Humidification to combat static in electronics manufacturing

Eliminate harmful electrostatic discharge with proper humidification

Electronic devices, printed circuit boards, components and data are highly sensitive 
to electrostatic discharge. Correct humidity levels are essential to minimizing the 
damage caused by ESD.

What is ESD?

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is the sudden flow of electricity between two electrically charged objects caused by contact. The ESD occurs when differently-charged objects are brought close together or when the dielectric between them breaks down, sometimes creating a visible spark.

However, many ESD events occur without a visible or audible spark. A person carrying a relatively small electric charge may not feel a discharge that is sufficient to damage sensitive electronic components.

These invisible forms of ESD can cause outright device failures, or may affect the long term reliability and performance of electronic devices. The effects of ESD on some electronics may not become evident until well into their product life.


Static Electricity

One of the causes of ESD events is static electricity. Static electricity is often generated through tribocharging – the separation of electric charges that occurs when two materials are brought into contact and then separated.

Examples of tribocharging include walking on a rug, rubbing a plastic comb against dry hair or rubbing a balloon against a sweater. The friction between two materials results in tribocharging, thus creating a difference of electrical potential that can lead to ESD.

Another cause of ESD damage is through electrostatic induction. This occurs when an electrically charged object is placed near a conductive object isolated from ground.

The presence of the charged object creates an electrostatic field that causes electrical charges on the surface of the other object to redistribute.

How Do You Minimize ESD?

Most electronics manufacturers establish electrostatic protective areas free of static, using measures to:

■ Prevent charging – by avoiding highly charging materials 
■ Remove static – by grounding human workers or providing antistatic devices 
■ Control humidity

Humidity Control – The Ideal Solution to Eliminate ESD.

With a humidity level of 40% RH, surface resistance is lowered on floors, carpets, table mats and other areas. 

Humidifiers add moisture to the air, and the moisture in the air forms a thin protective “film” on surfaces that serves as a natural conductor to dissipate electric charges. When humidity drops below 40% RH, this protection disappears and normal employee activities lead to objects being charged with static electricity.

Having an overall program of static electricity reduction, helps to:

■ Increase productivity 
■ Decrease waste from damaged components 
■ Improves indoor air quality for both manufacturing and employee heath 

 

Benefits of Condair humidification for electronics include:

  • Minimizing damages  to manufacturing equipment and product caused 
    by ESD (Electrostatic discharge)
  • Increased product quality which will lead to an increase in revenues  
  • Increased productivity due to reduced employee absenteeism
  • Employee health and comfort in the workplace

Our electronics clients include

  • - Bosch GmbH, Germany
  • - Braun GmbH, Germany
  • - Siemens Healthcare, Germany
  • - LG Electronics, South Korea
  • - Lenovo, China
  • Bang & Olufsen, Denmark
  • Ericsson, Sweden
  • - Samsung Electronics, South Korea

Get free expert advice on humidity control in electronics manufacturing

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Konvekta

Amir Ibrahimagic

Group Business Development Manager

“Konvekta has standardised its exhaust air cooling systems on the Condair ME humidifier as its evaporative cooling solution. The reliability of the unit is second-to-none. It incorporates the highest quality components that give utmost longevity and performance to our clients. Alongside the product’s USPs, Condair is also a very solutions-oriented partner. As a Konvekta energy recovery system is always custom designed for a client’s needs, it’s vital for us to have flexible design support from our evaporative cooling supplier.”

Weatherite Group

Andy Lewis

Technical Manager

“Weatherite only uses the highest quality components in its HVAC solutions, and this includes Condair’s evaporative humidifier. It certainly delivered on our specific requirements for operation, control and hygiene management, and we’ve been very pleased with the support offered by Condair in connection with this successful project.”

HMF Group

Christian Myrhøj

Produktionschef i maleafdelingen

“We have no problems with painting since we got the Condair humidification system. Our production quality is always consistent and the error rate is minimal. The energy savings on ventilation was a welcome side benefit.”

Steinway

Craig Terry

UK Managing Director

“Dryness is the enemy of pianos so humidity is really important. We need 40% to 50% humidity all the time to protect the wood, whether they’re in the showroom or the workshop. Condair’s units are ideal for the job. And because we rely so heavily on the reliability of the humidifiers, we also contracted with Condair to service the humidifiers at regular intervals.

Would I recommend Condair? Oh yes, they’ve supplied great service.”

ZSL London Zoo

Dave Clarke

Head of Invertebrates

“Having worked with Condair since 2008, we now rely on their steam humidifiers, which we find both efficient and easy to use. They are particularly important for our irreplaceable populations of endangered species, for example our Polynesian tree snails, many of which are now sadly extinct in the wild.”

Sporting Edge UK Ltd

Dave Vincent

Managing Director

“Sporting Edge produce the most advanced environmental chambers in the world and it’s vital all parts of our system offer consistent reliability and performance. This is why we have standardised our humidity control using the Condair RS steam humidifier.

It provides us with a dependable, controllable product that will happily work with standard mains water. We also love the self de-scaling feature.”

T Clarke

Doug Lumb

Project Engineer

“The Condair DC 50W dehumidifier was actually chosen by our designers, as it fitted the bill perfectly for the environment. The unit size was based on the quantities of kit hung in the room to dry when the firefighters return to the Centre at the end of their training exercises.

It’s a reliable product and currently operating at the station just as expected, plus installation was really simple and didn’t take long at all, so all very good.

I would definitely specify Condair dehumidifiers for future projects.”

Bunkermuseum Hanstholm

Erik Ansø

Museumsforvalter

“The noise level is now so low that you can talk normally in the ventilation room even though both the ventilation and a dehumidifier are running, which was one of the criteria. You certainly couldn't do that before, and it's worked out well in a concrete bunker.”

Terma

Gert Jørgensen

Terma Facilities

“An energy seminar at Condair made us see new opportunities to reduce our energy consumption by using humidifiers for evaporative cooling. At the same time, we have a noticeably better indoor climate, which is naturally popular with the employees.”

Prime Ocean

Jan Bork Nordmann

Produktion

“The dehumidification solution from Condair is one of the best investments we have made down here.

Prime Ocean is one of Europe’s largest importers of fresh cod from FAO27 and also imports large volumes of salmon. Both fresh fish products and high-quality frozen products are produced. The dehumidification solution has helped eliminate condensation problems, the daily downtime of the machines has been virtually eliminated and the maintenance work on both machines and buildings has been significantly minimized.”

Elopak

Jan Thidex Kristensen

Maintenance & Engineering Manager

“We can clearly see a difference in our production after we got the new humidification system. We experience less variation in our production, which means we can ensure a uniform and stable quality for our customers.

For our employees, this means a stable and healthy indoor climate independent of seasonal fluctuations in humidity and temperature.”

Harrier Group

Jeremy Rawley

Safety and Facilities Manager

“We already knew Condair, as we have a couple of their units in other print rooms. The quality of their equipment is right up there. Paper is susceptible to changes in environmental conditions so humidity is really important.

Their service is second to none as well. We work to tough deadlines and one of the key things for us is that Condair could supply the equipment quickly within the required timescale.

Having a local service engineer on call to maintain them in tip-top condition is important for us too.”

Vyra Suites Hotel in Qatar

Kiran Nair

Sales Engineer at Mentor Trading

“The ceiling mounted dehumidifiers are compact in size and were fixed above the pool and spa areas. We were very satisfied with Condair’s service and their prompt response to the project.

The quality of the Condair DP-C dehumidifiers is of a high standard and they were easy to install and simple for the customer to operate. We look forward to a working with the Condair team in the future.”

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