Hi, we’re growing international service centers, and since they can be small and may only have 2 ESD workstations we don’t always have the equipment and personnel onsite to efficiently perform initial and ongoing qualification tests. Since we’re a medical device company if we setup equipment and testing for ESD control items in an area we need to qualify the test equipment and process also and then do future internal and external audits.
Since this isn’t often worth the effort, it can be more efficient to use suppliers, especially since with Covid our own US team would face challenges in traveling to AUS. However, when working in Australia, it’s been challenging so far to find a partner who can do more than surface resistance testing (ground bond conductor testing and surface to ground resistance). Any ideas for Australia specifically or partners with a large international footprint who are familiar with the IEC equivalent standards? Simple online searches haven’t yielded much yet, and I didn’t see a “partner” section of the ESDA website either, though I believe many suppliers often attend the symposium (I’m guessing the US symposium has more US suppliers). Australia specifically seems to have extensive safety requirements which makes testing the outlets challenging, although it is a bit ironic since the purpose of testing the outlet is operator safety.
Thank you for your inquiry to the ESDA. Sorry it has taken awhile longer than normal to respond as we have been trying to identify someone in Australia that might be able to assist. We do not know if there is anyone providing audits and surveys to the international standards (in particular IEC61340-5-1 or our technical equivalent ANSI/ESD S20.20) in Australia. In the past we worked with a gentleman named Colin Walsh who was heavily involved with Australian standards and military. He had worked for several agencies and did consulting work. We do not have an active email for him. The only phone number we have is +61-29-750-4005. Sorry if that does not work. He may very well be retired now and out of the business ( we have not had any contact with him in 10-15 years).
We know of two Static Control suppliers (there are likely more) that may have or know of people that might be able to help. Allendale Static Control Pty. Ltd - Gabrielle Preat - +61-3-9701-5044, and Bondline Static Control - Dale Peterson - dale.peterson@bondline.com.au.
If you manage to find someone in the auditing business that can help you in Australia, we would appreciate your introduction to that person or company for our records.
We don’t have to many connections in Australia. In fact I don’t know if we have anyone that comes to the Symposium.
That being said, there may not be much you need to do. For checking grounding, that only needs to be done once and can be accomplished if the building ground was checked during the initial check. The resistance to ground check for worksurfaces, flooring or any other items does check that the ground is still present.
For qualification, the next release of the ANSI/ESD S20.20 standard will allow for qualification testing done at the lowest RH level in your facility.
Let me know if you have any other questions.