Compliance Requirements on Isolated conductor

Good day experts.

Have some questions regarding the requirements on isolated conductor. Say i am managing an ESD control program and during my assessment on my processes i dont define any isolated conductors and dont have any measuring tool since i have none of it and all my materials are less 1e9 ohms resistance to ground. Do i still be compliant with the standard even i do not have any possessions of measuring tool? Is it mandatory to have one or is a good to have or must have?

Please to know your inputs and expertise.

Thank you very much.

  • Measurements are needed to confirm this

Hi Timmy thank you for your response.
What if I don’t have yet the tool to measure will i be still compliant with the requirement of ANSI/ ESD S20.20?

Can you confirm this?

Thank you.

Hello Insneng,

You have identified one of the issues with the current version of ANSI/ESD S20.20, specifically, what is an isolated conductor. The ESD Association is working on a revision to ANSI/ESD S20.20 that hopefully will help with what an isolated conductor is. Since it is still in revision, I cannot give you a definition as it might change before publication.
On your question, if you define an isolated conductor as a conductor that contacts an ESDS item that measures greater than 1x109 ohms to ground then you need two conditions. First, you must identify the conductors that come into contact with the ESDS item. Second, they have to measure greater than 1x109 ohms to ground. If you claim that you have identified all the conductors and all of them measure less than 1x10*9 ohms to ground then you do not have any isolated conductors and do not need to make any further measurements.
You do have the equipment to measure the resistance to ground (I assume since you stated this) so you do have measurement equipment to identify isolated conductors.
If you do ever find an isolated conductor then you will need to make the measurement with additional equipment.

I hope this helps.

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Dear John,

Thank you for making clarification on it. One more question. Do i still compliant without the static voltmeter even if we define in our program that for isolated conductor should be less than 35volts?

Thank you.

Insneng,

If you can ensure that you don’t have any isolated conductors, then you don’t need to have an instrument to measure them to be compliant. Make sure that you have that documented in your program.

I see.

Thank you very much and have a great day!