JF,

The ground pin, on the soldering irons or other electrically operated
process equipment, will solve some of the problem, but there are additional
things that you should do to prevent an ESD failure.
  a.. The workstation and operators should be properly grounded at minimum
to electrical ground; earth ground is preferred.
  a.. The operators should be trained to handle ESD materials.
  a.. The relative humidity should be between 30% and 60%. The dryer the
air, the more susceptible to ESD you will be.
  a.. You should be aware of what ESD class your hardware is. Class 0 and
Class 1 components are the most sensitive and may require an ionizer on the
workstation.
You may want to get a copy of the ANSI/ESD 20.20 standard from
http://www.esda.org/standards.html.

Hope these suggestions work out for you.

Lee Whiteman
Senior Manufacturing Engineer
ACI / EMPF
Telephone: (610) 362-1200; Ext. 208
FAX: (610) 362-1290
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]

  -----Original Message-----
  From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Bissonnette,
Jean-Francois
  Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 1:12 PM
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Subject: [TN] EOS Damage prevention


  Hi Technetters,

  In IPC-A-610, it is stated that soldering irons or other electrically
operated
  process equipment must not generate voltage spikes of more than 0.3V.

  Does the regular ground pin of the power cord is sufficient to achieve
that
  goal???


  Thanks!

  JF


  WABTEC CORPORATION CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE
  The content contained in this e-mail transmission is legally privileged
and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or
entity named herein. If the reader of this transmission is not the intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or
copying of this transmission is strictly prohibited.