What do these two icons mean?

Question

Left one - "no plumbum/lead"

Right one - "triangular invert color no picking by hand"

(found on BeagleBone Green)

Knowing nothing about ESD I was wondering "If it contains no lead why am I not allowed to touch it?" :/ — Darren Ng, Feb 28 '21 at 10:06
@DarrenNg Well, there's no lead, but nothing says there's no cadmium or mercury or arsenic! (there's almost definitely no cadmium or mercury, there may be some arsenic in the form of gallium arsenide in some optoelectronics though if the board has any. The reason not to touch it, or rather to be careful when touching it, is that it's ESD sensitive.) — Hearth, Feb 28 '21 at 14:26

score 14 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 28 '21 at 09:03

14

The device contains no lead
The device is susceptible to ESD so it should be handled accordingly.

answered Feb 28 '21 at 09:03

Justme

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(2) [Exactly the same](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic-sensitive_device) – Darren Ng Feb 28 '21 at 10:04

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 01 '21 at 18:48

The "no Pb" means that only lead-free solder was used. For most of the 20th Century, the most common type of solder was made from lead and tin. Lead may have other uses in electronics, but I can't think of any offhand. Lead was leaking from landfills containing discarded electronic products. Lead was banned or limited. The device in the photo conforms to the new standards.

The "no hand" symbol tells people to not finger with the board, almost certainly due to digital chips or especially sensitive transistors such as MOSFETS. A little static electricity could damage those components. A lot of static electricity - well, that's just plain bad sensitive components or not.

What do these two icons mean?

2 Answers2