Ungrounded Jig for Transferring Units

Guest

I am about to use a metal jig for transferring units from trays to canisters. The jig is hand-held and manually flipped and tilted to make units from a tray slide down into the canister. Because of the movement of the jig during the transferring process, the jig can't be grounded by a wire. Is there an ESD issue with this?

Jepoy

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2025 3:56 pm Post subject:

Hi Jepoy,

Directly grounding a metal jig like this to the common ground may be dangerous both to the operator holding the jig and to charged devices (if any) inside the trays. This is because the operator may be shocked if the common ground accidentally gets connected to a live wire. The charged devices, on the other hand, can get damaged by CDM ESD as soon as they touch the jig.

My suggestion is for you to ensure that the operator holding this jig is properly grounded with a wrist strap or foot strap at all times. The jig will be automatically grounded through the operator while the units are being transferred. If not in use, the jig must be placed over a properly grounded static dissipative mat to prevent any charge build-up on the jig. To prevent units inside the trays from charging up, I suggest that you also put the trays on the dissipative mat. I'm assuming that the trays are static-dissipative too.

Complying with these 3 guidelines will keep your transfer process ESD-free.

Thanks and keep on posting!

EE