ESD safe garments, whether we are talking about ESD Lab coats, ESD Polo Shirts, are clothing with conductive properties. ESD-Smocks must protect the electrical charges and discharges. In practice this means that in the ESD textile a conductive yarn is woven into a specific pattern. This pattern can take many forms which need to meet the international accepted ESD-standards, the “Grid” is the only option. This pattern must be taken to ensure that controlled loads are discharged. The conductive yarns may not be more than 10mm apart. ESD clothing behaves as shielding packaging only in reverse. ESD clothing protects your ESD-sensitive components by wrapping your employees in ESD shielding clothing.
The most critical element with ESD-garment, in addition to whether or not use of conductive yarn, is the washing of the ESD_clothes. Is the used conductive yarn resistant to the temperature, the used washing powders?
ESD-Clothing must be certified by reputable institutes according the ESD standard DIN EN 61340-5-1:2008 according European standards and ANSI-S2020 according USA standards and must be maintained in a proper manner, otherwise it loses its properties!. In Addition, it is extremely important to respect the dress codes for ESD garments (always CLOSED)!