I just static shocked my nipple
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The Case of The Mysterious Path - August/September
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The life of a static analyst in the ongoing fight against electrostatic discharge is grueling. The hours are long. The coffee is lousy. And there's never good grounding when you really need it. Ask Dave Swenson, 3M's own static sleuth, about how important grounding is, and he'll tell you a little story that he likes to call, "The Case of The Mysterious Path."
"Back in 1978, I arrived at one tape-making plant located in the northern U.S. in response to a call for a general static survey. It was in the dead of winter, and the air was very dry," Swenson recalled. "Now, making tape in the wintertime is exciting business, to put it mildly. There are sparks jumping everywhere, and people getting shocked all the time. I spent the better part of the day just looking at the plant and its problems, and the next day going around and recommending solutions.
"Now, in a typical factory, you have a floor that's set up with equipment. You've got areas where you're supposed walk, and areas where you're not supposed to walk-usually marked by 3M safety marking tape of some kind," Swenson explained." At this particular factory, there was a tape coating machine on the floor, and off to the side of this piece of machinery was a little trailer that had an air-driven winder on it that was winding up a tissue paper liner on rolls. These things were going really fast-the tissue paper was winding up at breakneck speed," Swenson said.
"When the floor markings came near the machine the path had an artificial jog in it that directed you to walk around the machine. The floor was wide open at that point-there wasn't any equipment in the way and there weren't any guardrails, just the tape directing you to walk around. I was walking down the indicated path with some other people-the plant manager, the maintenance guy, and a couple of engineers-and as we're walking down the path, these guys are describing various operations they have.
As they made their way across the factory floor, Swenson was watching the tape-coating machine and not paying attention to his guides. When they reached the jog marked by the tape on the factory floor, the others made the right-hand turn, while Swenson continued to walk straight across. As he crossed directly in front of the machine, a huge static shock, about 20-feet long, struck him behind his ear.
"I saw the flash out of the corner of my eye. The thunderous sound it made was instantaneous-KABOOM! I went straight down to the ground in a limp pile," Swenson said, wincing as he remembered.
"The other guys dropped to the ground, and came crawling out like in a battle zone to reach out and drag me to the safety of the marked tape aisle. They were saying, 'Are you all right? You didn't follow the path!' And I told them there's no real good reason to follow the path-it's not obvious!
"Little static shocks make you flinch, like when you get a static shock from touching a doorknob after building up a static charge from crossing the room on carpet. This one was ten million times bigger than that-at 40,000 volts per inch, you can do the arithmetic and see that it's approximately 12 million volts in that single discharge.
"Now the reason for the jog in the taped aisle came to light-they'd had problems with the forklifts and the forklift operators getting zapped since the plant had begun operation. I asked them, for crying out loud, why don't you fix this? And they said they didn't want to spend any money-that static control was too expensive.
"I told them I didn't care what they thought-it was a ridiculous hazard to have present in an operation like this. I guess after having been hammered in the head with a static charge, I was inspired to action," Swenson laughed.
Swenson asked for the help of an electrician, and then observed the tape-coating machine and the tissue-winding machine, and then came up with a plan of action.
"I saw that the tissue winding machine was on a cart mounted on big rubber tires sitting on the concrete floor with an air-driven motor, so there was no electricity powering the thing. There was no electrical connection between the frame of this machine and electrical ground-it was just 'floating', electrically speaking. This made it into some kind of huge Van De Graf generator." There was no electrical connection between the tissue winder and the grounded tape coater.
Swenson asked the electrician to give him a piece of ten-foot wire. They then put a bolt on the tape-coating machine, and a bolt on the frame of the tissue-winding machine, and connected the two with the wire, knocking the 12 million volt potential down to about 20,000 volts instantly.
"Electrically bonding the two machines saved a couple hundred feet of floor space, not to mention insuring the safety of the plant workers. Solving static electricity problems doesn't always have to be expensive. Rather than taking the time to take a look at it and try to solve it, this particular plant had been living with this problem for years and years just because they had the perception that static control is automatically an expensive process."
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The life of a static analyst in the ongoing fight against electrostatic discharge is grueling. The hours are long. The coffee is lousy. And there's never good grounding when you really need it. Ask Dave Swenson, 3M's own static sleuth, about how important grounding is, and he'll tell you a little story that he likes to call, "The Case of The Mysterious Path."
"Back in 1978, I arrived at one tape-making plant located in the northern U.S. in response to a call for a general static survey. It was in the dead of winter, and the air was very dry," Swenson recalled. "Now, making tape in the wintertime is exciting business, to put it mildly. There are sparks jumping everywhere, and people getting shocked all the time. I spent the better part of the day just looking at the plant and its problems, and the next day going around and recommending solutions.
"Now, in a typical factory, you have a floor that's set up with equipment. You've got areas where you're supposed walk, and areas where you're not supposed to walk-usually marked by 3M safety marking tape of some kind," Swenson explained." At this particular factory, there was a tape coating machine on the floor, and off to the side of this piece of machinery was a little trailer that had an air-driven winder on it that was winding up a tissue paper liner on rolls. These things were going really fast-the tissue paper was winding up at breakneck speed," Swenson said.
"When the floor markings came near the machine the path had an artificial jog in it that directed you to walk around the machine. The floor was wide open at that point-there wasn't any equipment in the way and there weren't any guardrails, just the tape directing you to walk around. I was walking down the indicated path with some other people-the plant manager, the maintenance guy, and a couple of engineers-and as we're walking down the path, these guys are describing various operations they have.
As they made their way across the factory floor, Swenson was watching the tape-coating machine and not paying attention to his guides. When they reached the jog marked by the tape on the factory floor, the others made the right-hand turn, while Swenson continued to walk straight across. As he crossed directly in front of the machine, a huge static shock, about 20-feet long, struck him behind his ear.
"I saw the flash out of the corner of my eye. The thunderous sound it made was instantaneous-KABOOM! I went straight down to the ground in a limp pile," Swenson said, wincing as he remembered.
"The other guys dropped to the ground, and came crawling out like in a battle zone to reach out and drag me to the safety of the marked tape aisle. They were saying, 'Are you all right? You didn't follow the path!' And I told them there's no real good reason to follow the path-it's not obvious!
"Little static shocks make you flinch, like when you get a static shock from touching a doorknob after building up a static charge from crossing the room on carpet. This one was ten million times bigger than that-at 40,000 volts per inch, you can do the arithmetic and see that it's approximately 12 million volts in that single discharge.
"Now the reason for the jog in the taped aisle came to light-they'd had problems with the forklifts and the forklift operators getting zapped since the plant had begun operation. I asked them, for crying out loud, why don't you fix this? And they said they didn't want to spend any money-that static control was too expensive.
"I told them I didn't care what they thought-it was a ridiculous hazard to have present in an operation like this. I guess after having been hammered in the head with a static charge, I was inspired to action," Swenson laughed.
Swenson asked for the help of an electrician, and then observed the tape-coating machine and the tissue-winding machine, and then came up with a plan of action.
"I saw that the tissue winding machine was on a cart mounted on big rubber tires sitting on the concrete floor with an air-driven motor, so there was no electricity powering the thing. There was no electrical connection between the frame of this machine and electrical ground-it was just 'floating', electrically speaking. This made it into some kind of huge Van De Graf generator." There was no electrical connection between the tissue winder and the grounded tape coater.
Swenson asked the electrician to give him a piece of ten-foot wire. They then put a bolt on the tape-coating machine, and a bolt on the frame of the tissue-winding machine, and connected the two with the wire, knocking the 12 million volt potential down to about 20,000 volts instantly.
"Electrically bonding the two machines saved a couple hundred feet of floor space, not to mention insuring the safety of the plant workers. Solving static electricity problems doesn't always have to be expensive. Rather than taking the time to take a look at it and try to solve it, this particular plant had been living with this problem for years and years just because they had the perception that static control is automatically an expensive process."
Why does my car shock me?
Most static buildup is due to movement between yourself and the car seat. Your car also builds up static electricity as it moves through the air. There is also evidence the materials used in “high mileage” tires contributes to the problem.
Most static buildup is due to movement between yourself and the car seat. Your car also builds up static electricity as it moves through the air. There is also evidence the materials used in “high mileage” tires contributes to the problem.
I usually try to close the door with my forearm because it doesn't hurt as much as my hand. This backfired the other day when I was getting out though...the zap hit right on the wrong spot on my arm and caused the muscle to spaz. I did a sort-of half punch...Hurt like a bitch! 
Jimmy said:I usually try to close the door with my forearm because it doesn't hurt as much as my hand. This backfired the other day when I was getting out though...the zap hit right on the wrong spot on my arm and caused the muscle to spaz. I did a sort-of half punch...Hurt like a bitch!
uhh you guys know if you just grab on the metal part of the door,then step on the ground while still firmly grasping the metal, you wont get shocked at all.