How to use anti-static mats to prevent damage

Sometimes static can be one of the worst inconveniences of your day. You walk across your living room, see a sock that you dropped the day before and bend down to pick it up, only to be shocked by a bolt of electricity known as static. Or maybe it’s an exceptionally dry day outside. Before you left for work this morning, you spent nearly an hour working on your hair so that you’ll look perfect for that special lunch meeting today. But thanks to static electricity, your hair has been flying wild and free all day, regardless of the pound of hairspray you applied in the hopes that it would keep it tame.

An even worse situation is when you’re being introduced to the new boss or a new client and your office is dreadfully static-y. You approach your new boss or client, greeting him or her with an outstretched hand. When your hands touch, there that familiar and dreaded zap and crackle! You’re both shocked by static electricity. Your new boss or client shrieks and gasps with surprise and recoils from your static-filled self. You turn away in shame, appalled that your problem of static has struck yet another unsuspecting victim.

What can you do about it? Many think the answer is not a whole lot, unfortunately. Some people are just cursed with an abundance of static in their clothes, home, car, self, etc. I’d suggest using fabric softener when drying your clothes. That seems to help a bit.

But wait!

Static can cause more than just inconvenience or embarrassment to you. It can cause real damage to your electronics! And that is something much worse than being mortified. It can be expensive to fix after static has struck, and dangerous if not taken care of.

Static electricity occurs when everyday objects become charged with voltages sufficient to produce electrical attraction, repulsion and sparks (which is what happens when you shake someone’s hand and see or hear a spark).

Static electricity can affect various types of electronics. For example, when looking at recording media, static can seriously damage or set-back the process of recording media because it can attract dust to its sensitive parts. In photography, dust accumulating on lenses due to static electricity can results in a distorted picture. Static electricity has been known to destroy micro-chips and cause computer crashes, telephone outages, and more.

So what can you do about static electricity? In the case of recording equipment or photography, you can purchase a special type of brushes to clean the equipment that will help decrease static electricity. These brushes often are made of carbon fiber bristles, which claim to possess anti-static properties. You can also find specialized anti-static “guns” that shoot streams of charged ions to discharge the static on the equipment of lenses.

However, one of the simplest solutions to your static problem is to purchase an anti-static mat. It will prevent such damage. An anti-static mat is a mat that conducts electricity and will draw static away from equipment before a worker can touch a sensitive piece of equipment. It will prevent the destruction that can be caused by a simple touch of a static-ridden human finger.

It is a good idea to place anti-static mats in any area where you have electronic equipment, especially when it is near a walk way. Just walking from office cubby to office cubby can generate enough static to destroy a micro-ship. You should have anti-static mats in every office around every kind of electronic equipment.

Anti-static mats come in every shape, size and thickness. They also come in an “anti-slip” form which is great to put in walk ways between offices. You can also purchase an anti-static grounding cord that will dissipate static just like a mat.

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Categories: Hardware,

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