---------- From: Crawford, John A. To: TechNet-request Subject: RE: Pink Poly Bags/Shipping PCB Assy's Date: 9 Jun 95 9:39AM Following from the EMPF HelpLine. This subject goes back about ten years to when Richmond Corp originally introduced the "pink poly antistat" material. (Who remembers Dan Anderson, the magician/salesman that made training tapes for ESD awareness in the early days? His jokes would never get by EEO now!) Anyway, the first generations of of the pink poly material had some really bad problems with contamination of items put in them. Any bare board or components had to be cleaned after removal from the bags or they wouldn't wet when soldered and I believe there were some pretty bad corrosion problems, also.. The mfg processes for the pink poly were refined, and I thought contamination problems were pretty will corrected. The military got in the act and wanted some flame retardent in the plastic also, and there were a few years that it had to have a "smokey" look to it as a visual identifier. It is possible that (1) you have gotten some really old bags (2) some converter got a hold of some old material (probably cut rate and gave you a great price on antistat bags) (3) something glitched in the mfg of the bags you are trying to use (4) some environmental thing ((sitting in the rail car in Yuma for two days at 250 degrees) caused the poly to break down and sluff off the antistat chemicals. There IS good material available on the market today--it's more widely used for cushioning bubble pack that actual electronic material contact though. Pink poly is only anti-static in that it does not favor generation of charge through triboelectric effect. It has fairly poor bleed off characteristics, and provides NO shielding. That is why metalized mylar/poly bags are so widely used for actual storage/handling of sensitive boards, and the pink poly material is used as over-wrap and cushioning material. If you are interested in determining what the actual contamination is, we can put it through our lab and find out, but I think you already know where it is coming from. Besides myself, we have several other folks here who have been long-time members of EOS/ESD Association and would be glad to discuss further. You can contact us directly at [log in to unmask] or phone to 317.226.5616. Jack Crawford ---------- From: TechNet-request To: TECHNET Subject: Pink Poly Bags/Shipping PCB Assy's Date: 8 Jun 95 2:05PM Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]> Resent-Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 14:05:39 -0700 Old-Return-Path: <miso!ix.netcom.com!LEOT1> Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 14:05:39 -0700 Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> From: [log in to unmask] (Leo Reynolds) Subject: Pink Poly Bags/Shipping PCB Assy's To: [log in to unmask] Resent-Message-Id: <"g1m-y2.0.94F.h8trl"@ipc> Resent-From: [log in to unmask] X-Mailing-List: <[log in to unmask]> archive/latest/580 X-Loop: [log in to unmask] Precedence: list Resent-Sender: [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Hello; Our question is "Has anyone experienced a problem with shipping PCB Assys in pink poly bags and having contamination develop on the PCB from outgassing of the plastic bag. The assys we've noted the problem with have typically been air shipped, at least some of them to the Orient." Thank You in advance for any light you might be able to shed on this particular phenomenon. Best Regards, Leo