EMIT - Questions And Answers

Within our facility we have associates who remove plastic from garments. These garments are then put on a metal conveyor or rollers. What can be done to minimize this problem? If this is of any use, the floor is concrete.

I am assuming the personnel are being shocked which requires an ESD event greater than 2,000 volts to feel. Grounding the plastic to remove charges to ground is not possible, as most plastics are insulators or non-conductors. Grounding the personnel may actually make the shock greater if reducing the charge on the person increases the differential between the person and the plastic. Charges on insulators can be neutralized using ionizers which include even portable battery operated compressed air ionizing guns. Our Air Gun Ionizer is at Electrostatic charge generation occurs when there is contact and separation of surfaces. Likely, then an electrostatic charge is being generated when “associates remove plastic from garments”. An electrostatic charge is static electricity that is at rest. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) per ESD Glossary ESD ADV1.0 “The rapid, spontaneous transfer of electrostatic charge induced by a high electrostatic field. Note: Usually, the charge flows through a spark between two bodies at different electrostatic potentials as they approach one another.”

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