Difference Between Electrostatic Discharge grounding & Equipment grounding

 Grounding for Protection against Electrostatic Discharge:

Static electricity is generated  during machine opeartion of an equipment or material handling by the opearting personnel. The level of charge is affected by the material type, speed of contact and seperation, humidity and several others factors. Dischage of static electricity can damage devices or result in latent damage that may skip immediate attention but cause the device to fail prematurely once in service.

Electrostatic discharge can occur throughout the manufacturing, test, shipping,handling or operational processes. Therefore effective electrostatic discharge contril is required for controlling the damage.

Design of the equipment with immunity to the effects of electrostatic discharge, its elimination and reduction of generation and effective  dissipation or neautralization form part of electrostatic dischage control.

A Primary means of protecting ESD-Susceptible items is to provide a ground path to bring ESD-protective materials and personnel to the same electrical potential by bonding or electrically connecting to a known electrical ground point, creating an equipotential balance between all items and personnel.

As the overall strategy tp protect the system against generation and dissipation of static  electricity has many facets other than electrostatic discharge grounding, you must refer to electrosatci discharge standards as well.

Equipment Grounding:

For grounding of electrical equipment,conductive materials enclosing electrical conductors or equipment, or part of such equipment, are connected to the earth to limit the voltage to ground on these materials. The grounding provides a path and these parts energise as a result of the failure of the insulation of a conductor inside the equipment.It is the primary way to protect personnel from electrocution. It also provide an intentional path of ample current-carrying capacity and low impedance to insure rapid opeartion of the circuit's over-current protection under ground fault conditions.

In electronics, different grounds may exists. Electromagnetic, electrostatic, signal , chassis and Power Grounds are addressed seperately in order to control noise, interference and undersiable current flow.