Antistatic bag

An antistatic bag is a bag used for shipping (usually electronic) components, which are prone to damage caused by electrostatic discharge.

These bags are usually plastic (PET) and have a distinctive color (silvery for Metallised film, pink or black for polyethylene). The polyethylene variant may also take the form of foam or bubble wrap, either as sheets or bags. Because of the need for protection against mechanical damage as well as electrostatic damage, layers of protection are often used; because of this, you might find:

The protected device packaged inside a metalized PET film bag
Packed inside a pink polyethylene bubble-wrap bag
Packed inside a rigid black polyethylene box lined with pink poly foam

To create the anti-static effect, the black or silver bags are slightly conductive, forming a Faraday cage around the item to be protected and preventing any localized charges from being deposited onto the protected devices as the bags are handled. The pink or green bags are made of low-charging material, i.e. the bag itself will not create harmful charges, but will not protect the item from electric fields.[citation needed] It is important that the bags only be opened at static-free workstations.

See also

Antistatic device
Antistatic garments
Antistatic agent
Antistatic mat
Antistatic wrist strap
Electrostatic sensitive device
Velostat

References

General references

Yam, K. L., "Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology", John Wiley & Sons, 2009, ISBN 978-0-470-08704-6