ESD Audits & Training

ESD Training is important as understanding the techniques behind static control in a work environment is a crucial part…

Static Control Static control devices are becoming increasingly popular these days. Businesses seem

 

ESD Protected Areas: Why They Are Important

When it comes to keeping your team safe, having effective ESD protected areas in place is essential. Indeed, ESD protected areas provide a static safe environment and this can be exceptionally important for ensuring the safety of your team and business. Unfortunately, though, not all business owners are aware of the importance of having a dedicated static safe environment for their business.

That’s why, today, we’ll be looking at why ESD protected areas (EPAs) are so important, and how you can create an EPA for your own business property. Indeed, this can provide a significant safety boost for your staff, so it’s absolutely essential to consider.

What is an ESD Protected Area?

First of all, we need to quickly define what an ESD protected area is. Indeed, while it can seem quite straightforward to explain that an EPA is a static safe environment, this doesn’t necessarily give much helpful advice for businesses looking to implement one.

An EPA is a region that’s been designated specifically as a static safe environment, meaning that electrostatic discharges can be easily controlled and managed within the area. Indeed, electrostatic discharges can offer numerous dangers, and so, controlling these discharges is crucial for ensuring a safe work environment. Fortunately, creating a static safe environment to be your ESD protected area doesn’t need to be hugely difficult; you just need to ensure that you have the right electrostatic protection in place to ensure that static is unable to cause damage in the area.

How Big are ESD Protected Areas?

It can be easy to assume that an ESD protected area needs to be a large facility or room – but in reality, this isn’t necessarily true. Indeed, while you can invest in a large static safe environment if you so desire, an ESD protected area can actually be very small.

For example, small firms which don’t have a large amount of space to dedicate to creating a static safe environment will often make a single workstation into their ESD protected area. So long as the right protections are in place (and workers and static sensitive equipment do not leave the protected area), static shouldn’t be an issue. The size of your dedicated static safe environment is irrelevant in this case, so long as it’s big enough to protect all of the necessary equipment.

Why Are Static Safe Environments Important?

At this point, you’re probably wondering – why are static safe environments important for my business? Fortunately, this is something we can help with! So, without further ado, let’s take a brief look at the dangers that electrostatic discharges can pose and how an ESD protected area can help negate these risks.

Static discharges are not uncommon, and any electrical equipment can be at risk of damage. What’s more, static discharges can also put your workers at risk. A small static discharge might only be a mild, sharp pain for your workers to experience – but large electrostatic discharges could quite possibly result in severe injury to your workers. Another notable risk of electrostatic discharge is the risk of an electrical fire breaking out, too. Many modern businesses have a great deal of electrical technology on their premises, and any issues endangering this equipment could result in a deadly and highly damaging fire breaking out – representing a significant risk for your business’ equipment and staff alike.