Folks: In a former life (two lives back) I worked as a process engineer in a
plant that made process control equipment for the paper industry.  We die-cut
samples to perform an ash test and identify the basic constituents of the
paper (could sometimes tell what part of the country the trees were grown
in).  The basis weight measurement of the die-cut sample was very precise and
we used white cotton gloves to handle the samples.  In efforts to eliminate
variation I found that the samples were being contaminated by operators who
were wearing these nice neat looking cotton gloves.  Some experiments showed
that the MTBF of the cotton gloves was less than two (2) minutes.  That is,
at the end of a two minute period the gloves had absorbed so much body-based
contamination from the wearer that they were contaminating the test
specimens.  We went to Playtex gloves and solved the problem.  In a more
recent previous life I worked for DOD and was never able to convince the
DOD/Industry working group that wrote the Mil-Specs that cotton gloves should
be eliminated because they contribute more contamination than they prevent.
Finger cots work, and work well.  For best results use finger cots over
cotton gloves as the mesh of the gloves tends to wick perspiration out from
under the cots and increase operator comfort (also your customer will think
you are REALLY taking care of his product).
Regards, Jim Moffitt, Electronics Training Advantage, Indianapolis Indiana

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