Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)

Plastics are essentially insulators, hold charge and have a high electrical resistance, leading to undesired Electrostatic Discharge (ESD). Plastics materials allow to build up high electrostatic charges on the surface. These charges can be as high that they can discharge to the surroundings, producing sparks, depending among on the relative humidity of the surrounding air. Such sparks can be responsible for gas- or dust explosions. The static charge generated by friction movements must be eliminated to avoid any risk and thus safely transport any electronic equipment.

In virgin plastics, ESD-resistance is obtained by adding conductive fillers to the material to allow the flow of electricity. By using additives in the plastic materials, it is possible to prevent the material to be charged electrostatically, and, in many cases, it is necessary to discharge sensitive materials to the ground, during transportation or warehousing, by putting them on a conductive plastic material.

BC3 will unlock a new market segment for recycled polyolefins (HDPE/PP) with ESD. The effect of conductive fillers on recycled plastics could be not the same as prime materials due to a lower quality (degradation, impurities, etc.). This could result in inadequate ESD properties.

Do you have specific questions about ESD? Get in touch with our WP leaders Rucha Kakatkar (Maastricht University) directly: rucha.kakatkar@maastrichtuniversity.nl or Rudinei Fiorio (Maastricht University): r.fiorio@maastrichtuniversity.nl. Or BC3 leader Jose Bas (Cabka): j.bas@cabka.com.