Component and PCB Shipments and Covid-19

[Visitor]

As this terrible Covid-19 pandemic grows, and not enough is known about it, I must admit some trepidation about some component and board shipments I'm about to receive.

It's been documented that Covid-19 can survive at least 9 DAYS on surfaces (and on Diamond Princess reportedly found surviving after 19 days!).

Think about how components are received:

Outer box or envelope

Bubble wrap

Inner plastic bag containing the lot of parts in smaller bags.

Smaller bags containing loose components, components on cut tape or components in tubes.

Components in tubes may have come that way from the factory or may have been placed in tubes along the way somewhere.

The question, probably with no good answer, is how paranoid do you have to be?

Obviously, the outer wrapping has been touched and handled many times,so throw it away immediately along with packing material and wash.

Probably the same thing with the inner bag that contains the individual bags.

How far do you continue in this process? Throw all the packaging materials away and spray down the individual components with isopropyl alcohol?

There's no enough known about this and so much uncertainty. It's beyond imagination that people are essentially in lockdown around the world.

 

[lteschler]

You might consider getting a germicidal UV-C lamp and just exposing that stuff to it for about a half hour. https://www.powerelectronictips.com/killing-covid-19-with-uv-c-leds/

 

[Mickster]

My search-fu is not up to scratch today, as I can't seem to find what I was looking for.
Anyone seen data to show at what upper temperature Covid-19 is no longer viable?
Visitor, the thread title suggest you have items which are produced to withstand soldering temperatures, so if you have an old toaster oven, maybe you could stick them in there for an hour or so, at a safe temperature for the items, but not the virus?

 

[gophert]

There's no enough known about this and so much uncertainty. It's beyond imagination that people are essentially in lockdown around the world.

there is plenty known about Covid-19.
- It lasts for days on surfaces
- it enters a body through lungs or mucous membranes
(nose/eyes when you touch your face or when some sneezes at you)
- it is very, very, very unlikely (that a putting virus on your hand will penetrate your skin and infect you)

although you have not been given specific instructions, you can simply
- as the delivery person to drop them at your door with no signature required
- unpack while wearing gloves
- set the parts out on a clean dry surface
- Throw away gloves
- let the dry, hard surfaces of parts sit in open air for a few days (total since shipment as total of 10 days)

the Diamond Princess surfaces may have been decontaminated through ventilation system. More research/investigation must be carried out.

most importantly - don't put freshly unpacked parts up your nose!

 

[Visitor]

most importantly - don't put freshly unpacked parts up your nose!

I hardly ever do that! Eventually that 555 timer in the DIP package will dislodge itself.

Thanks for the ideas all.

 

[BobW]

My personal paranoia story:
Every day the mailman drops a letter into my mailbox. I think to myself, "I wonder how many people have touched that letter?" So I take the letter out of the mailbox, and drop it on the floor just inside my front entry, then go disinfect my hands. That's where the letters sat for several days while I pondered what to do with them.

So today, I set the oven to 250° F, and got out a baking sheet, piled the letters onto the sheet and put them into the oven. I let them bake for a couple of hours. Took them out to cool down and then opened them. If I'm dead in a couple of weeks, then I guess it didn't work.

I wouldn't recommend this for plastic parts, but there's always boiling water.

 

[gophert]

My personal paranoia story:
Every day the mailman drops a letter into my mailbox. I think to myself, "I wonder how many people have touched that letter?" So I take the letter out of the mailbox, and drop it on the floor just inside my front entry, then go disinfect my hands. That's where the letters sat for several days while I pondered what to do with them.

So today, I set the oven to 250° F, and got out a baking sheet, piled the letters onto the sheet and put them into the oven. I let them bake for a couple of hours. Took them out to cool down and then opened them. If I'm dead in a couple of weeks, then I guess it didn't work.

I wouldn't recommend this for plastic parts, but there's always boiling water.

I hope it was a love letter and not an eviction notice.

 

[BobW]

I have the wrong kind of personality to get love letters. More likely hate mail. In this case it was just bills.

 

[Visitor]

My first shipment of parts arrived today. It's sitting inside the door, untouched except to move it inside.

The WHO and CDC both say there's no danger, the CDC not quite as strongly as WHO.

The other parts arrive on Friday. Maybe I'll ignore this package until then......

 

[alec_t]

Anyone know if microwaving non-metallic stuff for a couple of minutes kills the virus?

 

[BobW]

Microwaving anything that doesn't have any water content will be hard on the microwave. As for killing viruses, it depends on how much microwave energy the virus absorbs. That's unknown.

Simplest solution I think of is to dip everything into isopropyl alcohol. It's an excellent disinfectant, and won't harm plastic, or other materials that are used for electronics.

 

[alec_t]

Bought a loaf of bread today (unwrapped). Didn't fancy dipping that in isopropyl alcohol, so microwaved it for a minute. If I don't post anything in the next couple of weeks you'll know the virus got me .

 

[BobW]

I use a special machine for decontaminating bread.

 

[Visitor]

I unpacked my parts last night. Not dead yet

I put on gloves and opened the outer envelopes. They went into a plastic bag. Next the inner layer of packaging went into the plastic bag. Took off the gloves, disposed of all of the above, followed by thorough hand washing.

Then I pulled out each ziplock bag containing components, wiped each down with alcohol and threw them into a bucket to deal with later.

Picked up all that remained, including the layer of paper I had put under everything, and threw it all away. Followed by more vigorous handwashing.

I think this was paranoid enough.

 

[alec_t]

I think this was paranoid enough.

Not nearly enough. Now you've go to wash each component in alcohol and hope that the markings don't get erased in the process

 

[Visitor]

Including those in cut tape?

 

[BobW]

Yesterday, I rediscovered my old death ray (aka UV EPROM eraser). It was a homemade device that I built with a fluorescent desk lamp and a germicidal UVC lamp. It could erase an EPROM from a distance of 20 feet. The OTP PROMs without the quartz window had to be a bit closer (possible exaggeration).
I now have it set up for disinfecting things that don't take kindly to IPA.

 

[gophert]

Yesterday, I rediscovered my old death ray (aka UV EPROM eraser). It was a homemade device that I built with a fluorescent desk lamp and a germicidal UVC lamp. It could erase an EPROM from a distance of 20 feet. The OTP PROMs without the quartz window had to be a bit closer (possible exaggeration).
I now have it set up for disinfecting things that don't take kindly to IPA.

I have about 40 quartz window EPROM chips that could use "disinfecting"