ESD Flooring in a Networked Facility
Please note that information in this article may no longer be current. This archive is provided for reference purposes only and information should not be taken as current and up to date. Please see the ESD Standards page and Guide to ESD Flooring Selection for up-to-date information.
1. What is ESD?
ESD stands for electrostatic discharge. A common and usually harmless ESD event is the shock that occurs when touching a car door after sliding across the car seat on a cold dry day. In the electronics world ESD is a destructive and invisible force. Because electronic devices are becoming smaller and smaller, concerns about ESD are growing. According to the ESD Association’s technology roadmap, ESD is the number one obstacle against further miniaturization of electronic components like microprocessors and data storage devices.
ESD events damage electronic parts during the manufacturing process. ESD also affects the performance of operational electronic systems like communication equipment in 9-1-1 call centers, servers, data storage systems, and even navigation equipment in flight control operations. At the networked office level, ESD causes communication errors, equipment freeze-ups and system crashes.
2. How is ESD measured and detected?
Most ESD events go unnoticed because like the common cold, ESD is an invisible problem; we only discover electronic systems have been affected after the symptoms begin occurring. There is rarely a spark associated with most ESD events in electronics environments. When an ESD event is investigated, we start by performing a series of tests to determine if the flooring and seating in a workspace have the ability to create a sufficient static charge on a person to cause a discharge. We use an instrument called a charge plate monitor. The charge plate monitor measures the accumulation of static on people and furniture. Since people walking on floors cause most static problems, we usually measure the static charge on people while sitting and as they move throughout the space. If we observe a quick accumulation of static from merely taking a few steps we know that the floor is a likely culprit.
Typical Electrostatic Voltages measured on a charged person at 20% Relative Humidity
1. Sliding across a foam seat cushion 10-14 Kv
2. Walking across a vinyl floor 8-12 Kv
3. Walking across nylon carpet 3-15 Kv
4. Walking across computer grade carpet <3.5 Kv
5. Walking across Staticworx® static dissipative carpet <0.4 Kv
3. How sensitive are electronic parts to ESD events?
Electronic parts like the small assemblies inside disc drives can be damaged by static discharges as low as 5 to 10 volts. Several hundred to a couple thousand volts of static can affect electronic systems. Human beings on the other hand cannot even feel a static discharge until the voltage levels reach 3500 volts (3.5 kV.) For these reasons ESD control floors like static dissipative carpet should prevent static charges from exceeding 1 kV. A
4. How does ESD cause computer downtime?
Computers perceive electrostatic discharges as electrical signals to do perform unintended functions. ESD triggered signals are random and many of them are undiagnosed. Some examples of real life ESD events are:
Computers in a gaming area control rooms could perceive an ESD event to lose data, change the odds or even shut down.
Electronics in a flight control tower could become interrupted due to a signal from a static discharge between a person sitting in a chair and the console in front of them.
A computer could freeze or become damaged from a static discharge when a charged person pushes a flash drive into a USB port.
5. How is the micro-miniaturization (scaling) of electronics impacting the work place?
For 40 years the electronics industry has been able to successfully double the number of transistors on a circuit every two years. This path towards miniaturizations has become known as Moore’s Law, named after visionary and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. To understand the tremendous achievement of miniaturization over the past 40 years an analogy may help.
Assume the number transistors on a microprocessor in 1970 were the equivalent of the capacity of a music hall – roughly 2300 people. Today, the number of transistors would be 1.3 billion – approximately the population of China. Now here’s the amazing part about today’s microprocessors – imagine those 1.3 million people fitting on the stage of the 2300 person capacity music hall and you will have approximated the accomplishments of Intel.
Until 10 years ago, designers of microelectronics were able to prevent many ESD problems by designing special circuit protectors into their devices. Today they can’t do this. In order to keep up with Moore’s Law, they have had to save space for more circuits. This means abandoning non-productive circuits that take up extra space. The result is a new generation of faster and more capable electronic equipment that can be taken down by static discharges that cannot be felt by a person.
6. How does Moore's Law affect an architect or designer writing a static control carpet specification?
In mission-critical operations, the new generation of electronic parts cannot be exposed to a static charged environment. This means that the floor needs to prevent the generation of static on workers and visitors regardless of the kinds of shoes they are wearing. Since most ESD flooring products (vinyl and epoxy) are intended for use in combination with special footwear, they don’t have the ability to prevent static on ordinary shoe soles. Fortunately carpet and rubber can be manufactured with special static dissipative ESD preventive properties that allow people to generate little to no static regardless of the type of shoes they are wearing. Architects need to understand how to identify the right carpet tile or rubber floor and how to write a specification that will ensure the correct floors are installed and certified for use.
A proper static control floor needs to eliminate static and it needs to do it safely. This article from The Construction Specifier titled “Specifying Static-free Floors: ESD sensitivity and risks for personal safety and electronic equipment“ provides a good starting place for anyone tasked with specifying effective antistatic flooring solutions that also meet the professional standard of care in terms of compliance with electrical safety standards for installation around operational electrical equipment.
7. Why is conventional anti-static protection in carpets insufficient for today's workplace?
Conventional anti-static carpet is designed to prevent static shocks. As previously discussed, static shocks don’t occur until the voltage level exceeds 3 kV. A 1kV to 3.5 kV jolt could harm electronic equipment without anyone knowing it occurred. ESD is an invisible problem that requires a preemptive approach. Carpet in a mission critical environment needs to prevent the generation of static in the first place. Our ShadowFX static dissipative carpet tile is designed to enhance human comfort and improve the performance of electronic equipment by keeping static charges below .4 kV.
Please note: Static electricity is generated from sources other than the carpeted floor, such as clothing, the interaction of clothing and seat fabrics, plastic, etc. Anti-static carpet only ensures that the carpet itself does not generate harmful static charges.
8. What is conductivity?
We use a unit of measure called the Ohm to describe a material’s ability to conduct or resist the flow of electricity. Electrical Resistance or Resistive Properties are a material’s ability to transport an electrical charge to ground. Ground points can be an AC electrical outlet box, an I beam in the building infrastructure or a dedicated rod driven into the earth. Grounding a floor – also called earthing – is connecting the anti static floor to a point in an electrical circuit or building infrastructure that has zero electrical potential. An ESD Ground provides a path for the dissipation of unwanted static electricity charges.
A Conductor is a material with low electrical resistance that rapidly removes an electrical charge to ground. Examples of conductors are water, copper, aluminum and carbon. Some ESD floors are conductive. These floors are usually used in special controlled areas for explosives handling or in ESD protected areas in electronics manufacturing facilities. Due to electrical safety risks and compliance with grounding standards, conductive flooring is never recommended for schools, networked offices, E-9-1-1 call centers or public access environments. Conductive flooring is usually described as having an ohms resistance between 25,000 ohms and one million ohms. This is sometimes expressed in scientific notation as 2.5 X 10E4 – 1.0 X 10E6
An Insulator is a material with an electrical resistance that will prohibit a material from conducting a charge to ground. Examples of insulators are rubber gloves, rubber shoe soles, balloons, residential carpet, ceramic tile and VCT flooring. A practical example of an insulator is the extruded plastic casing around common electrical wires, or a commercial carpet tile with a low 3.5 Kv rating.
Anti-Static refers to a material’s ability to suppress or prevent charge generation and static build up. Most Anti-static materials are not capable of decaying a static charge fast enough before unwanted ESD events occur. To eliminate static properly, anti-static carpet should be manufactured using yarns with carbon fibers. We call this type of carpet ESD carpet.
Static Dissipative refers to the ability of a material to dissipate static charges to ground at a controlled and safe rate. By definition, static dissipative flooring has an electrical resistance range, measured in ohms, of between 1,000,000 ohms and 1,000,000,000 ohms. 1.0 x 10E6, (1 million ohms), to a maximum of 1.0 x 10E9, (1 billion ohms). Today, most safety standards and computer manuals recommend static dissipative flooring for end user mission critical spaces.
9. Why is static dissipative carpet recommended over conductive carpet?
The lower the electrical resistance, the more rapidly a material can conduct an electrical charge. Since conductive materials offer very little electrical resistance ratings, they will attract and decay electricity much more rapidly than static dissipative materials. Unfortunately, a rapid decay of electricity can create a safety hazard if the grounded carpet is installed in spaces where people work near electrical appliances operating at 120, 220 and 440 volts. Since research has shown there is no performance advantage to a conductive floor versus a static dissipative one, conductive carpet should not be installed when there is a static dissipative alternative available.
Shadow FX ESD Carpet tile is designed to be static dissipative. Static dissipative Carpet has the ability to attract and remove unwanted static charges before they can accumulate, keeping the total environment safe from costly static interference. It is specifically engineered to prevent the problem of static interruptions in an electronics environment. Our Shadow FX line of ESD Carpet contains electrically engineered static dissipative helix, which inhibit the generation of static on carpet while simultaneously dissipating static charges safely to a ground source. The design of Shadow FX carpet tile links dissipative fibers to a carbon pre-coat and our static dissipative backing. Shadow FX carpet tile can be installed with or without adhesives. Our floating floor adhesive-free installation method is ideal for installation over raised access flooring panels.
10. Does static dissipative carpet look different than standard commercial carpet tiles?
No. StaticWorx ESD Carpet is available in many attractive styles. Our standard lines include a collection of 24 ounce solids for monolithic installations as well as a random non-directional (RND) collection with mergeable die lots. All Staticworx carpet comes with a lifetime static control warranty.
11. When should designers consider specifying StaticWorx static dissipative carpet?
Whenever selecting floor finishes for a facility that relies on the uninterrupted performance of computers or other sophisticated electronic equipment, you should consider using some form of static preventive flooring. Most end user computer environments require a floor that is capable of preventing static on people who will be wearing ordinary every day footwear. This greatly limits the options since most ESD flooring materials require static control shoes and heel straps. For example, plastic interlocking floors, any type of static control vinyl, high pressure laminates and resinous flooring will actually create static on people wearing standard footwear. The only effective options for preventing static on ordinary footwear are either ESD rubber or ESD Carpet tile. Since carpet tiles are the quietest, most compatible and least expensive form of flooring for office environments, ShadowFX static dissipative carpet is an ideal option for networked offices, server rooms, control rooms, telecom rooms, switch and router facilities, 9-1-1 and standard call centers, data storage centers, financial areas, trading floors, NOCs, disaster recovery centers, media, communications, radar, medical monitoring, networked classrooms as well as gaming and entertainment floors.
12. Does StaticWorx offer an ESD performance warranty on StaticWorx ESD Carpet?
Yes. StaticWorx warrants that ShadowFX ESD Carpet tile, when installed and maintained as recommended by StaticWorx, will not generate static above .4kV volts, as measured by AATCC #134, that the face of the carpet will have a minimum resistance level of 1.0 x 10 E6 ohms and a maximum electrical resistance of 1.0 x 10 E8 ohms, as measured according to NFPA-99 and ANSI/ESD S7.1-2005. Our Shadow FX carpet tile is designed to provide a system resistance in compliance with ANSI/ESD S97.1 test limits for complying with ANSI/ESD S20.20. StaticWorx carpet tile meets the following standards for a grounded flooring installation:
- ANSI/ESD S20.20 Electronics handling in EPAs
- FAA STD 019e Date: December 22, 2005 for flight control areas
- Appenddix C of Motorola R56 for E-9-1-1 Call centers and dispatcher positions
- ATIS 0600321.2010 Date: August 1, 2010 Electrical protection for network-operator type equipment positions
- IBM recommended resistance range for data center operations
Notice to Specifiers: In 2011, StaticWorx discontinued the Conductors line of conductive line of carpet tiles. To meet new grounding and safety standards, the Conductors were replaced with ShadowFX Solids and Patterns.
This page was updated on April 5th, 2012 to include recent changes in grounding standards.
StaticWorx high-performance static-control floors protect electronic components, explosives, and high-speed computers from damage caused by static electricity. ESD flooring is part of a system. Choices should always be based on objective, researched evidence. When you partner with us, we look at all possible items that may need to integrate with the floor, and, focusing on your goals and objectives, help you find the right floor for your application.
