View Single Post
  #21   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 12-02-2009, 11:15
Unsung FIRST Hero
Mike Betts Mike Betts is offline
Electrical Engineer
no team
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Rookie Year: 1995
Location: Homosassa, FL
Posts: 1,442
Mike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond reputeMike Betts has a reputation beyond repute
Re: Solving static electricity problems by grounding the frame

Erich,

I once had a good friend who worked at Bell Labs back in the early seventies. One of the quotes of his I always loved was "The nice thing about standards are that there are so many to choose from."

"Double isolated" appliances and systems do exist. Many hand power tools boast full isolation from earth ground and are usually designated Class 2 (see this Wikipedia entry).

In addition, the "grounded frame" exists for low voltage car systems only. In electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and (one of my development jobs before I retired) fuel cell vehicles, the high voltage system is always double isolated.

Lastly, do not confuse legacy systems such as the automobile with "safe" systems. There are literally thousands of vehicle fires every year. I did some research about a decade ago and the number for non-crash related vehicle fires was about 4,000 per year in the US alone. I just did a quick Google and found this for crash related fires.

Regards,

Mike
__________________
Mike Betts

Alumnus, Team 3518, Panthrobots, 2011
Alumnus, Team 177, Bobcat Robotics, 1995 - 2010
LRI, Connecticut Regional, 2007-2010
LRI, WPI Regional, 2009 - 2010
RI, South Florida Regional, 2012 - 2013

As easy as 355/113...