Static Electricity Articles library

By :Ali Jamalan

If you’ve ever walked across a thick carpet and felt a shock after touching a grounded object (or shocked a friend on purpose) you know about the general effects of static electricity. But do you know how it works, or how damaging it can be to computer components? Although it may seem a bit silly and unimportant, “static shock” or Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) can cause significant damage to your hard drive. Comparable to a lighting bolt damaging a tree, ESD can act like a bomb exploding in your drive, blowing apart parts of the circuit board. But don’t worry – if you follow a few simple steps you can ensure you’re well protected and avoid letting a minor thing like ESD cause major problems.

WHAT IS ESD?
ESD or "static shock" is a portion of an imbalanced high voltage field on a non-conductive surface (e.g. your hand, the carpet, a screwdriver) that has just moved to a conductive surface in a rapid, uncontrolled fashion. "Static electricity" is the same portion of an imbalanced high voltage field on a nonconductive surface, but it has not yet reached the point of releasing it's electrons to equalize the imbalance between a conductor with a greater positive charge than itself. This imbalanced high voltage field will not "discharge" until conditions are right, that is until the number of electrons the charge grabs from around its location builds to a point in which no more electrons can be sustained. When a conductive surface of some type gets within 'jumping" distance, the process of equalising the electrical field is experienced.

Imbalanced high voltage fields are everywhere, constantly flowing over and around us, and people feel them because we are good conductors. The shock you sometimes get when touching a door knob after shuffling across the carpet is made in the same way a thunderstorm makes a lightning bolt.

Some Examples of Voltage:

• 3,000 volts - the average human can't feel voltage below this threshold.
• 8,000 volts - yawning and stretching with clothes on.
• 15-20,000 volts - shoving a plastic-coated box across the carpet with foot.
• 18,000 volts - getting up from a foam cushion on a nylon-covered couch.
• 35,000 volts - walking across a typical carpet.5

WHAT CAN ESD DO?
While ESD won’t kill you, it can definitely kill your computer components. While it takes an electrostatic discharge of 3,000 volts for you to feel a shock, much smaller charges, well below the threshold of human sensation, can and often do damage semiconductor devices. Many of the more sophisticated electronic components can be damaged by charges as low as 10 volts.

ESD damage occurs when a charge on a hand or tool finds a path of lesser resistance from itself to a drive. If the energy of that charge is larger than the amount of energy the drive can safely dissipate, damage may occur.

Especially sensitive to ESD are integrated circuits: processors, memory, cache chips and expansion cards. This damage can be immediate, resulting in melting, junction breakdown or oxidation. Even scarier, you could electrocute your drive and never even know it – the effects of ESD are difficult to trace and often do not affect the drive until several days to several months after the ESD occurrence.

PREVENTION TIPS
Luckily, a few simple steps can help you avoid ESD damage and promote long life for your disk drive.

• Keep your drive in an ESD bag until you handle it – an ESD bag is specially designed to prevent ESD.

• Always wear an ESD wrist strap grounded to an unpainted surface on the chassis of your computer.

• If a wrist strap is unavailable, touch an unpainted surface on the chassis of your computer before handling your drive.

• Only touch the connector pins on your drive with the proper cabling ends or jumpers. Never use a bare finger or non-insulated tool.

• Protect your drive from sources of high voltage power such as fans or vacuum cleaners.

• Never try to plug a power or data cable into a drive unless power to the box is completely off.

Finally, by controlling the temperature, you can also help limit ESD. By increasing the relative humidity of the room where the computer is located, you can greatly reduce build-up of ESD. Static builds up more readily in dry environments than in moist ones; this is why you get zapped much more often in the winter time in northern climates than in summer.

So what happens if by some freak accident your hard drive experiences ESD and your data is lost? Don’t panic, because your best solution is only a phone call away. Many ‘Data Recovery’ companies have experience dealing with hard drives damaged by ESD and will apply the most advanced technology in the industry to perform data recovery. Contacting these immediately upon discovering ESD damage is the best option to keep you and your clients working and productive.

Knowing that ESD exists is the first step in prevention. By following ESD handling procedures and understanding the dynamics behind “static electricity,” you can ensure that working with a hard drive is never a shocking experience.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
Low Cost Data Recovery Service
UK's cheapest logical data recovery service for all hard disk drives (IDE/SATA), diskettes, memory sticks and flash cards.

at 27.6.07 1 comments

Labels: hard disk drive

By:James Walsh

Electrostatic Shock: Get your Basics Right

Static or Electrostatic shock occurs when two objects that are differently charged come into contact with one another. When a contact is established between two objects, the electrons from one of them move to the other resulting in charged particles. The like charges repel and the unlike charges attract leading to the transfer of energy from one object to the other. This results in an electrostatic shock.

Electrostatic shocks are more common in insulators since the electrons can move from one insulator to the other when rubbed against each other. Also, electrostatic shocks occur mostly during winter when the humidity is very low. Otherwise, the humidity in the air does not support building up of huge static charge.

Consequences of Electrostatic Shocks

Electrostatic shocks produce heat that can damage electronic items in its proximity. While it cannot cause fatal accidents to humans, it is capable of destroying computer circuitry, the hard drive being the most common victim. If you have critical data stored on your hard drive, you stand a risk of losing all the information. It can melt the sensitive parts on the circuit board and damage it completely. While the damage might occur instantly, in some cases, it might take several days before you realise the damage and it might be too late for you to trace the problem or even rectify it.

Tips for Preventing Hard Drive Damage

Hard drive has become an important and integral part of our lives. Be it your client’s list or your personal information pertaining to your savings, you have all the information stored on your computer hard drive. People often lose data on the hard drive that eventually affects their business and personal lives. But the good news is that the damage due to electrostatic shock can be easily avoided. Here are a few tips that can help you avoid these unpleasant consequences of electrostatic shock and hard drive damage.

1. One of the major causes of electrostatic shock is you. Yes, when people are at their workstations, their hands rub across items present in the vicinity and can result in electrostatic discharges. When they come in contact with computer components, it might result in their damage. So use a grounding wrist strap that is available in the market that can avoid the problem.

2. While shipping your computer parts, make sure to pack them in ant-static bags that avoid building up of electrostatic field. However, placing the components just above these anti-static bags would not help.

3. While installing your computer components or opening your computer case, make sure to ground yourself, switch off the power supply, use screw drivers that would not cause electrostatic shock and, above all, discharge the static electricity from the components before installing them.

4. Flooring that dispels static electricity at workplace would also help to avoid electrostatic shock.

5. Avoid using materials that would cause static electricity such as plastic, polystyrene, etc.

6. Controlling the humidity at the workplace is also useful to avoid electrostatic shock.

7. Make sure the employees who work with sensitive computer parts are aware of electrostatic shocks and how to prevent them. Only trained personnel should be allowed to handle these parts.

8. Before plugging or unplugging the power or data cable to your computer drives, make sure the power to the drive is completely cut off.

In short, all these steps help you to avoid electrostatic buildup or assist in dissipating the static charge that is accumulated. In spite of all these precautionary measures, if you still have an accident that damages your hard drive, do not worry. There are a lot of data recovery companies in the market that help you to recover the data.

In addition to the hard drive, electrostatic shocks can also destroy the circuit board on your computer. Statistics show that businesses experiencing computer breakdown owing to electrostatic shocks constitute a higher percentage. To avoid any dire consequences, it is always a better idea that you play the game safe.

Article Directory: Articledashboard
James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information on Data Recovery see www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk

at 27.6.07 0 comments

Labels: hard disk drive

We've all done it. Every time we invest in new carpet, we take an internal oath and solemnly swear we will take care of this brand new carpet, and rightfully so. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to know that for most folks, the third largest investment after the purchase of our home and cars is the home's interior.

So we read the manufacturer's warranty and notice that it says to vacuum often. Daily might be the frequency in the high traffic areas. But who has time any more to spend maintaining carpets on a daily basis? The only time you see people vacuum that frequently is in the hotel and motel industry.

Rarely does one actually see the carpets being replaced at the hotel and motel industry unless there is a major remodeling project happening with new color schemes to match. So it would serve one well to learn from the hospitality business.

How do we usually buy carpet? In most cases it comes with the home already installed. It will either be a newly built or a previously owned re-sale home. If a new home was built, if you are in the beginning stages of construction, you have a choice to upgrade to the better carpet and padding offered. Or you can choose the cheapest carpet known to mankind commonly referred to as 'builder's grade' materials which also includes the cheapest, thinnest carpet pad also known as 'FHA grade' 2 lb. rebond.

Sure the carpet is fuzzy and comes in a light color and the padding might as well be called foam because it easily crushes to the sub-floor when any weight is applied on the carpet's surface. After all, carpet is just carpet and pad is just pad, right? WRONG. Once again the old adage "You get what you pay for" still rings true.

DuPont, one of the top four major fiber producers, conducted a study years ago about the behaviors of the consumer as related to the way they make a purchase decision when it comes to picking carpet. I suppose human behavior still has not evolved that much since. Please note that the following results are not a misprint.

They rank from number one to number five in order:

1. Color
2. Color
3. Color
4. Texture
5. Price

While not disclosed, the first three might have been trying to color match the hard surface flooring like tile, hardwood flooring or stone. The second might be for the paint in a given room and the last color match to compliment the home's other furnishings such as window treatments, and furniture.

Texture refers to the 'feel' also known as the hand of the carpet referring to how it feels when you touch the carpet by hand. It would also take into account the weight of carpet measured in ounces. For example, a carpet weighing 32 oz. per square inch has more carpet fibers then say a 16 ounce carpet. A good way to test this principle is to go to carpet a retailer and ask to see two different swatches.

For example with all things being equal, such as the same Carpet Fiber Producer manufactured by DuPont, same carpet fibers milled at Shaw Industries, same color dye lot, etcetera, you can perform this simple comparison test side by side.

Simply form your fingers like a claw and push directly straight down from top to the bottom of the fibers using your fingertips only. You should notice an immediate difference in carpet density. It will also reflect in the price per square yard. The difference is the number of stitches per square inch. On a much more dense carpet, it will be difficult to see down to the primary backing where the carpet is stitched in.

Here's the benefit:
If there are more carpet pile fibers, then each carpet fiber actually supports one another side by side on all four corners of the fiber forming a nap. The less pile there is opens up the potential damage for gritty soil to 'cut' the fibers at the base of the pile where the primary backing is. This cutting effect comes with every step, pivot and turn on the carpet nap's surface. This also causes thinning, pitting and marring of fibers making carpets dull in appearance even after restorative cleaning.

It is also worth mentioning that 60 percent of the soil that falls into the carpet can be removed safely and effectively with routine dry vacuuming of high traffic areas such as halls, stairs, entry ways and traffic paths in front of furniture. This single process alone can greatly extend the performance and life use of the carpet. Remember the hospitality industry housekeepers?

The second most fatal mistake a carpet purchaser can make is ignoring the quality of the carpet pad. Padding for the subfloor is like the spine of the carpet. It provides support to aid in preventing indentations left by heavy furniture legs after re-arranging a room.

It also has the job of holding water like a sponge whenever a copious amount water floods the room such as a broken water pipe. It provides the comfort under our footing so our feet and backs don't ache. This is the one place you don't have to worry about the color matching as the carpet will cover all the pad.

Pad is also measured in ounces and pounds. Once again, the higher the number, the more dense the pad. The density can range in feeling. By using a pinch test between the top and bottom of the pad you can compare densities. There is foam all the way up to feeling like a large pencil eraser. The higher the better.

Try to stay away from rubber based products like a waffle print as they have been known to dry rot where hot water pipes run through the concrete subflooring. They also don't provide any absorption for collecting water spills. In fact in a typical flood scenario, the water just continues to migrate further by saturating a greater area of carpet space.

It would also be wise to choose the right carpet for the right application. If you were born during Baby Boomer era, you would have ran into carpets that were made from polyester. Those fibers were dyed first before they were extruded as fiber. They never faded from the sun or bleach spills and lasted forever but were harder to clean.

Nylon came around and was softer to the hand and cleaned up better but spills could permanently stain the fibers and due to costs, generally come in lighter colors. Almost all darker colors will be more expensive to produce due to more dye in the process. More dyes prevented stains due to the lack of dye sites available.

Fourth Generation carpets removed the nuisance of static electricity when walking across a room and touching anything conductive to release a jolting shock.

Fifth Generation carpets involved the incorporation of stain resist carpets. The key to this technology was to create a transparent dye. Normally after dyeing half of the carpet's dye sites in a light color the remaining dye sites would be open for stains once installed. The solution was solved by re-dyeing the remaining dye sites with a transparent dye. Dye sites are like skin pores on your arm.

Benefit:
If all dye sites on a fiber are filled, then no stains could penetrate immediately. This would give the end user time to remove the stain later even if it dried on in many cases.

The last point to consider is the primary backing of carpets. For a number of years, India exported to the United States jute which is what ropes are made of. An unfortunate deadly industrial accident involving chemicals at Union Carbide's battery plant, cause strained relations between both countries and jute stopped being exported.

Jute backed carpets also occurred when they became wet from flooding. The natural fiber made of plant (organically)based material released a tannin dye similar to coffee and bled into the carpet's surface; thereby causing it to permanently discolor the carpet and ruin it.

It was also a food source for mold and mildew and if not treated quickly, it would dry rot causing the primary and secondary backing to delaminate and destroy the carpet.

Since the mid 1980's polypropylene backing has become the norm. It's a tough as fishing line and can hold up to most abuse end users give it. It's also cheaper to produce. In fact, 70 percent of all carpets involved in a clear water food damage loss can be dried, cleaned and re-engaged with no evidence of a pre-loss condition.

Good luck on your next carpet purchase as you now possess more knowledge than most of the carpet cleaners and retailers in the industry. And don't forget to vacuum!

By: Sintilia Miecevole

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Sintilia Miecevole, host has a keen interest in carpets as you can see on www.iwantcarpet.com. This is an excellent resource site including discount, area rugs, commercial, installation, cleaning, custom, oriental, persian and outdoor carpets to wall to wall, marine, wholesale and more. Visit www.iwantcarpet.com to find your carpet.

at 23.5.07 0 comments

Labels: carpet

Using a fabric softener in the final rinse cycle is a terrific way to get your clothes, sheets and towels to come through the laundry feeling soft and fresh. But, few people realize that the right fabric softener can do so much more than that. Over time, many fabrics can fade in color, or lose the intensity of their whiteness. A good fabric softener will brighten both your white and colored items, keeping your clothing looking new for a long time to come.

Looking Sharp

A quality fabric softener works hard to keep you looking neat and fresh. The appearance of most beautiful and fashionable outfit can be spoiled by messy lint and annoying static cling. But, simply adding fabric softener during the final rinse cycle of your wash helps to keep clothes from attracting lint or developing static cling. In addition, fabric softener will leave your clothes easier to iron, so your outfits will always show you at your well-groomed best.

Being Soft on the Earth

In addition to caring for your laundry, a good fabric softener should care for our planet. Be sure to choose a concentrated formula that creates less waste and that will last you up to 3 times longer than a conventional softener. The container should be a material recyclable in almost all communities, such as HDPE 2 plastic. Read the ingredients carefully to be sure that your fabric softener does not contain any chlorine or phosphates, which would contaminate our soil and water.

Hand Washing with Fabric Softener

Most people are familiar with the use of fabric softener in the washing machine, which is added in the final rinse cycle. But, you also reap all the benefits of fabric softener when you hand wash your delicate items. Simply add 2 teaspoons to the water you use to rinse your hand washables. Fabric softener should never be poured directly on fabrics, whether you are hand or machine washing.

Avoiding a “Shocking” Experience

Most of us have had the unpleasant experience of getting painful shocks in the winter after walking across the carpet and then touching just about anything. When we heat our homes to stay warm during the colder months of the year, moisture is removed from the air, creating a condition of low humidity. This causes the buildup of static electricity we often find in our carpets. To remedy the situation, try mixing a solution of 5 parts water to 1 part fabric softener. Pour into a spray bottle and lightly spray all carpets in your house. You’ll find winter takes on a softer touch.

Visit http://www.fuller-brush-products.com
By: hari


Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Author Vincent Platania represents the Fuller Brush Company. Fuller Brush has been in business since 1906, and offers safe, environmentally friendly products for keeping your home and your body clean. Visit www.fuller-brush-products.com

at 23.5.07 0 comments

Labels: fabric softener, static cling

Many organisations spend lots and lots of money in their ESD control activities. All the money spent is used to buy wrist strap, wrist strap monitor, ionizer, static shielding bag just to name a few to protect their parts from being damaged by ESD.

There are many controls and awareness on ESD among organisations that build parts that are susceptible to ESD damage.
However, there is poor awareness among the public on the danger of static electricity especially at the gas pump.
According to Steve Fowler who is a static electricity expert says it happens more than you think, “We believe about 1,000 times a year in the U.S.”

To save your life and other person’s life, it is very important to know:

How does fire happen at the gas pump?
Fire breaks out at a gas pump due to static electricity.
When a person goes back to his vehicle, rubbing against the seat while sitting, talking to his children or taking his wallet, static charges are built up within his body due to his movements.
He transfers the static charges when he touches the gas pump nozzle, which generates a spark. The spark then ignites the gasoline vapours and fire breaks out.


Key points to remember when refuelling gas at Gas Station

1. Turn off the engine of your vehicle
2. Touching a metal surface away from the nozzle to discharge your static electricity before fuelling (Some gas pump stations provide Touching Pad for you to reduce your static electricity)
3. Stay near your vehicle fuelling pint – DO NOT re-enter your vehicle
4. Never smock, light matches or use lighters during refuelling
5. Touch your vehicle or a metal surface to discharge any static electricity once refuelling is done before removing the nozzle


Warning: If fire starts, LEAVE the nozzle in the vehicle.
Run away and safe your life.
Contact gas pump attendant immediately to shut down the pump.


Article Source: http://learnesd.com
Article is published with written permission from http://learnesd.com

at 15.5.07 0 comments

Labels: gas pump

Six-year-old Taylor Zinderski slid down a plastic slide and slipped into silence. It was October at a church playground. Taylor, deaf for almost two years, ran to her father. She told him her cochlear implant - an electronic device that lets her hear -had suddenly fizzled.
It had been zapped by a static electric shock. Chris Zinderski hadn't switched off his daughter's implant because he didn't believe that static could really be a problem.
"Now I've learned my lesson," he said.
The shock didn't ruin Taylor's implant, but it did require an inconvenient trip to an audiologist. Static electricity is so much of a worry and hassle for the deaf that Washington University electrical engineer Robert Morley has a grant to study one of its main sources: plastic playground slides.
As playground slides evolve from metal to durable, cheap and colorful PVC plastic, deaf children face a sad choice: Don't play, or turn off their implants and play without sound.
Some playgrounds, such as new "all inclusive" ones, have deliberately included metal slides, which don't produce static electricity. But many others don't - including some that are supposed to be accessible to disabled children.
"Every time I look, there's another we can't go to," said Peg Jones, the mainstream coordinator at St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf in Chesterfield, Mo.
IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE
Morley, who helped pioneer digital hearing aids, got a small federal grant to study the issue. His first task: See how much static a slide can make.
He sent his two daughters down St. Louis-area plastic slides hundreds of times, wearing different clothes.
Static electricity occurs when a "positive" material sheds electrons by rubbing a "negative" material that attracts them. Good static-producing combinations include wool and PVC plastic, hair and rubber, and skin and polyester. Cotton, paper and steel are neutral.
The resulting charge on both objects can dissipate slowly in humid air, or cause a shock if it touches something that is grounded, such as a person, a car - or the metal pole that Morley had his daughters touch after each slide.
The type of clothes and length of the slide didn't matter much. But humidity did. In the cold, dry air of winter, Morley's daughters achieved charges of about 10,000 volts. Morley says that in the dry air of Tucson, Ariz., a colleague measured 20,000 volts after a slide.
In coming months, he will apply those voltages to test implants, which are rated to withstand 8,000 volts, according to Doug Miller, an engineer with Cochlear Americas, one of the manufacturers of the devices.
STATIC IN EVERY ROOM
Cochlear implants can cost more than $50,000. They require a delicate surgery to insert a wire into the snail shell-shaped cochlea. A hearing aid outside the ear picks up sound and converts it to an electrical signal that is broadcast through the skin to the internal device, which electrically stimulates the auditory nerve.
Miller and Morley both stress that static electricity is not a threat to the internal part of the implant. It can only zap the external equipment and force a trip to the audiologist for recalibration.
Miller says it will soon be a nonissue, as deaf people move to newer implants that can withstand more static. New rules will require a rating to 15,000 volts and most companies test the devices at even higher levels, he says.
But until then, each room at the Moog Center for Deaf Education in St. Louis County will keep a bottle of diluted fabric softener for spraying down staticky kids and carpets. On a cold November morning, family school director Betsy Brooks watched for signs of static.
At recess out on a wood and metal playground, the children played with their implants turned on. Taylor sailed down the metal slide, her mop of curly blond hair bouncing in the air.
Jones feels sorry for the children who have to turn their implants off.
"It's a completely different experience to go down the slide without the wind and the `whee,'" she said.

By Eric Hand,
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/13368310.htm

at 15.5.07 0 comments

Labels: hearing aid

Static Discharge Causes Flaky Damage
By Stephen Bucaro

Some time ago I purchased a motherboard, CPU, and memory from a local computer store. The sales person did me the "favor" of plugging the CPU and memory into the motherboard. I held my breath as this was done with no care what so ever taken to prevent damage from a possible electrostatic discharge.
A static discharge can damage or destroy integrated circuit electronics. The problem is that you may not see a visible spark. You may not know that a static discharge occurred. And, you are lucky if the static discharge totally destroyed the circuit.
Often a component is only damaged and appears to work. This type of damage can produce occasional or frequent errors. This is what technicians call "flaky" because the failure does not occur reliably enough to be able to track it down.
The technician can't determine if the errors are caused by software or hardware. All they can do is keep changing things and waiting to see if the problem goes away. This is very time consuming and costly.
The proper way to handle computer circuits is to wear a grounded wrist strap. Any electrical charge that builds up on your body is then immediately conducted to ground. But experienced technicians have tricks for controlling static electricity.
One trick is to leave the circuit board laying on top of an antistatic bag or antistatic foam as much as possible. Another is to leave the computer plugged into the AC outlet with the computers power switch off. This places ground on the computers metal case. Then the technician works with one hand always on a metal part of the case. Any electrical charge that builds up on your body is then immediately conducted to ground the same as with a wrist strap.
The important thing is to take static discharge seriously. Don't stick yourself or someone else with a flaky computer because you were too lazy to take basic care to protect against static discharge.


Resource Box: Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit http://bucarotechelp.com .To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelpNewsletter Send a blank email to bucarotechelp-subscribe@topica.com.
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Article Source: http://findinarticles.com

at 14.5.07 0 comments

Labels: static discharge