An FR4 pallet is an insulator. If it is charged with 900 volts you can induce a charge on the conductors of the pcb installed in the pallet. This may damage your sensitive components being assembled onto or into the PWB. A grounded object touching the copper conductors will bleed off the induced charge on the conductors, possibly causing an ESD event and possible damage to your sensitive components. An insulator can have its charge neutralized by an ionizer or time, but you can't charge or discharge an insulator, ask your EE's. An insulator can acquire a charged field. Check with your ESD "Guy" for corrective measures appropriate for your process and products. Al Cash -----Original Message----- From: Larry Koens [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, May 22, 2000 2:10 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Pallets I have a question for you ESD guys! Our company uses board pallets made out of FR4, G10. Our ESD guy came up with his meter and measured a pallet. It read 900 volts. My question is, what makes this pallet different then a normal PCB? What makes a PCB bleed off when this pallet doesn't. Does the copper layers make this happen? Larry ############################################################## 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 Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ##############################################################