Most antistatic clothing is made from polyester or cotton and then embedded with a line of carbon fibre. These fibres effectively create a Faraday Cage around the body of the person wearing the item of clothing. This shields and dissipates any charges generated from the clothing that could otherwise damage all the devices that are sensitive to static electricity. As such, it’s easy to see why providing your team with protection is important in this regard. Indeed, with electrostatic discharges posing such a significant risk, why wouldn’t you invest in ESD equipment? EPA’s can be any size required by the business; they could simply be a small workstation, or otherwise they could be large spaces set aside for specific manufacturing purposes. Indeed, there is no space limit or requirement to create an EPA for your property. However, an ESD protected area must always have the appropriate ESD products to make it safe for use.

Antistatic clothing is designed to reduce the damage caused by static generation on the surface of clothes. It is typically used in industries where electrostatic discharge (ESD) can pose a hazard, such as electronics manufacturing or cleanroom environments. But how do you know if your clothes are antistatic? Antistatic clothing is an important part of many electronic engineering and manufacturing companies, alongside health environments, laboratories, and precision engineering facilities. Despite sometimes not being industry-standard, ESD-safe clothing is very practical, especially for the electronics and engineering industries. Not only that, they also maximise full ESD protection which is crucial in highly sensitive environments such as microelectronics. Antistatic Clothing FAQs How do you know if clothes are antistatic? Always put up an ESD awareness sign and instructions for using the area to ensure that all visitors to the area know what they should be doing to protect themselves and their surroundings. Make sure you have the materials to ensure that everyone, and everything, inside the EPA at any time is grounded; this is essential for ensuring that the EPA is effective. This means that you will need the following ESD products at least: an ESD bench mat, a grounding cord and coiled cord, an ESD wrist strap, and an Earth Bonding Plug. Without these, you will not be able to ensure that all users of the ESD protected area are fully grounded and safe. Investing in a static safe environment is something that all businesses handling electrical equipment should consider investing in, and since they are so simple to create and don’t need to take up a lot of space, they are highly versatile solutions for many companies.

How anti-static products work

These charged surfaces are caused by a buildup of static energy, which is why they are particularly prone between a person’s skin and a charged surface. However, they can also flow between electrical equipment. Together, these features can pose a risk to your business’ equipment but, more importantly, also to the workers in the vicinity of the electrical equipment. One of the most popular and usually a starting point for customers looking to implement anti static products is anti static flooring. Anti static products can offer a huge number of benefits for businesses. Anti static flooring is widely used by companies in the UK and Europe and is highly effective. If you want to set up an ESD protected area within your business’ work space, then there are a few different things that you will need to think about. These are summarised below:

Because of the low static field within an ESD protected area, all products can be safely stored and used without risking electrostatic discharge. All objects and surfaces within the EPA are therefore maintained at the same electrical potential – and this also includes people working within the environment. Moreover, everyone or everything within the static safe environment will be grounded by bonding, further helping to prevent danger within the environment from electrostatic discharge. One way to determine if your clothes are antistatic is by looking at the label or manufacturer’s information. The label may state that the garment has been treated with an antistatic agent or it may be made from a specific type of fabric that naturally resists static build-up. Additionally, some manufacturers may have their own labelling system to indicate that a garment is antistatic. What is the standard for antistatic clothing? An ESD protected area serves an incredibly important purpose, and that is to ensure that damage is not caused by electrostatic discharge. Electrostatic discharge can occur when a sudden flow of electrical energy occurs between two electrically charged objects or surfaces. Fortunately, static safe environments are relatively easy to make, and don’t need a huge amount of fancy technology or equipment. Indeed, you can buy everything you need to create a dedicated static safe environment in your own business premises from a company such as ours. These products are designed to dissipate static electricity and discharges by earthing them out, thereby preventing damage from being done. What’s more, it’s notable that many products even provide a surface that makes it impossible for static electricity to build up, further preventing any danger from electrostatic discharge to your workers or equipment. As briefly mentioned already, an EPA is an area in a business or property where static sensitive items can be used safely. However, this doesn’t really give much of an insight into what an EPA actually is, so we will look at this in a little more detail now.

Where does static come from and where does it go?

Anti static flooring is one of the most popular forms of anti static products for a reason. ESD flooring is naturally practical and can be used in the majority of working environments. It provides a waterproof and easily cleanable surface. Furthermore, our ESD flooring and anti static matting is also useful for its ease of movement and installation. Having an ESD protected area ensures that there is somewhere which is statically stable where static charges are unable to build up in great enough strengths to cause damage. These help to protect equipment and workers, which is naturally of importance for any business. Keeping your employees safe and protected is imperative for any employer, from both morality and a business profitability perspective. Comfortable and safe workers are happier, and this will also improve their morale and productivity. Providing them with safety equipment to protect them from the dangers of electrostatic discharge can be hugely beneficial in regards to this. Keep on reading this article, as we will let you know more about Anti Static Clothing and the types of Anti Static Clothing you should use. What is ESD-Safe Clothing?

Beyond clothing, other types of ESD protective wear include ESD shoes, ESD heel straps, antistatic gloves, ESD caps, and ESD wrist straps and cords. How much space do you need? An EPA can be as large or as small as you need it to be, but don’t go too big or too small as this will impact on the suitability of the static safe environment for your workers. Within the ESD protected area, however large or small it might be, there must be a static field of no greater than 100v. Considering that plastic bags can easily generate static of 10,000v, it is thus clear to see how little this actually is. The standard for antistatic clothing usually involves measuring the electrical resistance of the fabric. In Europe, the standard for antistatic clothing is EN 1149-1, otherwise known as the IEC 61340-5-1 International Standard, which specifies requirements for protective clothing with electrostatic properties. The standard requires that garments should have a surface resistance of less than 2.5 x 10 Evidently, there are numerous potential benefits associated with investing in static safe environments for your business. What’s more, ESD protected areas don’t need to be large; they can simply be a single desk with full electrostatic discharge protection, if that’s all the room your business can spare, or a whole static safe room if there is more space on offer.