ESD mini monitor with illuminated status display available from Inelco Hunter
Inelco Hunter has announced the availability of the Desco ESD Mini Monitor. The monitor’s enclosure features an illuminated status display, making the PCB and the worksurface highly visible to both operator and supervisor. Green indicates that the operator and worksurface are grounded, red indicates a grounding failure, and blue indicates when the operator port is vacant. High visibility helps operator awareness especially when wearing headphones and the audible alarm cannot be heard.
With an alarm response time less than 50 milliseconds, the Mini Monitor quickly notifies the operator should the wrist strap or worksurface lose its path-to-ground. This allows the monitor to catch the moment when wrist cords degrade and lose continuity.
The Mini Monitor features ParkSnap allowing the operator to disconnect and park a wristband when leaving the workstation without creating a false alarm. Touch the ParkSnap or Park Delay switch, and the monitor’s audible alarm will disable for approximately 8 seconds. This time can be used to disconnect the wrist cord from the wristband, and attach it to the ParkSnap or remove the banana plug from the jack. Upon returning to the workstation and disconnecting the wrist cord from the ParkSnap, the operator has approximately 8 seconds to reconnect the wrist cord to a worn wristband before activating the alarm.
Wave Distortion or vector impedance works by applying a continuous test voltage of 1.2 volts peak-to-peak at 1 to 2 microamperes (0.000002 amperes) to the wrist strap that is connected to the continuous or constant monitor. The test voltage creates a square wave that the monitor circuit compares to established patterns. By monitoring the “distortions”, or shape of the square wave, Wave Distortion Technology determines if the monitored circuit is complete – the operator is in the circuit and the total equivalent DC resistance is within specifications. Wave Distortion Technology produces a very fast alarm time and minimal false alarms.
