Time's up, folks!

I'm beginning to understand how I overlooked this initially...

Try an ESD wrist strap band with interwoven elastic, nylon, and
stainless steel fibers.

They're now all off the floor and have been replaced with solid,
Speidel-style bands.

After I found the source, we queried the internet again and associated
metallic contamination with ESD wrist strap bands.

One of the results returned was an interesting article at

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/llis/0301.html

It seems that NASA identified a similar problem back in 1993.  I'm now
just wondering why these things are still being manufactured.  I'd
always been under the assumption (yep, I know that's bad) that the
working contact area on these bands was the small metal plate located on
the rear of the snap.  

I'd never examined one of these under high magnification.  Low levels
won't show you the true construction of the weave, as the stainless is
quite small.

If you're currently using these in your facilities I'd strongly suggest
you consider a replacement.  These things are downright dangerous!

Please let me know if you have additional questions or if I can be of
further help.

Have a great day!

Leland



-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stadem, Richard D.
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 12:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] Stainless Steel Contamination Question - Source
Nailed!

Was it a stainless steel brush being used to improve the Huntron's
electrical probe contact? 

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leland Woodall
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 9:15 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Stainless Steel Contamination Question - Source Nailed!

Everyone,

After checking every filter, every transfer belt, every reflow oven, and
most every square inch of the building, I was able to identify the
source of the 10 micron stainless steel that has been giving us such a
headache.  Just in case anyone ever has the same problem, I thought I'd
share the solution with our group.

To refresh your memory, we were finding this stuff on top of components,
and later inside our Huntron X-Y table inspection machines.  We did
everything but take a hatchet to the Huntrons, and there was nothing
found (of course).

While one of the Huntron machine's operator was gone to lunch, I decided
to check an item she had left behind on her workstation.  I took it to
the lab, placed it beneath the microscope, and was astonished to find an
identical match to our contamination woes.

Before I let the cat out of the bag, does anyone want to venture a
guess?

Leland

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To
unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or
(re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET
Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the
posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the
archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please
visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for
additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or
847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text
in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at:
http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site
http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional
information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100
ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------