idbsystems ID-917 Electrostatic Charge Decay Meter

Building on the success of the popular ID-489 Charge decay 
Meter, the ID-917 is a next generation microprocessor-based 
instrument which has been developed to evaluate the antistatic 
properties of materials by measuring their charge decay time.  
The ID-917 is in general accordance with test method 4046 as 
described in MIL-STD-3010C as well as those described in 
IST40.2(01) and BS7506. 
The antistatic properties of these materials depend on the rate 
at which an accumulated electrostatic charge on the surface is 
dissipated.  To a large extent this will be governed by the surface 
resistance and for many materials this may be measured using a 
Surface Resistance Meter, e.g. the ID-482A or the ID-914. 
However, where the 
structure of the surface, 
texture 
or 
high 
magnitude, make surface 
resistance measurements 
difficult 
then 
the 
measurement of charge 
decay time is preferred.   
More importantly, this test method simulates the conditions of 
the practical situation and allows a more realistic assessment to 
be made of the antistatic and charge dissipative properties of 
the material. 
In the charge decay method, an electrode placed on the material 
under test and in contact with its surface is charged to a specific 
test voltage. The time required for the electrode to discharge to 
one of two pre-set limits (50% to 10%), is then measured.  The 
Model 917 Electrostatic Charge Decay Meter can be programmed 
to measures the charge decay time from 0.01 second increments 
at test voltages from 1KV to 5KV. The Model 917 consists of a 
mains powered processing and display unit and an integrated 2
part sample drawer. The instrument can also be connected to a 
desk-top or laptop PC using a Type A to Type B USB cable.