ESD Systems - Questions And Answers

What would be good to line wire metal rolling carts to help protect ESD sensitive boards during production cycles? - Anonymous, Scottsdale, AZ

Your first step in protecting your ESD sensitive boards would be to eliminate the wire metal rolling cart and replace it with a dissipative rolling cart. In lieu of that, first ground your wire metal rolling cart with a drag chain (assuming you are using a dissipative/conductive ESD floor). Second, you need to make sure the uprights (vertical bars holding up the shelves) are electrically connected to the shelves. Third, use dissipative homogeneous trays lying on top of each shelf or line each shelf with a two layer mat material such as our Statfree T2™ mat. Place the conductive side down to a good electrical coupling with the wire mesh shelf, which leaves the dissipative side exposed for use with your ESD sensitive boards. To be on the safe side, it would be recommended to hard ground each mat to a common point on the cart (at the ground chain) and have a spare ground cord that can be plugged into the hosting work benches common point ground. It is important not to bring the sensitive electronic boards near any part of the metal cart because this could lead to an ESD event (discharge).

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