Dear ESD Experts,
good day.
would like to ask if tailoring for none application of low RH and temp testing for materials leaving the EPA or facility is acceptable?
thank you in advance.
For materials leaving the EPA or facility I assume that you mean packaging materials. If that is not the case, please let me know.
For packaging materials tailoring cannot be used to eliminate qualification. In fact, for materials that leave the facility, packaging materials need to be fully qualified to the 12% rh level. Once the material leaves the facility, it goes into uncontrolled environments which can have very low rh or very high rh.
For most packaging materials a low rh testing must be done and for shielding bags testing must be done at 50% rh per the standards.
I agree with what John has stated, to the degree that items leaving your EPA should be qualified to insure the protected product/parts are not at risk from sources outside your control.
That said, I will disagree that a tailoring statement “cannot” be used. Section 6.3 makes no exclusions of what can or cannot be utilized within a a tailoring statement. As long as you document the rational for your decision to exclude and include that within your ESD Control Program. Then its just a matter of is that acceptable to you and your customer and of course any auditor that might question it.
I don’t believe there are many instances where this would ever be done due to the inherent risk and lack of control once the item leaves your facility. But this is a path you could choose to take.
Regards
Chris
For a tailoring statement to work, there needs to be rational and technical justification for it to be valid. In this case, not requiring qualification data for ESD control items that leave the facility would need the technical justification to support that. If I were an assessor, the technical justification in this case would be very difficult to obtain.
Since the exclusion to qualify the material, what technical justification would there be?
I didn’t say it would be easy or likely that this would occur. Just that we cannot say it’s not possible, as the way it is currently documented it is in fact allowed.
One example might be:
Rational - Due to the cost point of our product ESD packaging cannot be added to our bill of material. However, the product is suggested to be packaged with some level of ESD protection. As such, it has been determined to recycle the ESD packaging from the incoming raw material. Once material is removed the packaging is inspected for any damage and only those deemed acceptable are used.
Technical Justification - ESD packing material being recycled from incoming material is adequate to ship the raw material individually preventing any ESD damage. As such, these same materials would also be sufficient for these raw materials once assembled.
I think we can agree to disagree. I see rational but still no technical data that the recycled material could be used or what constitutes damage. In any case, the technical data would have to prove that recycled packaging will not cause damage or is equivalent to new packaging.
This is the line of questioning an assessor would be asking.
hi John,
i also agree with you. what technical justification can be sufficient to justify that there are no risk on the device during transport outside the EPA. i also have difficulty on the assessment if the justification is enough or not. But here is the case, say they provide a justification that the product has no direct contact to packaging and moisture inside the packaging is being controlled and the fact that it provides shielding, would that be sufficient? I am having a hard time to prove it to the assessor as well.
thanks.
dear Chris,
for my point of view, *inspection of device for any damage is not sufficient for me because in ESD we are dealing also for a walking wounded device. i dont know if that will be capture during initial inspection.
I would have to see what the package is, what is being packaged and the sensitivity of the package. I’m not sure what no direct contact means. I am guessing that this is some kind of moisture barrier bag. If so, there should be data on an ESD discharge shielding test.
I would need more information to provide an answer.
dear john,
the ESDS is a reeled device and packed inside the shielding bag. the non-contact means, there is no direct contact to the shielding bag and one of our justification is that it is packed vacuum sealed so during transport no tribocharging on the part of the reeled parts and the surface of the shielding bag. would that be acceptable as tailoring? BTW, shielding is below 20nj and SR both interior and exterior meets the std requirement as per S541.
thanks in advance.