ESD and Static Control Questions
Answered by the experts at Ground Zero Electrostatics
0
Q: We are an explosives manufacturer and are looking to repaint our conductive flooring. We subscribe to the standard NFPA requirements for conductive flooring. What is the best and most economical product to apply? Consider that the environment would be expected to be consistently wet.
A: We recommended (2) possible options, both of which would be completely monolithic and seamless due to the excessive liquids that will be present.
Anytime that you have explosives present, the floor will have to be “sparkproof” and fall into a conductive range, verses static dissipative.
These are the two most important criteria for recommending a system for this environment.
Out of these (2) systems, a conductive epoxy is going to be most cost effective, verse a thermally heat welded conductive vinyl system.
Always best to consider a “professional” or approved factory installation for warranty consideration as well as certification that the floor meets the customers expectations and is actually going to get the job done.
Q: We are removing old vinyl tile and replacing with ESD protective tile. We are wondering if ESD conductive or dissipative is best. Our business is dehydration baking, final functional testing and packaging semiconductor IC’s with design circuits typically in .25 micron range. We need recommendations on conductive vs. dissipative and epoxy vs vinyl tile. The area is not high traffic. Thanks.
A: Good questions. In selecting an electrical range there are several key factors to consider, these are in order of importance in our professional opinion:
- Device sensitivity?
- Does the type of work being performed in the protected area include, working with Power Supplies?
- Is your staff going to be wearing personnel grounding protection?
- ESD Shoes
- Heel Straps
- ESD Booties
- Etc.
- Are there any environmental conditions to consider?
- How important is meeting industry standards to you and your company? e.g.
- EOS/ESD S7.1
- ANSI/ESD S20.20
- ISO Compliance
- In-House Standards
- Customer Contract Standards
Based on what you have described in you e-mail, conductive range is best suited for your application, dissipative should not be considered. See the attached white paper on this specific subject. As this particular document has even been published yet, please keep this document confidential for your internal use only.
The factors that should be considered in choosing a Material Type are as follows:
- What is the intended use for the floor? What type traffic will the floor see? Will liquids or spills be anticipated or utilized in this area? Do you own or lease the building? Will odors be a problem during the installation process? Are you fully operational and or will the work be done in phases? Budgetary factors Performance warranty Maintenance level expectations
- Esthetics
I think this will give you some things to consider moving forward. Please see the attached floor comparisons chart for additional things you should consider, this chart may prove helpful to you and your team. Let us know if we can provide you with flooring sample submittals, product specification sheets, quotations, etc. I would like to talk to you in greater detail regarding Epoxy vs. Tile, we have many millions of square feet of experience in this category, so please call me when you have some time.
Please let us know how we can better support you and your company moving forward, as your satisfaction is our highest priority!
See also: ESD Open Forum(PDF); ESD Flooring Comparison Chart(PDF)
Q: How do you clean the floor, can it be waxed, and if so what type of wax?
A: All our ESD Dissipative and Conductive floors are designed to be wax free, low maintenance with permanent electrical properties. We recommend daily sweeping and damp mopping with our “ZeroStat Clean” ESD, pH neutral, general purpose floor cleaner or equal. These are the two most important factors in keeping you floor looking / performing it’s best, long term.
To keep the factory shine and luster of our floors, we recommend polishing the floor with a floor maintainer and a white pad. Some of our clients choose to incorporate our ZeroStat Buff for this process, but this is optional. The more frequently you dry buff/polish the floor the tighter the surface composition becomes, hence, will require less and less buffing to maintain a high shine as time progresses. We also manufacture a product called ZeroStat Diamond Seal, which is a ESD Polymer Coating used to seal and streamline the maintenance of our ESD flooring even further. Basically, a protective ESD finish developed as a protective barrier over the surface to resist scuff marks caused by chair, carts, shoes, forklifts and other mobility equipment.Applying an ESD Wax, (such as ZeroStat Diamond Coat II) is an alternative to the dry buffing process, but know that it is somewhat of a trade off. The trade off is, that Waxing with give you an instant high gloss and shine, verses dry buffing, but it can lower the electrical resistance by up to a half of a decade in electrical resistance. This drop in the electrical resistance isn’t impacted on static Dissipative floors as much as it applies to static Conductive floors. It really won’t impact the overall performance of our flooring systems, due to our ESD flooring falling into the lower end of our electrical specifications verse the higher end of the resistance specification.
Note: Due to the broad spectrum of ESD wax quality, we STRONGLY recommend ZeroStat Diamond Coat II as your wax of choice, as most of the ESD floor finishes available in the industry don’t perform to the electrical range that is required to keep our floors in our specified electrical ranges.
I hope this answers most of your questions, please feel free to contact us with any further question, comments and/or concerns. I have also attached data sheets for our ESD floor care products for your review and consideration.
More Information (PDF):
» ESD Floors Care and Maintenance
» ZeroStat Buff Specification Sheet
» ZeroStat Clean Specification Sheet
» ZeroStat Coat Specification Sheet
» ZeroStat DiamondCoat II Specification Sheet
» ZeroStat DiamondSeal Specification Sheet
Q: Why can’t bare or sealed concrete be used as a method for controlling static electricity in a electronics manufacturing environment verse utilizing a Conductive or Static Dissipative covering and/or coating?
A: I’ve done some studies on ESD resistive characteristics of the several different floor surfaces. In light of the following question, I just snapped some photos of ESD readings on the following surfaces:
ESD reading on Dry Concrete
Bare concrete (dry). Results- barely conductive, very humidity dependant; in the insulative range(1E09-1E12)
ESD reading on Asphalt
Asphalt. Results- unacceptable; above insulative.
ESD reading on Dirt
Dirt. Results- pretty good, acually comes in at barely dissipative; Upside, cheap; Downside, hard to clean.
Reading on ESD Carpet
ESD Carpet (Ground Zero Information). Results- ESD conductive(2.5e4-1.0E6).
Reading on ESD Tile
ESD Tile (Ground Zero Information). Results - ESD dissipative(1.0E6-1.0E8).
Reading on Sealed Concrete
Sealed Concrete. Results-unacceptable; a sealed concrete is necessary for heavy foot traffic, but the very thing that would make the concrete conductive is sealed out- moisture. This floor could be made dissipative very easily with an ESD chemical (Ground Zero Information).
Reading on Particle Board
Particle board. See asphalt
Back to top