Joseph,

From my experience, testing is required anytime you enter an ESD defined
area, whether you have gone outside the building or not.  The main point
being that at least when you are entering the ESD defined area, you test
acceptable for grounding.  It does not mean that you remain that way, but
at least you start out that way.  If you become ungrounded while you are
in the ESD area, you won't really know it until you test again.

We also use constant monitoring devices as a requirement when handling
extremely sensitive or highly expensive items or protos, so we eliminate
some/most of the unknown of not being grounded, instead of just footstraps
or footwear and not finding out you had a grounding failure until the next
time you happened to test.  The constant monitoring devices let you know
immediately when you are not grounded.

As is stated on this forum quite often, it depends what you want to
achieve and how to implement it.

Good Luck..............DJT








"Kane, Joseph E (US SSA)" <[log in to unmask]>
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03/07/2006 03:05 PM
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[TN] ESD Heel Strap Testing






I'm trying to get an idea about industry practice, how often
heel strap testing is performed.

An outside auditor has questioned our practice of testing
heel straps just once a day.  Operators wear a strap on each
foot, and test each individually.  We require operators to remove
the straps if they leave the building, but we don't require
them to retest when they put them back on, and there lies
the objection.

Our position is that the primary purpose of testing is to verify the
integrity of the equipment, to make sure that the straps
haven't worn out.  It does matter how the straps are put on,
but in our experience, operators usually get it right, and we don't
see a lot of failures when footwear is tested.  Of course, most of our
people wear conductive shoes, not heel straps.

We operate to MIL-STD-1686 and ESD S20.20, which do
not speak to this issue, so what we have is a difference of opinion.
I've seen shops that require testing every time a heel strap
or wrist strap is put on, and this is certainly defensible.  But
I think there should also be some tolerance for considerations of
practicality and general effectiveness of the ESD program.

Any comments?

Joe Kane
BAE Systems
Johnson City, NY

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