ESD grounding: Common point ground and Equipotential bonding

Technical Questions
#1

Hi everyone,

Can someone help to explain further what is the difference of common point ground (5.2.1) and equipotential bonding (5.2.3) from ANSI/ESD S6.1?
Appreciate your help.

#2

The only difference between a common point ground and equipotential bonding the the ground wire. Using a common point ground, the ESD control items are bonded together and then a wire goes from the common point ground to ground. In an equipotential bond, the ESD control items go to a common connection point. There is no connection to ground.

Simple answer, the only difference is if there is a ground wire or not.

Equipotential bonding is useful for areas were ground is not available. For example, if a large server was getting an upgrade in a customer data center, the field engineer may just connect to the server at some designated point. This would bond them to the server.

#3

Hi JohnK,

Thanks for the explanation.