ESD Wrist Straps
What is an ESD Wrist Strap and why is it important?
Sometimes known as an antistatic wrist strap or ground bracelet, the ESD Wrist Strap consists of two elements, a wrist band and ground cord, which can be purchased separately. They come in various styles, including elastic, metal and thermoplastic, and they can be separated into two groups – Single-Wire and Dual-Wire.
The wrist strap is the most common means of personnel grounding in ESD control. It is used to electrically connect, or bond people and other conductors to ground (or contrived ground), to create an equipotential balance between all items and people within the ESD Protected Area (EPA). Personnel grounding is a particularly critical element of any ESD Control Plan, as the human body is one of the greatest generators of static charge.
Why use an SCS Wrist Strap?
SCS Wrist Straps are designed to safely ground personnel that are handling ESD Sensitive Devices (ESDS), and they should be used when personnel are seated, as per ANSI/ESD S20.20. All SCS Wrist Straps include the 1 megohm Safety Resistor which is there solely to provide safety to the human body by limiting the amount of current that could be conducted by the body. The presence of the safety resistor can be confirmed and monitored with the use of SCS monitors such as the 724 Workstation Monitor, WS Aware, Iron Man® Plus and Ground Man Plus. The varying SCS Wrist Straps benefit from features such as:
- 360° Rotation Between Wristband and Coil Cord - Designed to promote comfort, freedom of motion, and reduce strain on the operator's wrist.
- Compatibility with SCS Dual-Wire Monitors which provide a reduced risk of ESD damage due to their instant feedback, redundancy and detection of intermittent failures caused by flex fatigue.
- Thermoplastic elastomer strain relief molded onto coil cord.
- Relaxed retraction coil cord to reduce tug on wearers wrist. With a break load average of 30 pounds.
- Unique magnetic contact design in MagSnap 360TM Wrist Straps that provide a superior electrical connection. The magnetic connection made with the wristband maintains a 1–5-pound perpendicular breakaway force to prevent accidental disconnects. Spring loaded center contact rated to 1 million cycles.
How to use an ESD Wrist Strap?
The band should be worn snugly on the skin and the cord connected to the selected grounding/equipotential bonding system such as a common connection point. Examples of such a grounding point are the WSGR2– Bench Ground, a Workstation Continuous Monitor, a Multi-Ground Hub of a Common Ground Cord such as the LPCGC151M.