If it is for Medical use or you are based in a medical facility in the US then there seems to be some regulatory hoops to jump through.
In some cases floating outputs (power supplies etc) or inputs are standard but the option to ground them to mains earth is sometimes provided.
In the case of anything in a metal case always ground the case to earth. If you have a scroll through the Feeltech 6600 (cheap chinese Signal Generator). The unit was unearthed in a plastic case as standard and the output virtual ground was being sprayed with 80-100 VAC because of a poor power supply ![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/facepalm.gif)
Not that you are likely to have that sort of gear in your lab but worth a look as some of the gear you may be testing or working on may not like it.
Also look at proper earth leakage protection if you don't already have it fitted!
Nope, I'm just setting up a new electronics development lab for our medical device development company and was wondering if I should put in some sort of local grounding provision such that all of the grounds on our test equipment were at a closer potential. And, no, I only plan on purchasing higher-quality equipment.
I know it's crazy, but I literally went through every post on the massive EEVBLOG forum "show your workspace" thread and I saw a couple pictures where there was a horizontal ground rail on the wall with the grounds from all of the test equipment attached to it...
Here's an example of where I'm wondering if it matters... We have a Picoscope oscilloscope that is plugged into a two-wire AC adapter and a USB data cable, but there's no dedicated ground hooked up right now. I assume the only thing grounding the scope is the shielding on the USB circuit that's connected to the chassis of the computer, that's connected to the computer's PSU, that's connected to the power cord, that plugs into the wall outlet... Seems like there's a good chance that the ground potential could be slightly off compared to other 3-prong plugs connected to the same circuit, no?
So, is setting up a master ground plate that each of the devices are directly connected to not a worthwhile thing to do?