ESD & Conductive Flooring
Prevent Damage to Manufactured Components
ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) flooring encompasses both the conductive and dissipative range.
Conductive flooring (25,000 to 1,000,000 ohms resistance) is most commonly used in ammunition facilities to dissipate electrical charges as soon as possible.
Electronics manufacturing facilities most often specify flooring in the dissipative range 106 – 109 ohms. Ohms = Resistance to Electrical Flow. In industries where electronic components are involved, static electricity can cause damage to manufactured components. The most common form of conduction is through a worker’s fingertips. Induction is the transfer of static electricity between certain types of materials.
Reduce Static Charges
ESD flooring reduces the level of static charge generation caused by the movement of people or equipment over a floor surface.
The ESD flooring dissipates the static charges that enter the coated area. Used in conjunction with other products such as proper footwear, wrist straps, appropriate furniture, a successful installation results.
TMI is experienced at installing a wide variety of commercial and industrial floor coatings, ranging from thin-film coatings up to 1/4″ thick concrete flooring toppings for impact and thermal shock resistance. TMI restores eroded concrete to the surrounding plane prior to the application of any flooring. All cracks and joints are evaluated and addressed appropriately whether non-moving or moving joints.
Benefits of ESD and Conductive Flooring
• Controls electrostatic discharge
• No odor; will not affect employees working in adjacent areas during installation and cure time
• Minimizes concrete dusting
• High light reflectivity
A moisture mitigating primer can reduce moisture vapor emission levels up to 20 lbs/1000 sq. ft./24 hours to 3 lbs/1000 sq. ft./24 hours or less. When specified TMI can perform calcium chloride tests to determine moisture vapor emission rates and/or in situ probe method testing.
ESD & Conductive Flooring Terminology
Static Electricity:
The electrical charge caused by an imbalance of electrons on the surface of a material. The imbalance of electrons produces an electric field that can be measured and that can influence other objects at a distance. Surfaces charged with static electricity attract dust and other contaminants that can be difficult to remove and may cause damage to sensitive electrical components.
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD):
The immediate and uncontrolled discharge of electricity between bodies at different electrical potentials. ESD can easily degrade or destroy electronic components and cause equipment malfunction or failure.
Triboelectric Charge:
The charge created by coming together and separation of two materials – such as a person walking across a floor or sliding an electronic device in or out of a plastic bag.
Ground:
When a charge can be conducted through a material, the solution to static discharge problems is to provide a path for the charge to flow to ground, thereby neutralizing it. This solution works only for static dissipative and conductive materials.
Conductive Materials:
Conductive materials have low electrical resistance, and thus allow static charges to flow easily across its surface. These materials generally have less than 1 x 10(5) ohms surface resistance.
Static Dissipative Materials:
Static Dissipative materials also allow charges to flow across their surface, but have much greater electrical resistance than conductive materials, thus controlling the flow of the charge and significantly slowing it. This causes the static charge energy to dissipate as heat. These materials typically have between 1 x 10(5) to 1 x 10(12) ohms surface resistance.
Insulative Materials:
Insulative materials will physically insulate or “freeze” static charges on the surface of the material and not allow them to flow. They hold the charge in the material. Anything with a surface resistivity greater than 1 x 10(12) ohms is considered insulative and will not conduct charges. For this reason insulative materials are not used in ESD protection.
ESD Performance Tests
Point-to-Point Resistance:
In a point-to-point test, the surface resistance with our flooring is the same on all points tested. That is, ESD protection is consistent throughout the entire floor. On competitors’ floors, there are hot and cold spots, with some areas of the floor offering less ESD protection than others.
Point-to-Ground Resistance:
The point-to-ground resistance is also consistent throughout the floor’s entire surface. This is not the case with some competitors’ products.
Body Voltage Generation (BVG):
The most meaningful ESD test is that which measures Body Voltage Generation (i.e. the static charges that build up on people when they walk across a floor). It is the best indicator of the volts present and of the floor’s actual effectiveness in controlling static electricity. Our ESD coatings are unaffected by relative humidity (RH), outperforming other ESD coatings in both high and low RH conditions. Our ESD products typically produce BVGs of less than 15 volts.
Learn More About ESD Flooring
ESD Flooring in Medical Manufacturing Facility
Have you ever dreamed of sliding across your manufacturing facility floor in your socks like Tom Cruise in “Risky Business”? It is very unlikely and this isn’t exactly the same, but TMI Coatings recently installed an Electro Static Dissipative (ESD) and epoxy floor in a medical manufacturing facility. The ESD flooring TMI installed is designed to…
