Fabrics and inhomogeneous materials: Measurement of a direct discharge from an esd protective material, such as an esd garment/fabric (NT ELEC 036)

Abstract

  This document specifies a method that is suitable for determining the amount of charge and the peak current from a direct discharge from an ESD-protective garment or fabric, but also small insulators or inhomogeneous materials typically found on an EPA, which typically has a surface resistance of more than 1 kÙ. A discharge in real life can occur from a charged object to the grounded protective garment, but also it can occur to a grounded component from an incorrectly used or non-functioning garment. These situations described also apply to other ESD protective material or product as well. The most common charging mechanism for fabrics is the tribo electric charging, but also induction and direct charging can occur. For practical reasons corona charging of the fabric is used in this method.