How Serious is Static Electricity?

seanadams.com asks: "My company is considering the purchase of a small surface-mount assembly line so we can do our manufacturing in-house, and the issue of static control has come up. We've all been told to take ESD precautions when handling electronics, but how much precaution is enough? Obviously we plan to do the easy stuff like making sure that equipment and work surfaces are properly grounded. However, many shops go even further - conductive shoe straps, wrist staps, special flooring, humidity control, etc. The SMT equipment vendor says that it's unnecessary, and I would tend to agree. I've handled tons of electronics over the years and have never been able to attribute a single failure to ESD damage. Granted, Silicon Valley is a fairly humid area so that may be a contributing factor. Has the ESD threat been blown way of proportion by the guys who sell those little grey bags?"

Comments

Explanation of failure

[Incongruity]

I've handled tons of electronics over the years and have never been able to attribute a single failure to ESD damage.

Just a note here... unless you can actually explain, with 100% certainty (or something close to it) the causes of all the other hardware failures, then you can't say for certain that any of the failures that you have observed are due to damage done from ESD. Just because a failing component doesn't sit up and shout "you shocked me with static three months ago and now I'm on my death bed" doesn't mean that a damaging static discharge didn't occur.

Additionally, note that what might be explained at a higher level as the failing of a certain component doesn't mean that the root cause wasn't a static discharge. Moreover, what if there was a ESD that you didn't notice. Just because you don't see a spark or feel one, it doesn't mean that there wasn't an ESD.

just some thoughts... -tcp