Electrostatic discharge can damage access control systems, but Storm Interface says that its new S40i access control keypad has proved to be exceptionally resistant to this problem.
An office worker on their journey to the office can accumulate an electrostatic charge of almost 15,000 volts on the surface of their clothes and body. That’s mostly generated by friction caused by movement. In a dry atmosphere this accumulated charge is slow to dissipate. The first opportunity for this high voltage potential difference to achieve equilibrium occurs as a spark jumped from the hand to the grounded access control keypad with a pass card. Many of us have experienced a similar static shock. Usually we complain that it is the object we touched that gave us the shock, when in reality it was us that delivered the shock to the object. Similar shocks received by a product would probably leave no visible evidence; the damage caused would eventually manifest itself as either faulty hardware or software corruption. In many cases the fault may occur intermittently or at some later time. According to Storm Interface damage caused by electrostatic discharge accounts for more than 60 per cent of ‘in service’ system faults. Access control systems are particularly vulnerable as they often present the first grounded point of contact. In response to this problem, the engineers at Storm Interface have designed an access control keypad which has one of the highest ESD ratings in the industry. The new AXS S40i access control keypad from Storm Interface is ESD rated and certified to 15kV, which exceeds most public sector requirements according to the firm.
Visit: www.storm-interface.com.
