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The packaging industry used the terms &#;static dissipative&#; and &#;conductive&#; to categorise materials based on their ability to shield components from electrostatic damage.
The Electronics Component Industry Association originally declared that conductive materials offer better shielding than static-dissipative materials.
Official ESD standards and test methods were developed as studies realised the impact of humidity, different environments and body voltage (static generated from walking).
Surface Resistance UK & Europe: BS EN /5 or USA / North America: ANSI/ESD 7.1
Surface resistance testing is the primary method for evaluating ESD flooring, as it&#;s a simple and repeatable test. The surface resistance of a material is the electrical resistance between two points on the surface. It&#;s tested by placing two electrodes on the surface of the flooring material and applying a voltage. The resistance between the electrodes measures how easily static electricity can flow across the material&#;s surface. The lower the surface resistance, the better the conductivity of the material.
The Walking (Body Voltage) Test
While surface resistance testing helps evaluate the conductivity of the flooring material, it doesn&#;t account for the effect of a person walking on the surface. The walking test, also known as the body voltage test, evaluates the flooring system&#;s ability to reduce static build-up as people walk on it.
The test subject is equipped with a special device that measures the voltage generated when walking. The test results indicate how effectively the flooring system dissipates static charge caused by human movement.
Electronics Industry
The most widely recognised standard for developing an ESD control program in the electronics industry is BS EN for the UK and across Europe or ANSI/ESD S20.20 in North America.
This standard outlines details about flooring and how it interacts with personnel. The standard requires that the surface resistance ranges be below 109 and the body voltage generation is below 100 volts.
Communications
MOTOROLA R56 is the most complete and rigorous specification for protecting communication system equipment installed at public safety and commercial wireless communication sites. Flooring requirements are 106 &#; 109 when measured using ANSI/ESD 7.1.
NFJ Product Page
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions for electrical protection of network operator equipment developed ATIS-. Flooring requirements are 106 &#; when measured using ANSI/ESD 7.1.
Data Centres
IBM Data Center Recommendations
Although not an official standard, IBM recommends that floors in data centres have a surface resistance below 2 x
Military and Specialised ESD Floors
The military has specific floor coverings requirements depending on the area and its operations. For example, we&#;ve recently worked with the UK&#;s Ministry of Defence to develop a conductive floor for an Ammunition Process Building.
Need help determining if you need an ESD floor or have a technical question? Give us a call on 788 232 or [ protected]
Click here for more ESD flooring resources
Concrete floors are normally sufficiently conductive, anti-static or will allow Electro-Static Discharge (known as ESD events), due to their pore water dissipating any electrostatic charges on the surface. However all normal resin flooring used to provide a harder wearing, hygienic, easily cleaned, decontaminable or chemically resistant floor finish, is an effective natural insulator applied over this &#;conductive&#; surface.
An ESD event, an Electro Static Discharge, is basically a spark (a micro lightning bolt in effect), which passes from one electrically charged conductive surface to another. This incredibly rapid transfer of what had previously been a static (non-moving) charge can cause fires and, explosions, and create heat, light and even sound. It is this potentially unseen, unfelt or unheard 'spark without warning' that must be prevented or controlled.
The rate at which an electrostatic charge is dispersed within and through the floor finish is controlled by the materials electrical resistance, measured in the unit Ohms (Ω), usually expressed in thousands (Kilo-ohms or KΩ) or millions (Mega-ohms or MΩ) and expressed in units as a figure of ten with indices, i.e.103 for 1KΩ 106 for 1MΩ. Greater values of electrical resistance suggest a slower speed of an ESD.
All active electronic components and equipment e.g. micro-chips, integrated circuits and machinery are sensitive to ESD events. Even when areas and people are equipped with protective equipment and clothing to handle such static-sensitive devices, inadvertent contact, damage and dangerous situations can all still occur.
Anti-Static resin flooring has the ability to prevent an electrostatic discharge and / or spark, in these situations where static electricity generation is possible, such as through the movement, contact or separation of equipment, machinery, materials and personnel. Anti-Static resin flooring can achieve this if it is Static Conductive or Static Dissipative.
Wherever required for safety (to prevent sparks), or to ensure consistent and accurate function of electronic machinery and equipment, an anti-static, conductive grade of the same type of resin flooring should be used. Conductive grades of resin floor systems are usually developed from the normal resin flooring materials by incorporating defined quantities of fine carbon powder or fibres in the formulation, together with the incorporation of copper earthing tapes, or wires into the conductive resin floor system build-up on site.
If you would like help and assistance with your specific Anti-Static, Conductive, or ESD flooring project requirements, please call any of our offices and one of our Resin Floor specialists will be pleased to assist you.
In certain industrial environments the presence or attraction / adhesion of dust may also present an explosive risk or other static electricity problems. In areas where volatile substances, gases, powders or liquids are processed, stray electric currents are equally undesirable and potentially dangerous. All of these areas and environments will have requirements for Antistatic / Conductive / ESD resin flooring systems.
These specific industries include: High &#;tech electronics, semi-conductor production and processing, computer rooms, automotive manufacturing, aerospace, fireworks and munitions, high performance laser and optical systems, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, oil and chemicals, medical environments, powdered foodstuffs and many other specific industry requirements.
The specific areas within these industries and facilities that require some level of conductive resin flooring include production and assembly areas, paint shops, storage and handling facilities, clean rooms, computer rooms and many others.
Static Conductive resin flooring generally is defined as having and electrical resistance of less than 1.0 x 106 Ω (I million ohms).
Static Dissipative resin flooring is generally defined as having an electrical resistance of between 1.0 x 106 Ω and 1.0 x 109 Ω
ESD resin flooring is actually a bit of a misnomer, as it could refer to any anti-static floor that is either Conductive or Dissipative. Therefore it is not a sufficient definition for the selection and specification of an Anti-Static resin flooring system.
Anti-Static / Conductive / ESD Resin Flooring grades of resin flooring are available in Resin Flooring Classifications in Types 3 to 8 (coatings, self-smoothing and trowel applied screeds).
The right system for each project must be considered in addition to the rest of the required performance criteria for the areas involved such as impact and abrasion and chemical resistance, crack-bridging abilities etc., there may also be limited colours available in some Anti-Static / Conductive / ESD Resin Flooring products and systems due to the effect of adding black carbon powder or fibres into the resin materials.
No specific conductivity or electrical resistance values that are mentioned in any of these International or National Standards in the table are defined as mandatory.
The values can and should be adapted to meet local requirements by the responsible engineers and local authorities. Before selecting and specifying a conductive flooring system, NCC Resin Flooring Site experts always recommend a detailed assessment of the overall resin flooring system performance requirements; then with regard to the Anti-Static / Conductive / ESD performance characteristics, at least the following parameters, for the appropriate values to be agreed for these and accepted by all of the parties involved:
If you would like help and assistance with your specific Anti-Static, Conductive, or ESD flooring project requirements, please call any of our offices and one of our Resin Floor specialists will be pleased to assist you.
In the UK the Standard that frequently used to be specified was BS (now withdrawn), but this only determined the electrical resistance required across the floor surface (between two 25 mm square electrodes placed 50 mm apart). It did not consider the resistance through the thickness of the flooring onto the concrete base, or the resistance to earth, from the surface to the ground, both of which are now known to be very important factors.
Other Standards have since come into force that are more comprehensive in their approach and for testing conductive flooring materials in the UK and Europe this is now EN . However this also does not give any guidance as to what levels of conductivity are appropriate in different situations. Therefore different industries and countries currently still have varying requirements and Standards. Many industries or organisations have developed their own internal standards for this reason - usually relating to the conductive ability of the resin flooring material or to the measured conductive / electrical resistance characteristics of the finished floor.
For the protection of Electrostatic Sensitive Devices BS IEC -5-1 gives requirements for surface resistivity, volume resistivity, resistance to earthing and time to charge decay for anti-static resin flooring systems.
Requirement for the resistance to earth according to IEC -5-1 < 10 9 Ω
However, the electrical resistance and other important performance requirements may be completely different for explosive handling areas, powdered foodstuffs, medical facilities etc.
Therefore, the resin flooring requirements, electrical resistance properties, test method and testing authority should be agreed at the system selection and specification stage.
The best document we have seen relating to all of these technical, assessment and testing issues was actually produced in Germany although it is available in English: &#;Conductive Coatings For Industrial Floors&#; published by Deutsche Bauchemie. We have therefore arranged for this copy of this to be available for our customers to download.
If you would like help and assistance with your specific Anti-Static, Conductive, or ESD flooring project requirements, please call any of our offices and one of our Resin Floor specialists will be pleased to assist you.
We hope the information relating to your industry area and project is useful and of initial assistance. You are also welcome to call us for our FREE support at any time on: Alternatively, you can us and we will get back to you just as soon as we can.
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