You need antistatic safety shoes or ESD safety shoes but you’re not sure which one? You need some fast explanation on what an antistatic shoe and an ESD shoe are?
Now I’ll technically explain you what exists on the market and which technical specifications you have to look at for the perfect antistatic safety shoes or ESD safety shoes for your needs.
I strongly recommend that you make a good search of antistatic safety shoes or ESD safety shoes.
I know a lot of people who are not able to make a distinction between antistatic and ESD. After knowing the difference, I bet you’ll be surprised by how easy it is to find the product for yourself!
Safety shoes are made generally from an upper, a midsole, an outsole and a footbed. Sometimes there’s a puncture resistant plate. All these materials have a resistance to an electrostatic discharge, some types of jobs need the shoe to have the lowest possible resistance to electrostatic discharges.
Antistatic safety shoes or ESD safety shoes are types of shoes that have an electrical resistance falling in a specific range that I’ll show you in this easy graphic:
Graphic taken from www.uvex-safety.com
Graphic taken from www.uvex-safety.com
It’s easy to see that the ESD range is included in the range of resistance of the antistatic safety shoes, so not all antistatic safety shoes can be ESD… ESD is a specific niche of the antistatic safety shoes.
Contents
Let’s get some descriptions to get a clearer idea:
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A: Antistatic footwear: In a dry and in a wet atmosphere the electrical resistance shall be between 0,1 MΩ and 1000 MΩ (from 100 kΩ to 1000 MΩ).
- ESD: Electrostatic discharge (between 100 KΩ and 35 MΩ). ESD shoes (electrostatic discharge) do not primarily protect the person but rather protect the electrostatic-discharge-sensitive devices in sensitive working areas.
So, antistatic or ESD safety footwear?
The answer is that ESD shoes are antistatic safety shoes with an additional property of protecting the devices that are sensitive to electrostatic discharges, so you need ESD shoes when you are working in contact with such kind of devices.
Last question, you look into a website and you need to understand: are these antistatic or ESD safety shoes?
The only way to make a distinction between antistatic safety shoes and ESD shoes is to check the additional marking:
- in the name, example: BRAND + NAMESHOE + S1P + SRC or BRAND + NAMESHOE + S1P + ESD + SRC
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Marked on the shoe, with the ESD classic yellow circle spot as shown in the UVEX graphic above
Best ESD picks by SafetyShoesToday:
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk
These are the solutions that I suggest to you when you’re choosing between antistatic or ESD safety shoes.
I guarantee that if you use the right antistatic or ESD safety footwear you’ll live a better working experience.
What do you think about antistatic or ESD safety footwear?
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