QUESTION - Anti-static bags

[Siwastaja]

RE: EEVblog #247 Anti-Static Bag Myth Revisted[sic]
Dave showed static-dissipative bags (PE) do protect a CMOS device from static under pretty strenuous test conditions.

It's not surprising.

People always make the same mistake; getting confused if a test shows that failure rate is not 100%, for a product or procedure which sole purpose is to make the failure rate say below 0.00000001%.

You usually can't see "the point" by simple tests, at all.

Given some luck, the tested chip might have survived even without any packaging at all.

Practically, the dissipative packs are so much better than any random plastic bags. But, if an assembly company handles specifically sensitive parts (like some RF MOSFETs), in thousands, the ESD procedures need to be to the letter. Failure of 1% of the units after 6 months of use would be a disaster.

[wraper]

Did anyone actually google a "mylar bag"? Normally it's a bag with aluminium layer in it.

You demonstrate the danger of using inexact language - it's highly domain specific. Some electronic designers could use "mylar" for shortcut name for the ESD shielding bags, but others won't, I have actually never heard anyone saying that! The point is, it's just ... wrong. Mylar is well defined term, look it up. It's a brand name, yes, and I could accept calling other similar PET films "mylar" as well, but adding aluminium to belong as a part of the name is a stretch!

For me, "Mylar" defaults to the polyester material itself, definitely with no aluminium layers in it; the opposite to you. I.e., the correct meaning. This is because I have bought products branded as Mylar, like Mylar film as a roll-ware, and some photography things. In electronic packaging, I just have never heard it at all.

It's not about what "Mylar bag" can possibly mean in all possible cases but about what OP actually asks.

[Siwastaja]

Oh yes, OP said they happen to have bags with aluminium, so there is no confusion this time. We can assume the OP is talking about ESD shielding bags, thanks to that clarification.

But, if we don't correct OP's terminology, the risk of OP continuing to talk about "mylar bags" when they actually mean "ESD shielding bags" is high, and this has at least two practical consequences:
* Confusion in further communications,
* Someone (OP themselves, or someone else) getting the wrong kind of bags.

Also, I wouldn't use Mylar food storage bags for storage of ESD sensitive part, even if they have aluminium layer. Proper ESD shielding bags are not expensive, they also have printing which tells you they are static shielding / moisture barrier bags. And you usually accumulate those bags anyway when ordering from component distributors, and they can be reused for many many times.

Indeed if you just google "Mylar bag" you mostly get image results of foil bags but that being said, most of the results actually do not contain the string "Mylar bag", Google is just finding products described as "Mylar foil bag", "Foil bag", "Mylar barrier bag" etc. These added words make a big difference!

I don't understand your motivation here. I'm sure OP posted the question exactly to gain understanding about the types of bags and the terminology. It's not that we are correcting the wrong assumptions and terminology out of malice, quite the opposite.

[Cerebus]

You demonstrate the danger of using inexact language - it's highly domain specific. Some electronic designers could use "mylar" for shortcut name for the ESD shielding bags, but others won't, I have actually never heard anyone saying that! The point is, it's just ... wrong. Mylar is well defined term, look it up. It's a brand name, yes, and I could accept calling other similar PET films "mylar" as well, but adding aluminium to belong as a part of the name is a stretch!

For me, "Mylar" defaults to the polyester material itself, definitely with no aluminium layers in it; the opposite to you. I.e., the correct meaning. This is because I have bought products branded as Mylar, like Mylar film as a roll-ware, and some photography things. In electronic packaging, I just have never heard it at all.

'Mylar' is the DuPont trade name for [Biaxially oriented] PolyEthylene Terephthalate (BoPET) film. Another trade name for it is Melinex. In the UK plastics trade 'Mylar' has tended to be used as a generic for the plain film, and 'Melinex' as a generic for the mirror finish aluminised version of the foil as Melinex had the first commercially available mirror finish aluminised version. The use of 'Melinex' as a generic seems to have fallen out of fashion, at least, I haven't heard it used in years, but it used to be a commonplace.

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

I want to know what kind of bags they used in "Warehouse 13"
They seemed to contain all sorts of bad stuff

[jpanhalt]

I want to know what kind of bags they used in "Warehouse 13"

EEVBlog a reality show.  Special effects are very limited.

[wraper]

I don't understand your motivation here. I'm sure OP posted the question exactly to gain understanding about the types of bags and the terminology. It's not that we are correcting the wrong assumptions and terminology out of malice, quite the opposite.

I'm pretty sure op asked:

I have mylar vacuum bags at home on a roll that i can make any length bag from. Just dawned on me that mylar may be equivalent to esd bag in a pinch when correct size esd bag is not available.

Hence if the "Mylar" bags he has can be used as ESD bags, not about correct terminology.