Pros and Cons of Different Types of ESD Flooring

Why is Static-Control Flooring Needed?

For certain industries such as electronics manufacturing and repair, static electricity can create big issues. As workers move around, the movement of their foot in their shoe produces static charges. Because rubber soled shoes prevent a direct path to ground for the worker, static charges stay in place on the worker until they come in contact with a conductive material. If the conductive material that receives this discharge is a sensitive electronic component, it can cause internal circuit failure or damage. Static-control floor is installed to eliminate this issue.

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How do ESD floors work?

ESD flooring has a lower electrical resistance than standard flooring, allowing the floor to conduct the static build up on workers. These flooring materials are generally grounded, either to a structural piece of steel or a standard earth ground such as the 3rd pin on a 110v electrical outlet. Specialized footwear is worn by workers, to create a ground path around the rubber sole of their shoe.

There are two general functions for ESD flooring: to dissipate electrostatic discharge and to reduce the build-up of additional static electricity. Some types of floors, such as carpet, can contribute to additional static buildup, while other types such as epoxy or vinyl ESD floors do not.

Different types of ESD flooring

There are many different types of ESD flooring. In general, the more expensive options will provide better static control performance and durability.

ESD Epoxy and Polyurethane

These two types of commercial concrete coating are the industry standard for ESD flooring protection. These coatings are impregnated with copper and carbon, to create a monolithic, conductive surface. There are embedded copper strip conductive elements with redundant grounding points that offers extra protection for users. ESD epoxy and polyurethane offer high chemical resistance, a long service life, and extremely static electricity protection.

Pros: High durability
High electrostatic discharge performance

Cons: High upfront cost
Specialized installation process requires a commercial contractor

ESD Rubber Tiles

Another industry standard for protection, ESD rubber tiles have a similar appearance to VCT tile but do not require waxing. A common conductive copper rail runs beneath the tiles to provide redundant grounding. Further, if a seamless, monolithic floor is required, ESD rubber tiles can be heat welded.

Pros: High ESD flooring performance
Impact resistant 
Common conductive elements

Cons: Highest upfront cost
Specialized installation process requires a commercial contractor

ESD Floor Wax

ESD floor wax is a common budget solution used to convert non ESD flooring installations to ESD flooring. It is commonly installed over concrete and all types of tile. Some types of ESD flooring tile may also benefit from the addition of ESD floor wax. ESD floors wax is not a true conductive floor, and fits into a category of higher resistance, &#;dissipative&#; floors. There is no embedded ground strip, and instead relies on the overall surface are of the material to dissipate static charge. Because of this, it offers the lowest performance in the class.

Pros: Easy to install 
Locally available from venders such as Uline
Can convert traditional flooring materials to ESD flooring

Cons: Low ESD performance 
Requires frequent maintenance

ESD Vinyl Tiles

ESD vinyl tiles are a mid level option that may provide the ideal balance between price and performance in certain circumstance. They have a low up front cost, and require less skill to install than other preferred static control flooring options. They, however, are not weldable and therefore are not a monolithic floor. This introduces a mechanism of failure that would be difficult to detect after being installed. This lack of redundancy can create issues for certain installations such as data centers

Pros: Low upfront cost 

ESD Carpet

ESD carpet is used in installations where additional high-frequency sound dampening is needed, such as broadcasting studios, air traffic control, and offices. These floors come in a variety of conductivity grades and can be grounded or ungrounded. Ungrounded systems may be used for comfort, such as to reduce the change of electrical discharge on doorknobs in the winter. Grounded systems offer similar performance to ESD epoxy or rubber tiles, but at a price that may exceed those other options.

Pros: Sound Dampening 
Familiar workplace aesthetic

Cons: High up front cost 
Shorter service life
Intollerant to heavy traffic and loads

Which type of ESD flooring is right for my project

For an accurate assessment, it&#;s important to consider many factors including: the level of ESD protection required, amount of traffic the flooring installation will be subjected to, and the required service life of the floor. At Craftsman Concrete Floors we specialize in installing ESD flooring. Give us a call for a free consultation.

An ESD Epoxy project during the installation process in Dallas, Texas.

Don&#;t Be Shocked by These Anti-Sta­t­ic Floor­ing Facts

If you&#;re like many clients, you might be curi­ous about anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing and its char­ac­ter­is­tics. When search­ing for the right floor­ing for a space in your facil­i­ty, you want some­thing safe and durable that also keeps the room com­fort­able. This can be dif­fi­cult, espe­cial­ly when you get into some of the tech­ni­cal fea­tures floor­ing mate­ri­als can have.

What to Know About Anti-Sta­t­ic Flooring

What is Anti-Sta­t­ic Flooring?

An anti-sta­t­ic floor can be used in a range of busi­ness spaces. If you have equip­ment that is sen­si­tive to sta­t­ic charges, or man­u­fac­tur­er com­put­er chips or have sol­vents or flam­ma­bles in your facil­i­ty you will ben­e­fit from ESD floor­ing.

But what is anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing, exact­ly? Anti-sta­t­ic or ESD (elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge) floor­ing inhibits elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge from occur­ring. Most peo­ple refer to elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge as a &#;&#;shock.&#; Think of all the times you&#;ve touched a sur­face and felt a small shock &#; the shock is more intense if you&#;ve been tread­ing upon car­pet for a while. Anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing is designed to pre­vent this phe­nom­e­non from happening.

An anti-sta­t­ic floor impedes elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charges from get­ting start­ed. The rapid surge of elec­tric­i­ty (called ESD or elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge) hap­pens when cer­tain objects come into direct con­tact with anoth­er object. These do not usu­al­ly cause harm but can be star­tling, annoy­ing, and, in some instances, slight­ly dan­ger­ous (more on that later).

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ESD floors are made from a com­bi­na­tion of mate­ri­als, such as car­bon fibers. These can help move the elec­tro­sta­t­ic charge from the per­son through the floor to an earth ground, reduc­ing the instances of sta­t­ic dis­charge made from con­tact. This type of floor­ing can come in a range of dif­fer­ent styles to suit everyone&#;s per­son­al tastes.

Anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing sys­tems are based on the same indus­tri­al sys­tems that make up non ESD floors, mak­ing it very durable. These floors are com­mon­ly used in man­u­fac­tur­ing spaces, where floors get a lot of traf­fic and can dete­ri­o­rate faster than in oth­er spaces.

How Do Anti-Sta­t­ic Floors Work?

It&#;s com­mon to won­der how ESD or anti-sta­t­ic floors work. Put sim­ply, they are pos­i­tive­ly charged to draw the neg­a­tive charges that build up on a per­son and dis­si­pate the built-up sta­t­ic elec­tric­i­ty to the ground, pass­ing it through the floor. In oth­er words, they ground the elec­tri­cal charge. This ground­ing pre­vents the elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge from build­ing up and poten­tial­ly discharging.

To go into more detail, anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing includes con­duc­tive mate­ri­als to imme­di­ate­ly move built-up charges, includ­ing those pro­duced from walk­ing on the sur­face. If you wear con­duc­tive footwear when someone&#;s foot touch­es the anti-sta­t­ic coat­ing, a chain reac­tion occurs that moves the charge down through the floor and away. One of the most com­mon designs involves the charge going to a con­duc­tive primer filled with car­bon. This design has a shal­low resis­tance lev­el. From there, the charge trav­els to cop­per tape buried under the coat­ing. This cop­per tape then con­nects with a safe earth­ing point.

Impor­tant­ly, all anti-sta­t­ic raised floor tiles will need an earthing/&#;grounding point. This is usu­al­ly a high­ly con­duc­tive met­al rod that is deep in the slab of the build­ing, but it can also be a plug sock­et, steel beam, or some­thing else. ANSI stan­dards state that you need a cop­per tape or sim­i­lar tied to an earth ground for every 1,000 Sq. Ft. of floor. Your floor­ing com­pa­ny can help you fig­ure out what you need and deter­mine anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing prices.

Why Types of Actions Pro­duce Static?

Near­ly every type of move­ment will lead to some buildup of sta­t­ic elec­tric­i­ty, how­ev­er small. As men­tioned ear­li­er, a few steps on the car­pet in an office can build up sta­t­ic elec­tric­i­ty. So can larg­er move­ments, such as heavy machin­ery or equip­ment mov­ing on ware­house floors. Even the mov­ing parts of a machine in a fac­to­ry can cause elec­tro­sta­t­ic buildup.

It&#;s true that most elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charges aren&#;t dan­ger­ous &#; most peo­ple can&#;t even detect them, as they are usu­al­ly under 3,500 volts. How­ev­er, some elec­tron­ics and chem­i­cals can be sen­si­tive to dis­charges that humans can&#;t detect. And there is always the poten­tial for larg­er dis­charges. For ref­er­ence, some sen­si­tive elec­tron­ics can be dam­aged with just 100 volts, which can be gen­er­at­ed by a sin­gle per­son walk­ing across the floor. More­over, a small charge can make a big impact if it sparks a fire. Anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing sys­tems pre­vent even those small­er dis­charges or shocks from occurring.

Where Should Anti-Sta­t­ic Floors Be Used?

For a selec­tion of rea­sons, many indus­tries need anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing to help main­tain a lev­el of safe­ty. Busi­ness­es with flam­ma­ble mate­ri­als and chem­i­cals being used require sta­t­ic-free rooms so that flam­ma­ble pieces do not ignite, caus­ing a dan­ger­ous fire. If you use any flam­ma­ble mate­ri­als or flam­ma­ble chem­i­cals, you need anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing. Pro­cess­ing or man­u­fac­tur­ing chem­i­cals typ­i­cal­ly requires this type of floor­ing. And facil­i­ties that fea­ture explo­sive fog, dust, and vapors can be at risk from elec­tro­sta­t­ic discharge.

Elec­tron­ic com­po­nents are also sen­si­tive to elec­tro­sta­t­ic dis­charge. Should a &#;&#;shock&#; hap­pen, these elec­tron­ics may be ren­dered use­less. As such, busi­ness­es that pro­duce elec­tron­ic goods should install anti-sta­t­ic flooring.

In addi­tion to these busi­ness­es, sen­si­tive work envi­ron­ments such as air-traf­fic con­trol rooms or hos­pi­tals must take added pre­cau­tions to keep sta­t­ic at bay. Those sen­si­tive work envi­ron­ments need indus­tri­al floor­ing that resists sta­t­ic because of the spe­cial­ized elec­tron­ics they use.

Oth­er indus­tries that may need anti-sta­t­ic floors include mil­i­tary oper­a­tions, pho­to­graph­ic oper­a­tions, opti­cal lens­es, micro­me­chan­ics, pyrotech­nics, muni­tions, lasers, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, biotech, med­ical and sur­gi­cal envi­ron­ments, and some food and bev­er­age environments.

What Are the Ben­e­fits of Esd Flooring?

The biggest advan­tage of anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing is its abil­i­ty to pre­vent the buildup of elec­tro­sta­t­ic charges &#; but this is far from the only ben­e­fit. Addi­tion­al ben­e­fits of anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing include:

Reduc­ing or Elim­i­nat­ing Sta­t­ic Charges

It&#;s worth repeat­ing that sta­t­ic charges can be quite dan­ger­ous. In the right con­di­tions, they can cause injury, start a fire, or trig­ger explo­sions. So, anti-sta­t­ic epoxy floor paint can elim­i­nate these risks.

Improves Safe­ty and Reduces Poten­tial Costs

By pre­vent­ing sta­t­ic dis­charges, anti-sta­t­ic floors keep every­one in your facil­i­ty safe. They won&#;t be shocked by a large dis­charge and are less like­ly to be injured in a fire or explo­sion caused by an elec­tron­ic dis­charge. Even if no one gets injured in a fire or explo­sion, the dam­age it caus­es to your assets could be exten­sive. As such, the ini­tial anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing prices poten­tial­ly save your com­pa­ny a sig­nif­i­cant amount that would be spent on repairs or replac­ing equipment.

Easy Instal­la­tion

Many types of anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing are incred­i­bly easy to install, espe­cial­ly when han­dled by pro­fes­sion­als. And in many cas­es, you can add anti-sta­t­ic epoxy floor coat­ings instead of replac­ing the floor entire­ly, keep­ing costs down.

Easy to Clean and Maintain

No mat­ter the type of floor­ing you choose, you want some­thing that is easy to clean &#; that&#;s espe­cial­ly true with anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing, as dirt can reduce its anti-sta­t­ic properties.

In addi­tion to being easy to clean, most ESD floor­ing is also very sim­ple to main­tain. It won&#;t require spe­cial upkeep oth­er than good house­keep­ing prat­ices. Part of the rea­son anti-sta­t­ic floors are low-main­te­nance is that they don&#;t flake, peel, warp, cor­rode, or chip like some oth­er types of floors. Their impact resis­tance also helps with maintenance.

Resis­tant and Durable

As with any indus­tri­al floor­ing, anti-sta­t­ic mate­ri­als are high­ly durable. They can han­dle fre­quent use, both by peo­ple and machin­ery, as well as resist major impacts.

Mul­ti­ple Styles Available

Anoth­er great thing about anti-sta­t­ic floors is that you can choose from var­i­ous styles and mate­ri­als. This means that you can get FDA-approved floor­ing that works well in any space, regard­less of phys­i­cal needs and aes­thet­ic preferences.

How to Choose Your Anti-Sta­t­ic Floor

Anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing has many uses, so you will have a vari­ety of choic­es when select­ing yours. The first part of the process is under­stand­ing the require­ments and risks for your spe­cif­ic need &#; this includes know­ing how elec­tro­sta­t­ic ener­gy is cre­at­ed in your work area. You need to esti­mate your aver­age ESD strength and the pos­si­ble con­se­quences of a &#;&#;shock&#; in the environment. 

Next, you will want to under­stand the dif­fer­ent ter­mi­nol­o­gy used when dis­cussing sta­t­ic con­trol so that you under­stand the floor­ing you are comparing. 

Ohms are the unit of mea­sure­ment giv­en for the imped­ance or resis­tance of anti-sta­t­ic floors. This term is from the Ger­man physi­cist, Georg Ohm, who found Ohm&#;s Law. This is the law gov­ern­ing elec­tri­cal flow through con­duc­tors. You will be able to choose from dis­si­pa­tive and con­duc­tive sys­tems. Con­duc­tive floor­ing can resist up to 1 mega Ohm, while sta­t­ic dis­si­pa­tive floor­ing resists 1 mega Ohm to 100 mega Ohms. Air traf­fic con­trol tow­ers, emer­gency call cen­ters, and oth­er mis­sion-crit­i­cal facil­i­ties tend to opt for sta­t­ic dis­si­pa­tive flooring.

Keep Your Facil­i­ty and Team Safe with Anti-Sta­t­ic Floor­ing from Kaloutas

To take advan­tage of all the ben­e­fits that anti-sta­t­ic floor­ing can pro­vide for your facil­i­ty, have Kaloutas install and main­tain ESD floor­ing for you. We can help you eval­u­ate your needs and then install the appro­pri­ate ESD floor­ing for your space. Our floors meet high stan­dards, and their elec­tri­cal prop­er­ties are guar­an­teed for five years.

For more anti static flooring materialsinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.