Antistatic Effect by Humidification

Abstract

We investigated the effect of humidification to prevent human body from becoming charged where footwear and flooring made of synthetic polymeric materials low in hygroscopicity are used. The human body potential during walking, the leakage resistance between the human body and the earth, and the surface and volume resistivity of the flooring materials measured showed no remarkable changes in these values due to relative humidity variation (10% 60%). The results indicated that humidification is not always effective to reduce the leakage resistance yielding charge relaxation when low hygroscopic materials are used. It is necessary to recognize that humidification is an auxiliary antistatic countermeasure and to take the essential antistatic countermeasures (use of conducive or charge dissipative materials to lower leakage resistance).