I have been advised by a supplier that the requirements of ESD S20.20 are covered in ISO 17025 and therefore would be redundant if already certified to ISO17025. I’m not very familiar with the 17025 and am hoping for a little education here.
Quzaisaeso,
ISO/IEC 17025 is the general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. It is the main standard used by testing and calibration laboratories. In most countries, ISO/IEC 17025 is the standard for which most labs must hold accreditation in order to be deemed technically competent.
ANSI/ESD S20.20 provides administrative and technical requirements for establishing, implementing, and maintaining an ESD control program. It applies to organizations that manufacture, process, assemble, install, package, label, service, test, inspect, transport, or otherwise handle electrical or electronic parts, assemblies, and equipment susceptible to damage by electrostatic discharge.
Although each standard contains similar elements like the use of a quality management system, the end goals are different. ISO/IEC 17025 is for test and calibration labs to show they can do their work properly. ANSI/ESD S20.20 is for organizations that need to reduce the risk of ESD damage to sensitive components. Hopefully this helps
Thanks for the reply, Andy.
I was getting the sense that the test lab is indicating that since they have the 17025, then they don’t need the S20.20 as it would be redundant to have both.
I appreciate your insight.
Enjoy your day.
CB
Quzaisaeso,
If the test lab is only testing or calibrating your test equipment then S20.20 is probably not necessary. However if they are testing any of your ESD sensitive product and you want them to ensure they are taking the appropriate precautions to reduce the risk to ESD, then I think it would be valid for you to ask them to get certified to S20.20.
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From what I understand, ISO 17025 does cover a lot of what ESD S20.20 requires, especially around handling sensitive equipment.
Good morning /afternoon from India,
Our ESD expert Mr. Andy has made it clear already.
But still, I am entering here to express my views. I am a certified Auditor with ISO 9001/19011 certification plus certification in ISO/IEC 17025 and trained on ISO/IEC 17065 even. Also, on ESD part an iNARTE certified ESD Control Engr. and Eng. Council of India Certified Senior Professional Engr. In ESD Control -Electronics, and have the certificates of training from DESCO Industries USA /Europe on ANSI/ESD S 20.20.2021 and IEC 61340-5-1 respectively and ESD certificate of Competency from Desco USA.
As Mr. Andy has cleared already, “ISO/IEC 17025 is the general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. It is the main standard used by testing and calibration laboratories. In most countries, ISO/IEC 17025 is the standard for which most labs must hold accreditation in order to be deemed technically competent.”
And,
ANSI/ESD S20.20 & IEC 61340-5-1 (both these global ESD control standards are technically equivalent and certified by ESDA USA) provides administrative and technical requirements for establishing, implementing, and maintaining an ESD control program. It applies to organizations that manufacture, process, assemble, install, package, label, service, test, inspect, transport, or otherwise handle electrical or electronic parts, assemblies, and equipment susceptible to damage by electrostatic discharge
However, wherever ANSI/ESD S20.20 OR IEC 61340-5-1 is implemented for ESD control, such organisations can even go in for additional certification on ISO/IEC 17025 in addition to ISO 9001, because both the ESD global standards referred above does call for a detailed Product Qualification (PQ) Test Report of all the ESDs control products prior to putting them into use. This PQ test report can be either from the material supplier OR an independent lab / an organisation OR by the user themselves. But, in all these cases the requirement shall be that, the testing personnel / organisation shall be trained in ESD field and the instruments used, the procedure and the test methods followed and the environmental conditioning etc shall be followed strictly in line with the standard test methods pertaining to the above two global ESD control standards. Thus, here of course it is preferred to add ISO/IEC 17025 training / certification to add conformance weightage to the testing part.
ISO/IEC 17065 is for product certification by certifying bodies and additional to ISO /IEC 17025 certified labs /agencies
Thus, it may be concluded that ANSI/ESD S20.20 OR IEC 61340-5-1 are exclusively only for ESD control program and ISO /IEC 17025 is only a supporting standard for Product testing part and except for that no way/ where it speaks anything about the ESD control issues.
Thank you for the opportunity provided to Putin my views.