16 Jun

How do we test ESD conductive or dissipative gloves?

Q: How do we test ESD conductive or dissipative gloves?

A: The glove industry offers gloves for the protection of ESD sensitive items by using materials that will provide specific measurable “intrinsic electrical resistance of gloves and finger cots” as per ANSI/ESD SP15.1-2005.

Some materials are being used which reduce the amount of charge generation “and/or have static dissipative properties to reduce charge accumulation”, such as Nitrile or vinyl.  I would image cotton could be effective based on the layer of sweat on our skin.  But if you require ESD gloves in the Static Conductive range, those would need to be specifically made for that purpose.  I’m currently working on nailing down an exact value of what these gloves should read and how that affects the ESD testing of it and the closest I could find comes from a test fixture from Prostat called the CAFÉ, or Constant Area & Force Electrode.  They recommend using 1.5 to 10 volts when the measurement of glove in combination with personnel through a wrist strap assembly without the 1 meg Ω resistor is less than 1 meg ohm.  They use 10 volts between 1.0E6 Ω and 1.0E7 Ω.  Then they use  100 volts for above that.  This is fairly easy to do using a sophisticated megger like the 801 in manual mode, otherwise the mere testing of the glove per 15.1 could be a challenge.

Here’s what confuses about ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 and -1999 …

 What’s the range of the glove and finger cots?  Only in 20.20-2007 Tables 1, 2, and 3 final column does it give us “Required Limits” to measure up against.  So then what?  Go to manufacturing specs.  Some list a value, some don’t.  Be careful how they’re categorized; anti-static (describes that it’s low charging but doesn’t really quantify a resistance range unless you’re talking about packaging), static dissipative (1.0E6 Ω to 1.0E9 Ω ??), and static conductive (less than 1.0E6 Ω but greater than what??  1.0E4 Ω rings a bell, but I’d hope it’s not less than that.).

Ok, so for our Static Conductive or black finger cots, they measure between 1.0E6 Ω and 1.0E8 Ω per ASTM D257 and meet the static decay specs per MIL-STD-81705B from 5000 to less than 100 volts in less than 0.01 seconds.

So here’s the upshot;   My improvisation in measuring ESD gloves and finger cots involves using the PFA-861-H Handle (see attached), a DUT (esd glove), and a wrist strap without the 1 meg ohm resistor for measurements known to be below about 1.0E7 Ω  , I hook that up to my meg ohmmeter and see what I get (see attached photos).

wand wand-and-sd-glove wand-and-sc-glove

 

This ESD TR20.20-Handbook has a wealth, a plethora of information about ESD gloves and finger cots, such as referring to yet other standards such as ANSI/ESD STM11.11 Surface Resistance Measurement of Static Dissipative Planar Material , and let’s not forget ANSI/ESD STM11.12 Volume Resistance Measurement of Static Dissipative Planar Materials, oh, and of course ANSI/ESD STM11.13 Two-Point Resistance Measurement of Static Dissipative and Insulative (what the??) Material, then it goes on to tell us to use the CAFÉ method, which is specifically designed for resistance measurements at the thumb and fingertips, which can yield much lower results than those obtained by the above test BECAUSE THEY INVOLVE A REAL LIVE PERSON, THE WAY THEY ARE ACTUALLY USED IN PRACTICE!  Oh, and they say you can only measure once due to a “person’s skin emissions”.  Fair enough.  Time to reorder?

So…  If this info helps anybody, let me know and send over a comment.

5 thoughts on “How do we test ESD conductive or dissipative gloves?

    • Yes, our office can provide you ESD compliance verification, testing, and certification. Please call toll-free 877-GND-ZERO (463-9376).

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