October 2013 Specials

Great Bags great pricing. CK MAGMA

Normally if you give a price or "special" offer, the spam gods, decide to turf your email, and my valuable readers like yourself would miss out, and this is too good to miss out on.


I have a few more of these great bags at a fantastic price.

CK 2632 Magma priced @ R897 excl. vat    &   the CK 2631 Magma Rucksack priced @ R799 excl. vat 

These prices represent a significant discount off the normal selling price!  That's a great deal!

If you would like to enjoy one or a few of these bags for yourself or your technicians, please don't delay, drop us an Email or Find us here.

As with all good things, this offer will come to an end.  Prices available while stocks last.

Download our Catalogue

       

    

New Christensen Tools General Catalogue 2013.

We are proud to announce that our new 2013 catalogue is available. As a preferred client on The Christensen Tools mailing list, you have access to seeing it first. The PDF version (electronic version) is now available to you now to download.  We have jam packed 44 odd pages with the newest in our range, and of course included our firm old favourites.



 

 

Best regards

John Christensen

What is VDE all about?

VDE stands for Verband der Elektrotechnik .- ok so what does that mean??

It's the Association of German Electrical Engineers, now known by the name “Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies “.
The VDE Testing and Certification Institute is a nationally and internationally accredited institution in the field of testing and certification of electrical engineering devices, components and systems.
VDE tools are mainly used by electricians when performing their electrical duties.  Why do they use VDE tools? They use VDE tools to avoid electrocution- Ok so I now have your attention.

The main objective is one of safety for the person when working on live circuits. By using VDE tools, one  can prevent electric shock and serious injury.

VDE tools MUST meet all requirements for working in systems with up to 1,000 VAC or 1,500VDC. The CK range of VDE products are individually tested to 10,000V for safe live working up to 1,000v,they conforms to IEC 60900:2004.  Approved and independently audited by the German VDE institute.

Have a look at the Video below, the guy in the Video tried real hard to break some CK VDE products, with some really interesting results.  Its a bit slow to start, but interesting as he cranks up the voltage, way in excess of rating of the products!  Big sparks!
The products he is testing are the brand CK.
 

 

Best regards

John Christensen 

Winter Promo 22nd July -13th September 2013

Does weather affect static electricity?

If you would like to attend an ESD (ElectroStatic Discharge) Workshop at our suppliers in Germany this year, please click here for more info. 

 

Static charge build-up is enhanced when the air is dry. So, static problems and effects are most often noticed in dry air conditions. The air outside can be very dry when the weather is cold. Indoors, central heating or air conditioning can create very dry conditions which promotes static electricity. Heating warms the air and reduces its humidity. Static shocks are most often noticed in cold dry weather, especially when in a centrally heated environment. Usually static shocks disappear when the weather gets more humid. Static shocks can also occur in air conditioned building during hot weather.

ESD Electro Static Discharge

Everyone who works with electronics has heard about static damage. Unfortunately, there is often as much miss-information as there is hard fact. First of all static electricity does no harm; it is not until there is a discharge (ESD) that we have to worry. ( It is the 'D' in ESD that blows holes in electronic gates!) Sadly, a lot of snake-oil products are sold to make you feel like you have taken care of 'The static problem'. All that you need to keep the marketing types from preying on you whether you are a hobbyist, technician or engineer, is an understanding based in science. Once you realize that the laws of physics are not suspended for ESD (electrostatic Discharge) you will find that you already know most of the basics.

What is static electricity?

Static electricity is electricity that is static; that is electricity that doesn't move. When you walk across a carpet on a dry winter day, you build up a static charge. As your shoes rub on the carpet there is a net wiping off of electrons that gives your body a potential that is different to ground. If the air were more humid, the charge would bleed off rapidly but on a dry winter day the charge stays on the surface of your skin for a few seconds. Static electricity is a surface phenomenon. The more surface area the greater the charge stored.

What is electrostatic discharge?

Static electricity doesn't do any damage until it is discharged - and is then called electrostatic discharge or ESD. Quite simply, electrostatic discharge is a spark.

When you walk across the carpet on a cold winter day, the wiping motion of your feet produces a charge separation that is collected and distributed evenly about the surface of your moist and salty (thus conductive) skin. When you reach for the doorknob a spark jumps from your conductive skin to the conductive doorknob. If you felt the spark, you had a potential of at least 3500 volts. Every day, when you touch conductive items, small sparks are produced that can't be felt yet have enough energy to damage electronics.

Requirements for electrostatic discharge

Two things are required to allow ESD:

• A charge separation.
• Two associated conductors that collect charge and are brought together initiating the discharge.

Knowing these two requirements puts us in position to rationally tackle the job of preventing ESD. The first requirement to have ESD is that there is a static charge separation; the second requirement is that there is a conductor (for the purposes of this discussion the only meaningful ones are metal, metallic carbon and our skin's sweat layer). ESD always occurs between two conductive surfaces - If you touch the enamel paint (which is non-conductive) on your computer cabinet, no spark will form. You might have noticed that over the years electronic products have gone from having spark producing exposed conductive metal cabinets, to having non conductive materials on the outside that prevents ESD. Designers have figured out that it takes a spark to have ESD, so modern electronic products now have their conductive shielding layers buried in insulating plastic.

Should you require any help or assistance with ESD drop us an email or give us a call, we will be glad to assist.

Here are some usefull items to help you in the battle against ESD

We have ESD testing video's here

Best regards

John Christensen