Unfortunately, as increased use and dependency upon sensitive electronic equipment materialized the awareness and understanding of potential ESD equipment damage did not keep pace. This end user and specifier lack of ESD information resulted in carpet specifications being developed which did not address ESD characteristics. Some major yarn manufacturers supplying the carpet mills do not want to modify their process and produce carpet yarns that not only reduce the triboelectric charging but also create a controllable level of electrical resistivity so that dissipative carpets might be offered as standard items. Those carpet manufacturers who practiced ESD control technology chose to take a low profile approach, hoping to avoid increased competition from the many carpet mills who had not yet identified this market potential. This has resulted in limited styling options for the end user and in a general lack of product promotion by the carpet industry discussing ESD protective carpet.
Most field related electronic equipment problems become equipment warranty matters.
It has been very difficult to identify whether ESD damage was latent damage caused during manufacturing or whether it was caused at the end users' facilities. Remember that latent damage is extremely difficult to detect at the manufacturing site since the equipment assembled with such a damaged device will function properly upon quality control testing. However, it will likely cause decreased efficiency, mystery problems, and ultimately a total shutdown while in service at the users' facility. Electronic equipment manufacturers were driven to expand usage of their product and felt that requiring their customers to address ESD control management to the same level as a manufacturer would be viewed as a sale inhibitor. Therefore, equipment manufacturers did not address this issue during the early growth years for their industry.