Completed ShadowFX static-dissipative (ESD) carpet tile installation in a data center.

ESD Floors & Seating for Data Centers, Server Rooms and Mission-Critical Flooring Applications

Selecting an antistatic floor for a data center, server room or other mission-critical space involves a number of considerations. The most important is the type of footwear people wear. The soles of some shoes – e.g., athletic shoes with polyurethane or PVC soles – generate static.

The conductive elements in ESD-protective footwear, such as heel straps, form an electrical bond between shoe soles and the conductive particles inherent in high-quality ESD flooring (also known as antistatic flooring or static-control flooring).

Typically, footwear is not controlled in data centers, server rooms and other end-user spaces. In other words, people are not required to wear special ESD-protective footwear. For this reason, the ESD floor must inhibit static regardless of the type of shoes people wear in the workplace.

Approaching the selection process from this perspective enables you to inhibit static generation on anyone, anytime, regardless of humidity, the sensitivity of your servers or the application and critical nature the servers represent to your mission or operation.

The effectiveness of static-control flooring is based on:

  1. The floor’s ability to prevent static regardless of traffic, humidity or the type of footwear worn by people occupying the space. This property, called preventing body voltage generation or BVG, is measured using test method ANSI/ESD S97.2. Tests should include measurements with and without static control footwear.
  2. The intrinsic ability of the floor to be grounded or produce a traceable ground path. Electrical conductivity is measured using test method ANSI/ESD S7.1. Test samples should be preconditioned at humidity levels below 20%. In the case of ESD carpet, the test should be performed on new and used carpet to determine if traffic and abuse will degrade the Groundable path.

Applications

Completed Eclipse electrically conductive rubber flooring installation in a police control room.

Applicable ESD Standards

ESD standards are not universal. Standards vary, determined by industry and application. Applicable standards for data centers, server rooms, and mission-critical spaces include:

Motorola R56

The Motorola guidelines have become the recognized standard in the telecom industry and serve as the most complete and rigorous specification for the protection of communication system equipment installed at public safety and commercial wireless communication sites.

Excerpt from Appendix C 3.3 – 68P81089E50-B: “Carpeting or floor tiles within an equipment room or dispatch center, including raised flooring, should have a resistance to ground measurement of between 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 ohms.”

ATIS 0600321 (Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions)

ATIS publishes standards for the information, entertainment, and communications industries.

Excerpt from Section 4.2 Flooring: “Any carpeting or floor tiles should have a resistance to ground between 10E6 and 10E10 ohms when measured using the method of ESD-S7.1.”

Ensuring the maximum resistance for the flooring system is 2 x 10E10 ohms*, measured between the floor surface and the building (or an applicable ground reference). Flooring material with a lower resistance will further decrease static buildup and discharge.

For safety, the floor covering and flooring system should provide a resistance of no less than 150 kilohms** when measured between any two points on the floor space 1 m (3 ft.) apart.

Please note: Resistance and Body Voltage/Charge Generation tests are done following test methods STM 97.1 (resistance) and STM 97.2 (body voltage), outlined in ANSI/ESD S20.20.

Best-rated Floors for Data Centers, Server Rooms, and End-user Spaces

A completed installation of ShadowFX static-dissipative (ESD) carpet tile in a call center facility.

Ideal: ShadowFX Static-dissipative carpet tile

Material cost $$
Can be installed as a floating floor without adhesive. Major disadvantages: Soft surface
Learn more
Completed EC Rubber flooring installation in a data center.

Ideal: 2-layer Eclipse Rubber tile and sheet flooring.

Material cost $$$.
Can be installed glue free (Eclipse GF), available in sheets. Disadvantage: Initial cost
Learn more
Completed installation of GroundLock Extreme ESD Interlocking Tile in a laboratory facility

Recommended: GroundLock Interlocking or Lay-flat tiles.

Material cost: $$$
Glue-free install 24/7, with no downtime; easy to lift and repurpose. Disadvantage: Initial cost
Learn more
Completed AmeriWorx ESD vinyl tile installation in a server room.

Recommended but less effective than options 1, 2 or 3: Static-control vinyl and generation 3 ESD coatings

Material cost $$
Disadvantage: Should be used in conjunction with antistatic (ESD-protective) footwear.
Learn more

Not Recommended: High Pressure Laminate

HPL is comprised of six to eight layers of resin-impregnated kraft paper, decorative paper (with a pattern, color or woodgrain) and a decorative overlay. These layers are manufactured under 1000kg per-square-meter of pressure at temperatures of 140°C+ (284°F).

With HPL, the decorative layer does not inhibit body voltage generation. And HPL does a poor job of grounding the ESD casters on static-control seating.

Chart labelled “Comparison of Peak Walking Voltage”. Volts ar4e shown for three different types of flooring - HPL, Conductive Vinyl and Conductive Rubber measured at 18 gr, 42 gr and 73 gr. Volts ranged from less than 10 to over 5,000.

Chart 1. Comparison of three (3) types of footwear on three (3) types of floor at three (3) environmental moisture levels – Peak walking voltage.

  • Moisture levels, shown in grains of water per pound of dry air, are equivalent to 15%, 35% and 60% Rh at 23°C
  • The ASHRAE group established 500 volts as the maximum on personnel for service operations.

Used by permission: David E. Swenson

ESD Seating

ESD floors dissipate (and inhibit) static charges as we walk. When we sit in a regular (non-ESD) chair, we are no longer grounded – even if the chair itself is sitting on an ESD floor.

The friction we generate by moving – when we shuffle our feet, take off a sweater, set a disposable cup on our desk – creates static electricity. Static on our body stays in place and jumps to whatever we touch. If we’re sitting in a regular (non-ESD) chair and touch electronic equipment, the jolt of electricity can damage or destroy the component’s internal circuitry.

That’s why it’s crucial to complete the static-protective chain.

StaticWorx ESD Bolt™ chairs, made with static-dissipative materials, ground people while they sit – preventing static charges from building on their body – and discharge static to ground.

Photograph of an ohmmeter connected to an ESD chair to measure electrical resistance. The reading on the ohmmeter is 2.6E06
StaticWorx Bolt ESD Chair on GroundLock Extreme measures in the static-dissipative range
A chart showing voltage generated when a person sits on an ESD chair and when they stand. An illustrated figure is labelled “Person sits leaning against the back of the chair” with an arrow pointing to 0 volts. Another figure is shown standing next to the chair and is labelled “Sit down, stand up is repeated” and an arrow points to the graph line which shows that voltage increases as the standing and sitting is repeated multiple times.

When standing up from a non-ESD chair, voltage rises. After standing up, voltage may drop slowly (figure above) or rapidly (Figure 2) depending on the shoe/floor resistance.

From: Dependence of ESD Charge Voltage on Humidity in a Data Centers, Part 1

Used by permission: David E. Swenson

A graph which shows the change in voltage as the shoe/floor system discharges rapidly from a person. The graph line begins at 0 volts and then rises and falls between 600 and -400 volts as the occurrences continue.

Figure 2  Definition of the chair event voltage for cases in which the shoe/floor system discharges rapidly from the person (shown here: Rubber ESD  floor, mid-range dissipative shoes at 38C and 8% RH).

From Flooring and Footwear: charge generation in combination with a person as influenced by environmental moisture

By permission: David E. Swenson

ESD Seating Features

A photograph of three black StaticWorx Bolt ESD chairs with orange trim.
Data Center Recommendations: Minimize Static Buildup and Discharge

(adapted directly from IBM Data Center Recommendations)

Use the guidelines below to minimize static electricity buildup in your data center.

Floor covering material can contribute to buildup of high static electrical charges resulting from the motion of people, carts, and furniture in contact with the floor material. Abrupt discharge of static charges causes discomfort to personnel and can cause malfunction of electronic equipment.

  • Maintaining the relative humidity of the room within the server operating limits. Choose a control point that normally keeps the humidity between 35 percent and 60 percent. See the Air conditioning determination for further guidance.
  • Providing a conductive path to ground from a metallic raised floor structure including the metal panels.
  • Grounding the raised floor metallic support structure (stringer, pedestals) to building steel at several places within the room. The number of ground points is based on the size of the room. The larger the room, the more ground points required.
  • Ensuring the maximum resistance for the flooring system is 2 x 10E10 ohms*, measured between the floor surface and the building (or an applicable ground reference). Flooring material with a lower resistance will further decrease static buildup and discharge.
    • For safety, the floor covering and flooring system should provide a resistance of no less than 150 kilohms** when measured between any two points on the floor space 1 m (3 ft.) apart.
  • Maintenance of ESD floor coverings (carpet and tile) should be in agreement with the supplier’s recommendations. Carpeted floor coverings must meet conductivity requirements. Use only antistatic materials with low-propensity ratings.
  • Using ESD-resistant furniture with conductive casters to prevent static buildup.

* StaticWorx recommends a resistance ceiling of 1.0 x 10E9 ohms, per ANSI/ESD S20.20 (with an optimal ceiling of 1.0 x 10E8). With electrical resistance above 10E9 if the floor lost conductivity–due to its chemical makeup or environmental factors such as dry air, dirt and debris–it could become too resistant to properly discharge static to ground.

** 150 kilohms is the same as 150,000 ohms (1.5 x 10E5)

CHECKLIST: CHOOSING THE RIGHT STATIC-CONTROL FLOORING

In this episode, Dave discusses ESD floors and electrical safety. At some point when discussing grounded conductive floors, the question of safety always arises, along with whether or not grounding a conductive floor puts people in harm’s way. Referring to an actual case study, Dave talks about a situation in which a floor installed for the FAA was too conductive to meet the FAA safety standards. The client had been told that drying the pressure-sensitive adhesive would solve the problem, making the entire floor less conductive. Dave talks about why this is not true, and why it’s extremely important to adhere to electrical standards as they are written.

Background image is an ohm meter on a carpet tile. The title ESD Flooring: Meeting Government Standards for FAA, 9-1-1 and Telecom is displayed in bold white text against a rectangle of dark blue grey at the bottom of the image and just above is the text "Static Shorts with StaticWorx - Right from the Den" and the StaticWorx logo
Play Video about Background image is an ohm meter on a carpet tile. The title ESD Flooring: Meeting Government Standards for FAA, 9-1-1 and Telecom is displayed in bold white text against a rectangle of dark blue grey at the bottom of the image and just above is the text "Static Shorts with StaticWorx - Right from the Den" and the StaticWorx logo
Background image is an ohm meter on a carpet tile. The title ESD Flooring: Meeting Government Standards for FAA, 9-1-1 and Telecom is displayed in bold white text against a rectangle of dark blue grey at the bottom of the image and just above is the text "Static Shorts with StaticWorx - Right from the Den" and the StaticWorx logo
Play Video about Background image is an ohm meter on a carpet tile. The title ESD Flooring: Meeting Government Standards for FAA, 9-1-1 and Telecom is displayed in bold white text against a rectangle of dark blue grey at the bottom of the image and just above is the text "Static Shorts with StaticWorx - Right from the Den" and the StaticWorx logo

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Background graphic is a still from the StaticWorx GroundSafe ESD Flooring – Your Trusted Partner explainer animation. In the foreground at the bottom are two boxes. The top is a bright blue with the StaticWorx logo and "GroundSafe ESD Flooring" underneath in white. The second is a dark blue-gray and includes the text in white: “GroundWorx ESD Flooring – Your Trusted Partner”
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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.