An unsafe and untested environment in the manufacturing process for electronic components has the potential to cost your business thousands of pounds, so if ESD is left unmonitored the risk factor to any business is extremely high.

At Stat Systems (a division of Fibre Technologies) we offer a comprehensive audit service and support package to ensure your business risks are mitigated and your production line can operate to produce quality, reliable products. Once your audit has taken place and any recommendations have been actioned we will supply you with a certificate to state that you comply with the current industry standards (IEC-61340-5-1 and ANSI/ESD s20.20).

If your company does not have practices in place to mitigate the effect of ESD it is unlikely that you are able to manufacture or deliver undamaged electronic parts, so the cost of this to your business can be anywhere from a few pence for a small diode and up to thousands of pounds for a complex circuit.

There are several ways in which the effects of ESD can be mitigated in the work place. A few examples of these are:-

• Yearly audits for safe work spaces
• Electrostatic field meters
• Static-safe workstations
• Antistatic wrist-straps
• Antistatic smock/lab coat
• Static protective bags or containers for devices during storage or transportation

Static electricity has been an issue for centuries and can be traced back to the 1400s where military forts used control measures to ensure an electrostatic discharge did not inadvertently set off the gunpowder in their stores.

To this day, despite advancements in the field, ESD still affects a business’s production and manufacturing cost, along with its product quality, reliability and profitability. The most common sources of static electricity are work spaces, clothes, chairs, packaging and employees. However, this is not the only factor that requires attention as humidity also has a significant effect on an induced charge. At 10-20% relative humidity, walking across a carpet will create 35,000V compared to just 1,500V at 65-90% relative humidity.

When an electronic device comes into contact with an electrostatic discharge the damage can either be “Catastrophic” meaning the device is immediately destroyed and will not function, or “Latent” meaning the device will function normally under initial testing but the circuitry has been damaged and could fail at any moment.