Professor angry as I clean old PIC devboard with nylon brush, and warned me to use horsehair brush next time.
I have been using nylon brush for long time, even to clean my PC and audio amp and they still not damaged.
Is horsehair brush one of the ESD myth or really very much better than nylon in reality?
Did anyone really kill PCB using nylon brush, or people use horsehair brush only out of scare?
Asking because horsehair brush very thin and expensive but nylon brush in three different sizes and very cheap and easy to cleaning using only water.
Best Answer
Natural Bristol brushes such as horse hair generate less static electricity. There are some Nylon brushes designed to reduce ESD, but a general purpose nylon brush can cause ESD damage.
ESD damage is a cumulative effect. While there are occasional catastrophic effect that destroy device immediately, most ESD damage shortens the live of the device rather then causing it to fail immediately.