ESD Protection has 2 elements and BOTH must be satisfied: First is the 'Objective' evidence; e.g.: The static field from a person who doesn't have his top button snapped maybe xx volts and totally acceptable. Second is the 'Subjective' appearance (Feelings - No data); e.g.: Even though the field meter says the smock is protecting the ESD sensitive item, the auditor doesn't consider that because he just doesn't like it or because the procedure doesn't allow it. You have to be very careful when writing your ESD procedures. Check out the new ANSI/ESD-S20.20-1999 ESD Standard for Protection of Electrical and Electronic Parts/Equipment. It is available free on the Web. http://www.esda.org Sometimes you have to ground things that don't need to be grounded. Paul Signorelli NARTE ESD Certified Engineer ############################################################## 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 ##############################################################