ESD Systems - Questions And Answers

We are a small contract manufacturing company. We build hybrid (PTH & SMT) circuit boards. After a cleaning process, we use compressed air to blow off excess DI water. I am a mechanical engineer. It seems to me that there could be ES charges developed by this air. Is this true? If so, what can be done to manage this? Wrist straps are worn during this operation. A good answer might be to put an ionizer in the air flow, but, I doubt if that would be very effective with the volume of compressed air used.. - Chuck Dailey, ASAP, Inc., Tucson, AZ

You have a valid concern, but realize that just air doesn’t tribocharge. It is the impurities in the air that has enough molecular weight to cause tribocharging. There are a few solutions. Either use real clean air (maybe an LN2 source for compressed dry nitrogen) or employ a product like out Ion Viper Air Nozzle systems that uses a compressed air source with either a hand gun ionizer or flexible hose.

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