Forced corona method for the evaluation of fabrics with conductive fibres

Modern fabrics for protective clothing, used in environment where the level of static charge must be controlled, are composites where a grid or stripes of conductive fibres are present inside a matrix of highly resistive base fabric. In protective clothing, where the conductive fabric elements are not effectively grounded, corona discharge is the major limiting mechanism for fabric charging. In this paper, corona discharge of electrostatic discharge protective fabrics has been studied. A new experimental method, forced corona, was developed for the measurement of corona onset and offset potentials as well as corona current. According to results, the residual level of fabric surface potential after corona discharge was the lowest in fabrics containing core conductive fibres. The behaviour is because of the small dimensions and sharp edges of the core conductive fibres. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.