Various types of conductive fabrics are used in ESD garments. Most utilize carbon-suffused monofilament as the conductor, typically woven as a grid matrix into synthetic arrays such as nylon or polyester.

While the filament yarns are abrasion-resistant, they are vulnerable to snags and stretching, exhibiting weak "memory" in shape and weave retention. This results in a garment with an undesirable appearance after as few as 10 or 15 uses.

Note that clean room environments require synthetic monofilament fabrics because they don't release spun textile fibers which are considered a contaminant.

18x magnification of clean room
 weave using continuous synthetic monofilament

NSP America's approach focuses on real-world use. Where clean room barriers are not an issue, there's no reason to make users suffer with the tight "raincoat" weave of synthetic materials. Instead, we offer ESD lab coats and ESD smocks with blended spun yarns. Our polyester-cotton-based fabrics have high air permeability and feel far better against the skin, making a much cooler, more comfortable garment.

Other advantages of NSP's blended fiber ESD fabric include natural resistance to tribocharging (it retains atmospheric wicking. Additionally, our cotton blend garments retain a neat, crisp appearance throughout their service life.

18x magnification of ESD weave
using blended cotton spun yarns

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