Disposable Conductive Overshoe

Disposable Conductive Overshoe

      Proposed is an electrically conducting overshoe for personnel
working in a clean room environment with static sensitive components.
The disposable overshoe includes a conducting path from the wearer to
the exterior undersole which is in contact with a static dissipative
floor.

      Referring to Fig. 1, a disposable clean room overshoe 1 has a
strip of conductive material 2 attached by adhesive and running along
its underside projecting as a tail 3 from the heel end 4.  The tail 3
is lifted over the heel of the wearer's normal footwear 6 and tucked
under the person's heel 5; or, as shown in Fig. 2, attached around
the person's ankle with an elasticized conducting band 7.  A one
megohm resistor 8 is fitted in series with the strip at the heel end
for safety reasons.

      The 1 meg resistor is to limit the chances of electrocution
where high values of accessible voltages may be present; therefore,
the current from operator to ground is limited to a safe value.