Antistatic bag

A network card inside an 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 and have a distinctive color (silvery for metalized PET film and other similar plastics, 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. If a Faraday cage bag is not sealed or closed, it offers no protection. 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. It is important that the bags only be opened at static-free workstations.Also it should never be used with Devices Power on,as sensitive electronics devices could get damaged due to short circuit and should only be used for handling with powering off devices.

See also

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

External links

• ESD bag types and standards
• What type of bag should you use?
• Antistatic bags and Conductive bags