Dave, et al, After 20 years working in research involving "harsh environments" and the performance of electronics, in both coated and non coated conditions, there are two controlling documents that are accepted in the process control industry where harsh environments exist. The documents that you would be interested in are: ISA-S71.04 "Environmental Conditions for Process Measurement and Control Systems: Airborne Contaminants" This is the industry standard for electronic equipment operating in harsh environments. It defines the environments in terms of G1, G2 G3 and Gx. ISA-S71.01 "Environmental Conditions for Process Measurement and Control Systems: temperature and Humidity" This is the industry standard for the acceptable temp and humidity conditions for electronics. You will see hundreds of papers written on electronic corrosion. Like, D.W. Rice's "Corrosion in the Electronics Industry", CORROSION/85. However, the industry standards noted above are the standards. And finally, there are several test facilities in the US that do "accelerated" Flowing Mixed Gas Corrosion Testing per IEC/SC 50B/WG6: Corrosion. One of which is Battelle Labs in Columbus O. Bill Abbott, who has dedicated his life to electronic corrosion, is the country's leading electronics corrosion expert there. good luck in 00 BZ -----Original Message----- From: David Douthit [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2000 8:51 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Harsh Environments? Joyce, Pardo me for jumping in here ( because I started all this I feel obligated ) but you brought out a very critical point. "Environmental exposure classification for electronic packaging are well defined based on my knowledge (can't remember the document name...it has been used so much..almost a "grandfather" clause)." Electronic circuitry, components and materials are changing so rapidly that these types of classifications and "grandfather" clauses can and do create expensive, sometimes dangerous situations. The basic problem is there does not appear to be any baseline information, tests, or test equipment using combined environmental conditions. This results in very limited testing, disputes about the relevance of the testing methods, diverging views of the test results, and confusion over what needs to be done. A very poor situation at best. There needs to be a starting point/testing method used as a reference to build on. Otherwise the result is ever expanding chaos. If you have not done so please read my response to Mel Parrish (from EMPF ) under this "Harsh Environments?" thread. Thank you for your time. D. A. Douthit ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ############################################################## ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################