ESD Protection - Hair

You should be more concerned about hair color and ESD not the length.

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If hair were not charged (and discharged) through the body, please explain the reason for hair standing on end when one places ones hand on an ES source.

What is your control level?

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I would worry more about a hair falling out and getting into the process. Longer hairs effect more parts/area.

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Often, people cause ESD damage. • Your body easily picks up charge (electrons) • Your skin, hair and body can store relatively large amounts of static charge. • You can transfer (discharge) this electrical charge to components or assemblies - causing ESD damage. All of these really should not be present at an ESD-safe workstation. However, if they MUST be there, then it is necessary that they be kept a minimum of 12 inches away from ESD sensitive devices.

From "ESD ElectroStatic Discharge Tutorial" ... ESD and the tribo-electric series: The size of the charge which is generated is determined by a variety of different factors. One is obviously the conductivity of the two materials and also whether the charge between them can leak away. However one of the major influences is the materials themselves and their position of the two materials in what is called the tribo-electric series. The position of the two materials which are in rubbing against one another in this series governs the size of the charge and the relative polarities. The further apart they are in the series, then the greater the charge. The material that is higher up the series will receive the positive charge, whereas the one lower in the series will receive the negative charge. Materials such as human hair, skin, and other natural fibres are higher up the series and tend to receive positive charges, whereas man made fibres together with materials like polythene, PVC and even silicon are towards the negative end. This means that when combing hair with a man made plastic comb, the hair will receive a positive charge and the comb will become negative.

positive charge

skin hair wool silk paper cotton wood rubber rayon polyester polythene pvc teflon

negative charge

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This may have been asked, but what ESD protection does your facility already have? With proper techniques and equipment, this should be a non-issue. As long as folks aren't using the pcb's to comb through their hair, you don't have to worry about it. It sounds like someone in management has a quick trigger finger before acquiring all the facts. Use ESD dissipative paint for your shop floor, properly grounded. But at the very least, everyone should be wearing ground wrist straps while a the work station with ESD mats on top. Heal straps can be used if you have conductive paint. Also, check your ground straps every day with a ground strap tester to ensure they are still reliable. These will wear out eventually; especially the heal straps.

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Appreciate all the replies. We have a good system in place with ESD tile floor, grounded systems/benches/etc and heel and wrist strap usage and monitoring. Good training program as well. We've recently upgraded to the 2007 version of the ANSI 20.20 standard and are as compliant as most. This hair thing is one new policy that is making waves as we have a fair number of folks with longer hair. The requirement we are trying to enforce is having people with hair beyond shoulder length to pull their hair back into a pony tail or some such to keep hair from the front of the body where it could be in close proximity to product. Seems reasonable enough but the drama over it has some here rethinking the policy. This is where a specific standard would help to support our policy. There may not be an industry standard but if your companies address this issue, I'd like to hear the specifics of that.

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If the goal is to get employees to pull back their hair, I would use the "one hair can contaminate the process..." argument instead of potential ESD danger. Then offer them a choice, either pull back your hair or get a hair net (or hair bag). I don't know anyone that would opt for the hair net.

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Check these reports, books, documents ... • ESD: From A To Z - Page 255 - Google Books Result books.google.com/books?isbn=0412083817 John M. Kolyer, Donald Watson - 1995 - Technology & Engineering - 338 pages Long hair will constantly recharge as it swings around, and the resulting field could cause damage by the FIM before air ions neutralize the charge. The best ... • DVD-55C ESD Control for IT and Electronics Service Technicians www.ipctraining.org/dvd/55c/script.pdf File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View do to fix something when in a short time ESD damage may cause a sensitive component to fail? ESD is one of .... It may also be important to tie back long hair. • Electro Static Discharge www.texndixie.com/esd.htm The most obvious problem with ESD is damage to an electronic component. ... Long hair can really retain a charge and a grounding strap on a persons body will ... • CET1171 - Electricity and Electrostatic Discharge pcrepairclass.tripod.com/cgi-bin/main00.pl?Z=./_cet1171/lab2... The student will learn how to prevent ESD damage to the PC primarily by properly using an ..... Remove jewelry, tie back long hair, roll up long sleeves. 6. Put on ... • CompTIA A+ Complete Deluxe Study Guide: Exams 220-701 (Essentials) ... - Page 11-75 - Google Books Result books.google.com/books?isbn=1118058739 Quentin Docter, Emmett Dulaney, Toby Skandier - 2011 - Computers - 1152 pages However, computer equipment can be damaged with as little as 100 volts. ... C. Antistatic wrist straps, bags (for parts), and floor mats can all help reduce the risk of ESD. There are no antistatic hair nets (but if you have long hair, it's best to tie it ... • CIS 286 A+ Preparation elearn.albanytech.edu/.../220-701%20Domain%206.... Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can cause problems such as making a computer hang or reboot. ... This charge can, and often does, damage electronic components. ... Long hair or dangling cloth inside an open computer case is asking for ... • [PDF] DVD-11C General Safety in Electronics Assembly www.ipctraining.org/dvd/11c/script.pdf File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View Long, free-flowing hair can also create static electricity charges which can damage assembly components. For complete information on controlling ESD, refer to ...

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My first question is how many failures have you seen due to hair length I will bet zero. So upsetting your employees for something that will not reduce your failure rate by one board is pointless. However someone mentioned hair in the process that i agree with. We have customers that would complain if they had hairs in the final packaging. I do get worked up about ESD. The reality is ESD failures at companies are always last on the list or do not exist. But companies spend a fortune on ESD instead on equipment or training that would truly reduce there failures. Even if you had a true ESD failure so what. I have seen companies have a 1000 failures 1 may be ESD and they go bananas and nobody seems to care about the other 999.

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