Antistatic clothing and protection against electrostatic hazards

The importance of antistatic clothing and protection against electrostatic hazards

When working in environments where work clothes, uniforms and antistatic clothing are needed to protect against dust in suspension, paint, assembly of electrical appliances, etc., it is necessary not to produce sparks that could generate a flashover. This antistatic protective clothing offers sufficient electrostatic dissipation and avoids incendiary discharges, making it flame retardant.

Static electricity is a phenomenon that commonly occurs both in a natural environment and in industrial facilities, so operators handling related aspects must wear static protection in their electrically insulating clothing.

Static energy charges arise due to physical or chemical changes, or processes of a dynamic nature, and can be a direct effect of our activity that can be prevented with antistatic clothing, thus increasing safety in the antistatic field.

Static charges are regularly produced by the friction of clothing or other products with another surface when moving – the body, clothing or the upholstery of a chair.

It is very common to experience this type of phenomenon in everyday life when removing your sweater by pulling it over your head.

In an occupational work environment, the accumulation of these charges can be dangerous, as a potential discharge can cause sparks, which can be life-threatening in potentially explosive areas.

They can cause many different disturbances: fire explosions, technological disturbances of production processes or disturbances in the operation of equipment.

That is why in industry it is essential to choose uniforms that make up the right antistatic safety equipment, and to have protective clothing suitable for the situation.

These workwear garments can be pants, uniforms, jackets, vests, shirts, safety footwear, safety boots, protective gloves and many others. The only requirement they must meet to be considered as electrically insulating clothing is to have an antistatic fabric that will cover the entire surface of this footwear, pants or gloves and will increase both the safety of workers and protection against electric arc, as well as increase the parameters of high visibility in the work environment.

The antistatic and flame-retardant fabric of the workwear for pants, jackets, footwear or gloves in the working environment will increase the reliability of the workers as well as provide antistatic, high-visibility characteristics and make the garment flame-retardant in all conditions.

What is electrostatic discharge (ESD) and why protect yourself with antistatic protective clothing?

Materials with low electrical conductivity and conductive objects insulated from the ground are subject to the accumulation of electrostatic charges due to static electricity.

Electrostatic discharges (ESD) are created due to an excess of electrical charges.

These electrical charges can be avoided with electrically insulating clothing, otherwise, when our own body generates this electricity, protective clothing against mechanical and antistatic risks allows to avoid this electrostatic generation caused by our movement.

ESD can cause harmful effects in industrial environments, including explosions in gas, fuel vapor and coal dust, as well as failure of solid-state electronic components such as integrated circuits, so it is advisable to increase high visibility, antistatic and flame-retardant field ratings in the work environment.

These can suffer permanent damage when exposed to high voltages, avoidable through static protection systems such as static electricity clothing.

Having static and flame-retardant protection will lead to a considerable increase in occupational safety, with occupational safety being a key factor for safe comfort in the working environment.

Therefore, electronics manufacturers establish electrostatic protection areas free of static electricity, using measures to avoid charging, and thus protect the working environment through flame-retardant and antistatic protection.

These include avoiding highly charged materials, providing workers with antistatic clothing and controlling humidity.

Antistatic work clothing standards

EN 1149-5 is one of the world’s largest standards for antistatic clothing. This uniform standard specifies the electrostatic and design requirements that antistatic clothing must have in order to avoid electricity-related hazards.

All pants, footwear, gloves, and upper parts of the workwear comprising the antistatic clothing section will also be flame retardant, and may sometimes even incorporate high visibility safety elements or similar.

Antistatic clothing to protect against electrostatic hazards

There is a wide variety of antistatic clothing in our store, which can also be flame retardant and high visibility to increase safety at work. Avoiding the daily risks that many jobs have is possible when you have work clothes suitable for the sector, we list the antistatic clothing that meets all the necessary European standards to avoid electrostatic risks.

• Antistatic gown
• Antistatic coverall
• Antistatic shirt
• Antistatic T-shirts
• Antistatic jacket
• Antistatic vests
• Antistatic complete set
• Antistatic lining
• Antistatic pants
• Antistatic polo shirt
• Antistatic shoes

Ropa antiestática para protegerse

In Oroel we have flame retardant antistatic protective clothing that dissipate charges as quickly as possible to avoid static discharges and get uniforms suitable for a safe and secure work environment: pants, shirts, uniforms, footwear, gloves or vests.

When the electric charge comes from an external object the antistatic clothing that works as an insulator of electricity prevents you from most possible cases.