Antistatic wrist straps
Antistatic wrist straps are essential tools for a person who is working in an environment where the number one hazard is represented by static electric discharges. Antistatic wrist straps are what you can call in some situations as the life savers, because static electric discharges are not something that you can control or avoid, only in the case that you use antistatic wrist straps. For example, everybody cleans his PC or Laptop from time to time, but we all now that all the components that we encounter in the cleaning process are products that can retain electrical residue even when the electricity is off and if you add the fact of the contact of the hand with the components is required , if you want to do a thorough cleaning, an electrical static discharge is something that you do not want to encounter, because either you electrocute yourself or you release the static discharge in the components and you fry them.
How can you use an antistatic wrist straps, well it is very simple, after you remove the casing from your PC, you simply strap it on to your wrist and after that you clip the metallic end to the chassis.
Few of the advantages of antistatic wrist straps would be the low cost of acquisition, the mobility that a worker has in a working area (a good substitute of a grounding cable), the high resistance incorporated in their construction and the last but not least, the variety in which they are manufactured from wrist, heel and ankle to cordless to wireless/cordless to grounding antistatic wrist straps .
Antistatic wrist straps with crocodile clip head are composed of metal clip head made out of stainless steel or plate, which is used in conjunction with a workbench or an antistatic mat a cord and a wrist strap made out of band of fabric which has woven into it high conductive fibers .
A lot of people are sceptic about the importance of antistatic wrist straps, because they are debating on the fact that these "hoax" products have the operating principles based on Pseudoscience such as Corona Discharge Effect and Ion Neutralization, but the fact is that most specialists in the field of Electrical Static Discharges recommend these products for both the sake of the user and the tools, parts, components that they are using, adding the fact that people who use them, like electricians, electronic technicians, PC repair technicians so and so forth, say that this is an important device to use in their area of expertise because their safety comes in the first places but so is the safety of products they are working with.
The testing of these products is made by the manufacturer, respecting the required standards, depending on the model. Even though if you want to check twice before you use an antistatic wrist strap, you can purchase a Wrist Strap tester to test your device at the working place.