ESD and Anti Static Flooring Terminology
Here are several terms you might find when researching esd flooring and static control floors.
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By Letter
SICK Building Syndrome "sick building syndrome" (SBS): Describes situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified. The complaints may be localized in a particular room or zone, or may be widespread throughout the building. In contrast, to the term "building related illness" (BRI).
Static Control Floor: A permanently installed floor material such as tile, carpet, polymer, epoxy, or sheet flooring that controls static charges on personnel, equipment, or other objects contacting the floor material.
Static Control Flooring: A generic term used to describe any form of flooring that is designed to reduce static electricity on people. Static control flooring is available in numerous forms including: carpeting, carpet tiles, vinyl tile, rubber tile and epoxy coatings. A more specific description should be used when specifying this type of flooring. A meaningful flooring specification should always include electrical resistance in Ohms and triboelectric performance measured in volts.
Static Control Floor Finish: A non-permanent coating periodically applied to existing floor surfaces that dissipates static charges by grounding personnel, equipment, or other objects contacting the floor finish or that controls the generation and accumulation of static charges associated with floor materials.
Static Control Floor Mat: A movable island of material placed over existing flooring that dissipates static charges by grounding personnel, equipment, or other objects contacting the floor material or that controls the generation and accumulation of static charges associated with the material.
Static Control Floor Material: A permanently installed floor material such as tile, carpet, polymer, epoxy or sheet flooring that dissipates static charges by grounding personnel, equipment, or other objects contacting the floor material or that controls the generation and accumulation of static charges associated with floor materials.
Staticworks: A flooring manufactured by Staticworx® .
Static Dissipative flooring: Static dissipative floors are defined by a property called electrical resistance. Electrical resistance is measured in ohms. The important parameter for describing a floor is the static control flooring resistance to ground or path to ground. In order to meet the qualification of static dissipative, a floor must have an electrical resistance to ground of ≥ 1 X 106 (one million ohms) AND < 1 X 109. Static dissipative should never be confused with the terms Conductive or Antistatic (sometimes hyphenated as anti-static). Note: The old definition of static dissipative was; A material that can conduct an electrical charge and has an inherent resistivity range between 1 x 104 ohms and 1 x 1011 ohms Sometimes referred to as electrically dissipative. This old definition does not apply to flooring.
Static Control Footwear (shoes): Covering for the human foot that have properties to control the accumulation of static charge when used in conjunction with a static control floor or floor finish, or floor mat.
Static Control Seating: Chairs used in conjunction with a static control floor or static control floor mat that are intended to control the generation, accumulation and dissipation of electrostatic charge associated with the seating.
Static Decay Test: A procedure in which an item is first charged to a specified voltage, then allowed to dissipate to a specified voltage while measuring the duration of the discharge.
Static Electricity: Literally “electricity at rest.” Static electricity is the stored energy that becomes dangerous when it becomes an ESD event. Static electricity is the result of the exchange of electrons that occurs during friction between objects. This friction causes the ESD event, which can disrupt production, cause fires, damage computers and sensitive electronic components, cause computers and other electronic equipment to malfunction and lose important data.
Static-Resistant Resilient Flooring:A durable, stain resistant floor-covering with ergonomic features and antistatic (anti-static) properties. Any resilient flooring material such as rubber, polypropylene or vinyl that will not generate excessive quantities of static electricity. Describing a flooring material as static resistant (or anti static), does not mean that the material can also ground or discharge or dissipate static electricity. A static resistant material could inhibit static generation on people but lack the conductive properties necessary for grounding of static charges. The ideal static control material should be both conductive and antistatic. A term found in Division 9 - Finishes 09650.6 Static-resistant resilient flooring.
Staticworx® Helix Fiber: This is a unique conductive monofilament spun within the yarn bundle. It is used to achieve conductive contact points on the surface of the carpet.
[Also Staticworx Helix Fibre]
Surface Resistance: The ratio of DC voltage to the current flowing between two electrodes of specified configuration that contact the same side of a material. This measurement is expressed in ohms.
Surface Resistivity: For electric current flowing across a surface, the ratio of DC voltage drop per unit length to the surface current per unit width. In effect, the surface resistivity is the resistance between two opposite sides of a square and is independent of the size of the square or its dimensional units. Surface resistivity is expressed in ohms/square.
Topical Antistat: An antistat that is applied to the surface of a material for the purpose of making the surface static dissipative or to reduce triboelectric charging.
Total Cost of Ownership: The real cost for a product, encompassing materials, installation, maintenance, anticipated repairs and necessary monitoring. For example, a floor requiring periodic buffing and conductive wax applications also requires testing and monitoring after each maintenance interval, to ensure electrical compliance. When maintenance prohibits the use of space, this cost should also be factored in. Monitoring and other hidden costs are often overlooked or ignored in the initial cost analysis.
Triboelectric Charging: The generation of electrostatic charges when two materials make contact or are rubbed together, then separated. Also known as tribocharging. (See also Triboelectric series)
Triboelectric Series: A list of materials arranged so that one can become positively charged when separated from one farther down the list, or negatively charged when separated from one farther up the list. Note: The series' main utility is to indicate likely resultant charge polarities after triboelectric generation. However, this series is derived from specially prepared and cleaned materials tested in very controlled conditions. In everyday circumstances, materials reasonably close to one another in the series can produce charge polarities opposite to that expected. This series is only a guide.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): Gases emitted from certain solids or liquids, including a variety of chemicals, which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Concentrations are consistently higher indoors than outdoors: often up to ten times higher.
Voltage Suppression: Voltage suppression is a serious deficiency of many static dissipative table covering materials. For example, ESD laminate is incapable of discharging small parts that have become charged. The voltage suppression test determines whether a work surface such as ESD laminate containing a buried conductive layer actually bleeds off the charge from an object placed on the surface or only suppresses the electrostatic field from the charged object. If the surface bleeds off the charge, the voltage on the object when lifted from the surface will be zero. If the surface only suppresses the charge, the voltage remains on the object when it is lifted from the surface. See also, ESD Rubber Table/Bench Mats >
| Antistatic Carpet Terms | ||
Having trouble deciding which is better: Anti static flooring – conductive flooring or static dissipative flooring?
Try looking at this question from a visual perspective on our static
dissipative versus conductive flooring page.
Whether you are looking for vinyl flooring, SDT, PVC, two part epoxy coatings,
ESD paint, carpet tile or ESD rubber flooring, you need to know which anti
static range is right for you. Choosing the right range will determine how
long your static control floors will perform.
