ESD Consulting and external ESD Coordinators
Your competent partner for electrostatic discharge prevention

  • ESD consultant or ESD coordinator created ESD control area

Electrostatic discharges (ESD) can damage products, machinery or people. Our certified ESD consultants help you with ESD prevention. Our services include:

  • Development of new or optimisation of existing ESD prevention concepts (“ESD control programs”)

  • Implementation of ESD protection measures

  • External ESD coordinators

  • Preparation of upcoming ESD audits by certification authorities

  • Training

Why ESD protection?

You know electrostatic discharges from your daily live: probably you have already got an electric shock touching a doorhandle after walking over a carpet. For you to perceive this electrostatic discharge, your body must have been charged with at least 3,000 volts.

In industrial settings the topic is very concerning: Due to their ongoing miniaturisation, electronic components are more and more prone to electrostatic discharges. Today the average sensitivity of components is estimated to be around 35 volts. The comparison of this value with the previous paragraph makes one realise, how easily components can be damaged by uncontrolled electrostatic discharges. Additionally, damages caused by them are mostly invisible. Consequently, they are often detected very late in or even after the production process leading to high costs of correction.

That is why charges need to be reliably avoided during production, transport and storage. Inevitable voltages must be discharged in a controlled manner. Our certified ESD consultants gladly assist you with the development and implementation of ESD protection concepts.

ESD consultant or ESD coordinator prevents future electrostatic discharges

Electrostatic discharge of a printed circuit board (PCB)

ESD consulting created ESD protected area

How does ESD protection work?

ESD protection starts with a sensitivity analysis of your products. The results give information about which ESD protection measures are required for your individual use case. As a fundamental concept, insulators must be avoided at your production sites (insulators are materials, which barely carry electricity and can easily be charged). Additionally, inevitable voltages need to be discharged in a controlled manner. Thereby, our ESD consultants focus on the following categories:

  • People and clothing
  • Floors and workstations
  • Packaging systems and materials
  • Machinery and tools

We will summarise our suggested ESD protection measures in your individual ESD manual (“ESD control program”) and help you with its implementation. We also offer employee training and long-term support as external ESD coordinators.

Focus on your core competencies and let us take care of your ESD protection!

Smart products are trending. Suddenly, manufacturers with little know-how about electrical engineering are required to integrate controllers or sensors, and especially ESD protection becomes a major challenge. That is why we gladly support you as external ESD coordinators while you can focus on your core competencies.

ESD protection clothing by GTS Test Solutions

Frequently asked questions

Due to an ongoing trend towards smart products, more and more manufacturers are faced with the challenges of electrical engineering, without having enough in-house competencies to solve them. That is why external ESD coordinators help such companies with the protection of products, machinery and people against uncontrolled electrostatic discharges (ESD). Thereby, reputable ESD coordinators are - like our ESD consultants - externally certified.

Friction or induction can charge people or things to very high voltages. When a charged person or thing contacts another object with differing voltage level, a short and very high current occurs (a so-called electrostatic discharge, ESD). These currents might even be visible as sparks and can, under disadvantageous circumstances, damage or destroy electrical components, ignite flammable substances or endanger people by electric shock. Our certified ESD consultants help you with ESD prevention in industrial environments.

Electrostatic discharges often occur shortly after the electrostatic charge of a person or thing. The latter usually happens because of friction or induction. For example, most people have got an electric shock once in their lives when touching a doorhandle after walking over a carpet. The following examples are taken from industrial settings:
  • Removal of adhesive tapes
  • Cleaning of components with pressurised air
  • Rubbing different materials against each other, e. g. when transferring bulk material or liquids
  • etc.

There are 2 fundamental concepts of ESD protection:
  • Prevention of insulators (materials that hardly carry electric currents and, thus, can easily be charged)
  • Controlled discharge of unavoidable charges
Practical measures can be:
  • ESD protection floors
  • ESD protection clothing
  • Earthing straps
  • ESD protection furniture
  • Suitable transport containers
Our certified ESD coordinators gladly analyse your individual need for ESD protection and help you with the elaboration and implementation of an ESD control program.