ESD to the very next thing it comes into contact with – the next item, the person holding it (and then to the item), or even right back onto the item it was originally meant to protect.

For larger workspaces, or dedicated ESD workstations, you can invest in rolls of ESD matting or custom-sized mats. You can even get ESD matting with built-in static control monitors and self-adhesive backing. Just make sure, regardless of the size or quantity used, that all of the mats are grounded.

You can also increase protection as well as worker safety by investing in ESD flooring mats, which not only act as further neutralization of potential electrostatic discharge but also can provide cushioning, easing the fatigue of the person standing while working on the electronic devices. The hazard of slippery floors is also alleviated by an ESD flooring mat.

Bear in mind that not all ESD matting is tested to the same level. We recommend checking to make sure the mats you are buying are properly assessed to ensure you are getting the protection you need, and ideally, include ISO certification for your company’s protection.

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

05 Apr

The Truth About 11 Myths of Electrostatic Discharge: Part 2

Last week we shared with you Part 1 of The Truth About 11 Myths of Electrostatic Discharge; here’s Part 2…

Myth #6 – An ESD bag is all the protection I need.

There is a somewhat popular belief that you can use the ESD shielding bag that your circuit board or sensitive electronics was shipped in as adequate “matting” when you are working. This could not be more false.

Regardless of which ESD shielding bag you receive or purchase, it ONLY provides ESD protection while the item in entirely enclosed inside a sealed bag. Outside of the bag, it can actually increase the chances that you will generate an ESD event, because the bag is designed to “push” a charge away from the contents of the bag – right into your electronics.

Myth #7 – Grounded metal offers a safe haven from ESD.

In fact, conductive materials – like metals – are not safe surfaces for sensitive electronic components that could be subject to an electrostatic charge, even if they are grounded. In fact, the charge dissipation is so fast, the resistance to ground has almost zero impact.

The point of grounding is to get everything at the same potential energy level so that current from an ESD can’t flow where it shouldn’t. Using metal, even grounded metal, voids this effort.

The next three myths are similar in nature…

Myth #8 – Circuit boards without complementary metal oxide semi-conductor (CMOS) are safe.

On its face, this seems obvious, as it is hard to find a circuit board without some CMOS components. However, ALL circuit boards are susceptible to electrostatic discharges and the damage they can cause.

Myth #9 – A printed wiring board (PWB) permanently protects a circuit board.

Just because a component is inserted into a PWB, that does not protect it from potential ESD damage. It does decrease the likelihood that fatal loss will occur, as the voltage the entire board can sustain is increased.

But this is by no means a guarantee of safety. All proper precautions must be taken when handling sensitive electronics.

Myth #10 – Once products are mounted on circuit boards, ESD mishaps cannot occur.

This is similar to the above myth. But unlike PWB boards, unprinted boards can actually leave sensitive components even more vulnerable because there is less resistance to slow the electrostatic discharge down.

Myth #11 – Small companies cannot afford proper ESD protection.

On the contrary, small companies cannot afford not to have suitable ESD protocols and tools. The risk of damage and the costs associated with it are just too excessive not to invest in the proper implementation of an ESD protected workstation – even a portable one, if need be.

We recommend at a minimum, personal grounding wrist straps, dissipative ESD matting and grounding cables.

We would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider, no matter what your size or budget. Contact us today for more information.

03 Mar

Selecting the Proper Shielding Bags

In Michio Kaku’s book, Physics of the Future, he notes that today’s smart phones have more computing power than NASA had in the 60’s when they were plotting and launching the moon landings.

The latest SONY Playstation can outperform the supercomputers the US Government used in 1997 – 14 years after the movie WarGames.

In 1965, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel, observed what became known as “Moore’s law.” He postulated that computers would progressively become more dense while at the same time increasing their processing speed.

This can be both good and bad news for computers. The bad news being that every time a component gets 10% smaller, it gets 10x more sensitive to electrical shocks, even those coming from simple static electricity. Static in your workplace can be dangerous and expensive if you’re not properly prepared.

One important weapon in your arsenal for defense against Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is shielding bags. Which bag is best? They all have their pros and cons to consider.

Pink Poly Bags

The earliest defense against ESD was created in the 1960’s. Dissipative Poly Bags, usually referred to as Pink Poly bags because of their unique color – introduced as an easy way to differentiate their static control abilities from standard plastic bags – are coated with a chemical that resists static.

Unfortunately, Pink Poly bags have no shielding capability. An ESD of any significance will travel through the bag and potentially damage components inside. They are best utilized today to package support or processing materials that do not themselves need shielding.

The antistatic properties of the bags help to protect sensitive components near the bags. This makes them a helpful solution as opposed to normal plastic bags, but you should always have a grounding system in place – mats and personal wrist straps at a minimum.

Black Conductive Poly Bags

Black Poly Bags are obviously a step up from their Pink predecessors. But in this case, their advantages are also their biggest flaw. Like the Pink Poly’s, the Black bags are antistatic, with the added benefit of some conductivity, designed to help protect its contents from ESD’s.

The problem lies in how quickly the bags dissipate the electrical charge. The rapid discharge of the ESD can actually generate a spark between the person or object creating the charge, and because the bags lack an additional insulation layer inside the bag, that charge can easily penetrate it.

Plus, there’s the added complication of the bag’s color. The conductive carbon leaves the bag opaque, requiring the contents to be removed to be seen, leaving the potential for damage.

The biggest benefit of the Black Poly’s was some shielding at a lower price point. But in recent years, shielding bags have become much more affordable, and reputable vendors have effectively eliminated them from their inventory.

Shielding Bags

Shielding bags combine the antistatic and dissipative qualities of the poly bags with metal shielding and a polyester insulator (or dielectric) layer. Where Pink Poly’s stop about 10% and Black Poly’s 30%, Shielding Bags stop 97% of electrostatic pulses.

Shielding bags are classified in two ways:

Buried Metal (Metal-In)

Buried Metal bags consist of a dissipative poly layer, glued or laminated on top of a metallized polyester – usually aluminum, but sometimes nickel or copper – laid over an additional dielectric polyester layer.

The metal between two layers of plastic offers better protection than the alternative.

Surface Metal (Metal Out)

In Surface Metal bags, the layers are ordered differently, with the poly and the dielectric polyester glued together, then coated with a nickel sprayed with an abrasion resistance coating.

Unfortunately, the outside metal coating causes a faster dissipation of electrical charges, resulting in sparking issues similar to that of the Black Poly Bags, although not as dangerous.

Moisture Barrier Bags

For long term storage or moisture sensitive items, Moisture Barrier bags provide the ultimate protection. These bags are similar to, but stronger than normal shielding bags and provide an additional protection with a moisture vapor barrier.

There are two types of Moisture Barrier bags: Foil and Tyvek (utilizing the DuPont material) or Heavy Metallization. Both provide similar levels of protection, the difference primarily being the higher cost of the Tyvek structured bags.

Static protective bags should always be implemented as part of a more comprehensive static control environment, which should always include proper grounding tools. And while expenditures are always a factor, consider the insignificant price of proper protective measures when compared to the cost of replacing the delicate components inside the package.

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

19 Feb

Faraday Cages? The Surprising Facts

Faraday Cages

After 10 years, the science fiction show The X-Files recently returned to television. In the very first new episode, there is a scene where scientists are studying apparent alien technology, all the while protected from potential harm because the technology is housed in a Faraday cage.

For most people, Faraday cages seem like the stuff of science fiction – boxes built to protect folks with overactive imaginations who fear the world will end with a sudden electromagnetic pulse or EMP. But what if I told you that most people benefit from at least one Faraday cage almost every day?

The first Faraday cage was built back in the 1830’s, by Michael Faraday, hence the name. Faraday was an experimental physicist who worked primarily studying electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

Rumor has it that Albert Einstein had a photo of Faraday that he kept on the wall of his study, right next to his picture of Isaac Newton.

One day Faraday noted that during one of his experiments, excess energy from a charged conductor only rested on the exterior of a container, for some reason not penetrating through the container to ground as electricity typically does.

He set about constructing a box to prove his theory that the inside was somehow shielded from the electrical charge.

He built a room, entirely lined with metal foil and subjected it to high powered electrostatic discharges, simulating lightning. But the interior of the room showed no gain in electricity.

The shielding had forced the negative charges to the outside and the positive charges to the inside, essentially canceling out the electrical current before it could affect anything within the room.

Later, he added a grounding rod and verified that the charge canceled itself out as it traveled around and into the ground.

Today, the principles that Faraday discovered almost 200 years ago are used all across the world to protect people from stray electromagnetic charges. Ever wonder why your cell phone drops calls when you’re in an elevator? It’s a semi-enclosed Faraday cage.

The MRI room in medical facilities, USB cables, coaxial cables (the ones you used to get cable TV from), even cars and airplanes use Faraday shielding to help protect their precious cargo.

And if you want to see one up close and personal, take a look at your microwave. The metal lines in the glass complete the Faraday cage that protects us from electrical discharge and the radiation used to cook your food.

On a smaller scale, metalized static shielding bags protect small electronic components and circuit boards from the much smaller personal EMP’s our bodies generate, which could cause serious damage to these components. Properly sealed ESD boxes and totes, as well as conductive bins use the same principles to protect larger or larger quantities of components.

Of course, while Faraday cages can be ungrounded and even nested to enhance protection, we always recommend taking the proper grounding procedures to protect yourself and your circuitry.

So remember, Faraday cages are not just for “Doomsday Preppers” and science fiction story tropes. They are at work every day to make our world a safer place.

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