What is anti-static footwear?
How do we test anti-static footwear?
What is about anti-static footwear?
Many labor friends wear safety footwear, and some people especially wear anti-puncture one. Have you ever heard of anti-static footwear or one with electric insulation? What exactly is anti-static footwear? Why will you need to wear it?
Before speaking of anti-static, we should talk about “static”. What is static? In daily life, we feel electric current flowing through our bodies while there is a sudden touch of metal objects. That is static, electricity discharging phenomenon. And, anti-static appliances are meant to reduce or eliminate static happening. There are some ways to decrease or eliminate static, such as wet, ground and static eliminator. The use of anti-static footwear is grounding. In short, it is to contact the electricity of our bodies with the ground, and it will avoid static electricity once the static electricity in our bodies is grounded.
Based on the M.O.E.A (Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection) in Taiwan, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and EN (European Standard), the requirements for anti-static footwear shall be 10∧5Ω < electric resistance≦10∧9Ω.
Take hitting the ground with bare feet for example, it will not be electrically conductive while bare feet on the wood. However, it will be while bare feet on an iron plate. In other words, general shoes are like wood while anti-static footwear is just like an iron plate. 10∧5Ω < electric resistance≦10∧9Ω.
How is anti-static footwear tested? Watch the video.
Basic formula for electricity: V (voltage) = I (current) x R (resistance). As shown in the video, we give a voltage of 1000V to measure the resistance of the shoe.
What workplaces will you need to wear anti-static footwear at?
At any workplaces where may cause dangerous working environments due to static electricity generated by the human body, such as gas plants, liquefied natural gas plants, petroleum corporations, certain clean rooms etc.
What kind of personnel is anti-static footwear not suitable for?
Such as electricians and power-repairing technicians. They will get an electric shock easily in rainy days or in shoes conducting electricity. (Introduction of electric resistant safety footwear as reference)