Ground Zero Electrostatics Blog – Page 3 – Electrostatic Discharge and You!

25 Feb

What is Ionization & Can it be Prevented?

In the late 1930’s, Walter Jaeger, a physicist from Switzerland was trying to develop a portable sensor for poison gas. He theorized that gas entering the sensor would bind to ionized air molecules and thereby alter an electric current in a circuit in the instrument. Unfortunately it didn’t work – until he lit up a cigarette.

The smoke particles from Jaeger’s cigarette “sparked” a change in current of the ionized particles and the process would be later adapted to the early version of smoke detectors used in most homes in the 1970’s.

What is Ionization?

Ionization is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons. Ionization can happen as atoms or molecules pass through gases, liquids and sometimes solids.

For the purposes of our discussion, we’re primarily going to be talking about ionization through gas – a specific gas – our atmosphere.

As mentioned, ionization can be positive or negative. Because of the large quantities of air that we encounter in an average building, generally negatively and positively charged ions balance each other out. This is not always the case, however.

Sometimes ions on either side of the spectrum can build up, especially in an environment filled with recycled air. In fact, in some cases, there is a secondary ionization, where the electrons resulting from the passage of charged particles leads to further ionization.

In a previous article, we talked about the various elements of creating an Electrostatic Protected Area or EPA. There are some instances where the addition of an ionizer or an ionizer blower would supplement the protection afforded by a standard EPA.

Ionizer Blowers

Ionizer blowers create a dense and well-balanced ionization current that can help neutralize the air in an EPA workspace. A typical blower uses AC technology to continuously produce a balanced output of positive and negative air ions.

In addition, ionizer blowers come with many options – including task lights, AC and variable speed fans – that will complement the workspace at the same time the ionizer is easily integrated into the EPA workspace.

For smaller, precise jobs, you can even invest in a handheld ionizing air gun.

But, while ionization is good ESD practice in controlling necessary non-grounded static charge generators, they should never be considered replacements for the essential ESD protections – personal ESD wrist straps, ESD control mats and grounding cords.

Contact us today for more information; we would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider.

25 Feb

Building an Electrostatic Protected Area (EPA)

Almost everyone’s familiar with the image of a white “cleanroom” or “bunny suit.” They show up in just about every depiction of people working in computer facilities in popular entertainment, and it’s a highly sought after specialty ‘armor’ in the video game Fallout 4.

What most people may not know is that the suits are designed not to protect the person inside, but the delicate circuitry they’re working on. But not everyone who works with small, sensitive electronics needs to spend money for a full-on, disposable suit.

If you work with a lot of small electronics, a more affordable solution is to put together an electrostatic protected area (or EPA). This doesn’t have to take up a lot of space and can actually be quite portable. It just needs to be done properly.

Let’s start with the basics and work our way up to the safest and most expensive options.

Simple EPA

At a bare minimum, all personnel working within an EPA should have a personal grounding wrist strap. These make sure any excess energy is grounded – forced away – from the electronic devices and circuit boards being handled.

Connected to that grounding strap is a dissipative mat. Dissipative means quite simply to disperse or disappear. A properly designed and implemented dissipative mat does for the surface what the grounding wrist strap does for the person – protects sensitive electronics from electrical discharges.

Mats can be purchased pre-cut or in rolls, depending on what your needs are.

Attached to both of these is a common point cord, also referred to as a grounding cord. These cords are fully insulated and take any electrostatic charges away from the person and the ESD mat to be grounded safely.

Often these simple options are packaged together as a field service or workstation kit that can be purchased as one unit to avoid forgetting any key elements.

Now that we’ve established the minimum requirements for an EPA, let’s look at additional options that can be easily implemented within your system to further insure the safety of the components and reduce the risk and excess cost of replacement.

From the Ground Up

For more permanent EPA installations, there are a variety of flooring options that can be integrated. Everything from conductive and dissipative vinyl tiles to anti-static carpeting that can be utilized in the work area or just in the area surrounding your EPA system. You can even add flooring with a high-end moisture barrier as well as anti-static protection.

Sole Protection

One of the most obvious ways we build up a potentially dangerous electrostatic discharge is just by walking. Static charges build up naturally. While a personal grounding wrist strap will help dissipate the charge, there are additional options for your feet.

Shoe covers with conductive strips are a quick, low cost addition to an existing EPA system and great for alleviating the risk of allowing visitors into the EPA area.

For employees whose duties mean they spend substantial time in the EPA area, you can add foot and heel grounders, toe grounders and sole grounders.

For even more protection, grounders can be upgraded to ESD shoes. These come in a variety of styles for your business setting – even weatherproof boots and hiking models.

Additional Considerations

Adding isolation protocols and ESD protective containers can also complement your EPA system and reduce the chance of any accidental charges building up or discharging into your electronic components.

Of course grounding should be a consideration with any additions to your EPA system. Whether it’s flooring or matting, grounding cords with a built in resistor add that much more protection to your area. And the more working parts you have, the more grounding capability you require.

There are simple options to increase the grounding ability of any size EPA system, as well as monitors that can be added to the system – at the personal or system-wide level.

And if you really feel the need to cover yourself top to bottom, there are more workable clothing options as well.

Contact us today for more information; we would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider.

19 Feb

Faraday Cages? The Surprising Facts

Faraday Cages

After 10 years, the science fiction show The X-Files recently returned to television. In the very first new episode, there is a scene where scientists are studying apparent alien technology, all the while protected from potential harm because the technology is housed in a Faraday cage.

For most people, Faraday cages seem like the stuff of science fiction – boxes built to protect folks with overactive imaginations who fear the world will end with a sudden electromagnetic pulse or EMP. But what if I told you that most people benefit from at least one Faraday cage almost every day?

The first Faraday cage was built back in the 1830’s, by Michael Faraday, hence the name. Faraday was an experimental physicist who worked primarily studying electromagnetism and electrochemistry.

Rumor has it that Albert Einstein had a photo of Faraday that he kept on the wall of his study, right next to his picture of Isaac Newton.

One day Faraday noted that during one of his experiments, excess energy from a charged conductor only rested on the exterior of a container, for some reason not penetrating through the container to ground as electricity typically does.

He set about constructing a box to prove his theory that the inside was somehow shielded from the electrical charge.

He built a room, entirely lined with metal foil and subjected it to high powered electrostatic discharges, simulating lightning. But the interior of the room showed no gain in electricity.

The shielding had forced the negative charges to the outside and the positive charges to the inside, essentially canceling out the electrical current before it could affect anything within the room.

Later, he added a grounding rod and verified that the charge canceled itself out as it traveled around and into the ground.

Today, the principles that Faraday discovered almost 200 years ago are used all across the world to protect people from stray electromagnetic charges. Ever wonder why your cell phone drops calls when you’re in an elevator? It’s a semi-enclosed Faraday cage.

The MRI room in medical facilities, USB cables, coaxial cables (the ones you used to get cable TV from), even cars and airplanes use Faraday shielding to help protect their precious cargo.

And if you want to see one up close and personal, take a look at your microwave. The metal lines in the glass complete the Faraday cage that protects us from electrical discharge and the radiation used to cook your food.

On a smaller scale, metalized static shielding bags protect small electronic components and circuit boards from the much smaller personal EMP’s our bodies generate, which could cause serious damage to these components. Properly sealed ESD boxes and totes, as well as conductive bins use the same principles to protect larger or larger quantities of components.

Of course, while Faraday cages can be ungrounded and even nested to enhance protection, we always recommend taking the proper grounding procedures to protect yourself and your circuitry.

So remember, Faraday cages are not just for “Doomsday Preppers” and science fiction story tropes. They are at work every day to make our world a safer place.

Contact us today for more information; we would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider.

12 Feb

ESD: Grounding, Isolation & Prevention

The Pilllars of ESD Protection

We’ve all had it happen. We’re opening our car door on a cold day, or we’ve just shuffled in our socks to the door and the moment we reach out, pop! A small snap of static electricity reminds us that we’re alive.

Think back to when you were a kid – your dad or uncle perhaps, showed you the power of static electricity by rubbing a balloon on your head and sticking it to the wall or causing your hair to rise up of its own accord. These tricks with static electricity are great for a chuckle or two. When you’re rubbing the balloon or your socks on the floor, it creates an imbalance of electrons, and that potential energy rests on your body or the surface of the balloon, waiting to discharge. Eventually it does and this sudden restoring of the electrons to their neutral state is called an electrostatic discharge or ESD.

That little tiny jolt of static electricity seems small but is really 3,000 volts – for humans, it’s the amperage that gets you. Unfortunately, for small electronics: circuit boards, semiconductors or even simple devices around the home, much smaller static discharges – ones too light to ever be sensed by our skin – can cause minor errors, or even completely destroy a device’s usefulness. In this situation, ESD is no laughing matter.

In a business—especially one that manufactures or handles a lot of electronics, but even in a typical office environment—this kind of damage can get expensive quickly.

So today, we’re going to talk about the three pillars of controlling ESD: Grounding, Isolation and Prevention.

Grounding

If you’ve worked with small electronics much at all, you’re probably aware that there are certain things you should do to prevent damage to that circuitry. You’re probably familiar with the third prong on many electrical cords. Just like the grounding plug diminishes the risk of you being electrocuted, grounding yourself and your work area keeps your circuit boards and electrical components safe by discharging any built up static electricity.

At a bare minimum, utilizing a grounding wrist band is extremely helpful. Many sellers include disposable bands when they ship electronic components, but we highly recommend owning and utilizing your own personal metal ground wrist strap that connects directly to your work surface with a personal ground cord. Always make sure the wrist strap is snug and is touching the skin to allow the charge to dissipate.

Isolation

Static charges cannot penetrate containers that are made of conductive materials or have a conductive layer. That’s why electronic components usually arrive in metallized shielding bags or a conductive tote box. Don’t forget you must ground them before opening. And don’t set these components just anywhere. What many people fail to realize is that simple items that can be found on any normal work surface – even an ESD mat – can also cause unnecessary static buildup that could lead to a fatal discharge.

Transparent tape, plastic sandwich bags, water bottles, Styrofoam coffee cups, even paperwork or blueprints can hold a static charge just waiting to wreak havoc on unsuspecting components. And even if you are properly grounded, holding the components too close to your clothing can also result in an ESD.

Prevention

Always take proper precautions when working on electronic components. Follow all of the tips above, and if you’re going to be working on several components or multiple projects, we recommend investing in some ESD bench and table matting for your work surface. It integrates well with a personal ground cord and wrist band and is the best solution for ESD prevention. A few dollars spent here as well as on ESD protective containers can mean plenty of money saved on ruined components as well as lost time while waiting for replacements.

Following these simple suggestions can mean a much safer environment for both you and your electronic components – and you can leave the static charge at home for parlor tricks.

Contact us today for more information; we would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider.

07 Jan

Why Do You Need ESD Shoes?

You’ve heard teachers say, “Any question is a good question, so ask away!”

So, here’s a question…“Why Do I Need ESD Shoes?” Before we answer that, let’s briefly review electrostatic discharge first.

Electrostatic Discharge or ESD: A Quick Review

Simply defined, static electricity is an electrical charge caused by an imbalance of electrons on the surface of a material. This imbalance produces an electrical field that can be measured and that can influence other objects at a distance. Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is the transfer of charges between bodies at different electrical potentials.

You are most likely aware of ESD at two extremes: the annoyance of that shock from striding across a carpet or witnessing the destructive nature of a lightning strike.

However, between these two extremes are electrostatic discharges found in workplace environments that can actually be costly or dangerous. Personnel shock injuries can range from a mild annoyance to a temporary loss of sight or hearing.

This same static discharge can ignite flammable mixtures and damage electronic components. Static electricity can also attract contaminants in clean environments or cause products to stick together. Sometimes called the “invisible enemy”, static electricity or ESD can wreak havoc in many work environments if not properly managed.

Why You Need ESD Shoes…

While there are physical and mechanical causes for ESD in manufacturing, technological or office environments, personnel are considered a primary cause of electrostatic discharge. In other words, personnel themselves charge up their own bodies! The clothing and shoes they wear generate electrostatic charges when they scoot in and out of their chairs, or as they shuffle across the floors. It can even be generated in unintentional movement as shirt fabric rubs up against the skin. (Talk about being charged up and ready to go!)

Combined with ESD flooring, you can prevent damaging buildup of static discharge with ESD shoes. Static dissipative footwear is designed to reduce the accumulation of excess static electricity by conducting the body charge to the ground, while maintaining a high enough level of electrical resistance.

Suggested industries that would benefit from ESD flooring and footwear include laboratories, clean rooms, hospitals, utility plants, high-tech manufacturing, car manufacturing and plastics, just to name a few.

What We Offer…

To offset potential damages from ESD, Ground Zero offers a variety of protective footwear:

Sporty: We offer a variety of high-quality conductive, static dissipative & regular athletic oxfords and sneakers. Models include steel toe and comfortable padding.
Casual: These casual shoes include conductive or static dissipative models for business casual or dressy environments. They feature steel toe design as well as comfortable padding.
Unisex: We also have formal or sporty styles for both men & women in slip-ons, clean room shoes or boat shoes.
Boots & Hikers: If you’re looking for work boots with weatherproof qualities, we have those, too!

Bottom Line: ESD Shoes will help the flow of electrons built up on the body choose a path to the ground rather than a destructive and potentially costly path toward your electronics or work environment!

Contact us today for more information; we would love to be your full service, seamless ESD solution provider.

31 Dec

What is the Triboelectric Effect?

Static electricity is an imbalance of electrical charges within or on the surface of a material. The charge remains until it is able to move away by means of an electric current or electrical discharge.

Nature likes things to be in balance, therefore static electricity will inevitably result in an electrical discharge unless otherwise redirected by means of a pathway or current.

So the question is… How does an imbalance of electrical charges occur?

The answer is with the Triboelectric Effect.

To understand it, we first need to review a few basics.

Where Electrical Charges Come From

At rest, objects are neither negatively nor positively charged. In this state, they are considered neutral with respect to electrical charge.

The basics of the atom: nucleus and electrons

The atom is made up of a nucleus (containing protons, neutrons) surrounded by an orbiting cloud of electrons

If you remember your high-school physics on the construction of the atom, you’ll recall that every atom has protons (which are positively charged) and neutrons (which are neither positively nor negatively charged) in the nucleus, which is surrounded by electrons (which are negatively charged).

The atom holds onto its nucleus very tightly—in fact the forces that hold the nucleus together are, quite literally, nuclear.

The electrons, on the other hand, have the ability to flow from one object to another by contact. Some objects are more willing to release electrons than others, while other objects are more able to attract electrons. Whether electrons are likely to come or go really depends upon the materials, the pairing of two objects and other environmental conditions, such as air quality.

Materials have been ranked by scientists in the order of their ability to hold or give up electrons upon contact. This ranking is called the Triboelectric Series.

The Triboelectric Effect

Under ideal conditions, if two materials are rubbed together, the one higher on the list should give up electrons and become positively charged.

With repeated contact, a bond is created between the objects as the two items exchange electrons. However, when separation occurs, each object does not necessarily carry off the same number of electrons that it brought to the party.

Therein lies the imbalance of electrical charges where one object will have a buildup of negative charges and the other a buildup of positive charges.

This process of building up an electrical charge through contact is known as the Triboelectric Effect.

How Does Electrostatic Discharge Occur?

You have heard that opposites attract. So it is with the negatively charged and positively charged objects.

Remember we said earlier that nature will seek out a balance? Therefore, when you move a more positively charged item close to an item that is neutral or more negatively charged, the electrons will be attracted to—and try to flow toward—the positive charge. The same is true in reverse.

This movement of the electrons seeking balance is the electrostatic discharge, which creates a shock or spark—sometimes too small to detect, and other times quite powerful and destructive!

It is very important to be aware and understand the movement of these electrons through a work space in order to limit the possibility of costly and damaging discharges of static electricity.

24 Dec

Why Should I Care About ESD?

Electrocstatic discharge (ESD)… what in the world is it and why should I care about it?

If you’re an engineer, an architect, or in the electronics manufacturing industry, you’re most likely aware of what ESD is and the havoc it can wreak.

But, if you’re not in any of those industries, should you even bother caring about what it is?

Yes!

Maybe you:

install and maintain computer networks
repair electronic devices
are a serious gamer who likes to tinker with your computers
are a workbench enthusiast who likes to take stuff apart, or
manage a team of people who work with sensitive or valuable data (your data is valuable, right?)

No matter what the case… you need to be aware of electrostatic discharge and its effects on your electronics.

First of all… What is ESD?

Electrostatic discharge, or ESD, is a natural phenomenon. It’s present in everyday life and happens all the time, often without anyone realizing it. It is the sudden flow of electricity between two electrically charged objects caused by contact, an electrical short, or dielectric breakdown (electrical breakdown).

This sudden flow of electricity is what causes problems for computer networks and everyday electronic devices.

An obvious form of electrostatic discharge would be lightning (also known as large-scale ESD event), but a less obvious form would be the shock you feel after walking across carpet and then touching the doorknob. Perhaps the most insidious forms are the ones too small for you to detect, but powerful enough to damage the circuits on your devices.

Why Should I Care?

Two significant reasons for being aware of ESD and its effects are…

Loss of Peak Performance. If you would like your networks or equipment to perform optimally, you should take steps to avoid ESD damage. Over time, ESD reduces the performance of your system and can significantly reduce the life of your equipment. Save yourself the time, money, and hassle and protect your equipment.
It’s Expensive! Over 50% of hardware failures are due to electrostatic discharge. Eliminate ESD and save money!

How Do I Protect My Networks and Devices?

So whether you’re the “IT guy” or the “gamer gal,” creating an Electrostatic Discharge Protected Area is a great starting point, including:

ESD flooring
Grounding devices like wrist straps
Grounded static dissipative work surfaces
ESD clothing and shoes
ESD packaging
Signage

If you need more information regarding electrostatic discharge, we’re here to provide the expertise you need, as well as the equipment. As experts in the prevention and elimination of ESD for more than 15 years, we have the knowledge and proven catalog of products to help you solve any of your ESD challenges. Feel free to check out the rest of our blog or get in touch anytime.

17 Dec

Do You Need Static Control Flooring?

Does your business have a substantial investment in electronics or computers?

Have you ever experienced an unexplained failure? Perhaps one of your critical systems went down with no warning at a critical time (there’s never really a convenient time for that, is there?), or perhaps a component was working beautifully one minute and performing erratically the next.

One of the most nefarious—and hardest to detect— culprits behind failures of this kind is electrostatic discharge. By some estimates, it could be responsible for more than fifty percent of hardware failures, costing upwards of $5 billion each year.

So, if you have devices, people, and floors, then you face risks from the devastating effects of static electricity—specifically electrostatic discharge (ESD).

How Can Floors Protect Equipment from ESD Damage?

Since static control flooring provides an attractive “escape route” for static electricity that builds up in the most common of circumstances, it can be a relatively simple and inexpensive way to protect your valuable data & devices from getting zapped.

Aren’t specialized static control floors ugly?

If the thought of specialized protective flooring conjures up images of server rooms, data centers, or ugly hospital wards, then we’ve got good news!

Today, ESD floors come in an amazing array of materials, styles, and colors. Sure… we install rubber floors. We epoxy concrete.

But we also have attractive broadloom carpet that provides decent ESD protection for your sensitive electronics in beautiful designs—so beautiful, in fact, that no one would ever suspect that the carpet is actually serving a valuable purpose beyond that of ordinary carpet!

In addition to broadloom carpet, we also carry carpet tiles and vinyl tiles and sheet flooring. Each is suitable for different situations, and they are available in configurations that provide varying degrees of protection depending upon your specific situation.

Which Static Control Floor is Right for You?

Whether you run a manufacturing facility or a cubicle farm, a call center or a clean room, the fantastic assortment of options available today means that you can find a flooring solution that meets your needs. Obviously, there are a number of factors involved in making the right decision.

Some of the considerations you’ll need to include in your decision-making process include:

Durability: Will the floor be in a high-traffic area? The volume of foot traffic will certainly affect how long your floor will last, and therefore should be considered as part of the overall cost of ownership.
Maintenance: Since your floor contains components—from conductive carpet fibers to embedded veins of specialized materials—to give static electricity a place to go, you’ll want to weigh out the maintenance needs of the flooring.
Static Control Performance: ESD flooring comes in various levels of effectiveness (measured by its “conductivity”). How conductive or dissipative your floor needs to be depends upon the nature of your equipment, the installation environment, and the nature of the usage.
Other Factors: Does the floor need to help absorb sound to help control the noise in the environment? Do you need slip protection? What chemicals might be spilled on your floor?

As you can see, the flooring choices available to you can be a bit of a dizzying maze. But there’s good news: we’re here to help you navigate! Reach out today, and let our team of experts help you find the most effective solution at the right budget to match your situation perfectly!

14 Sep

Dissipative vs. Static Conductive Flooring: Which Works Best?

Previously, we talked in greater detail about how ESD flooring works. But when it comes to choosing what type of static control flooring to use, the biggest question you need to answer is this:

Should I use static dissipative flooring or static conductive flooring?

Perhaps the most important factor you’ll need to consider in making this decision is safety.

Shouldn’t I Always Choose the Fastest Pathway to Ground?

At first glance, it might seem like a no-brainer: just put in the flooring that has the lowest resistance so that electrostatic discharge is carried most quickly and efficiency to ground. If that’s true, then static conductive flooring is an obvious choice.

But if the floor is too conductive, then we introduce another set of risks to personal safety.

This is where we start to get into safety standards developed by OSHA and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), among others.

Put simply, “static dissipative” flooring and “static conductive” flooring are two very specific classifications based upon levels of conductivity which is measured in terms of the materials’ resistance to electricity.

Resistance of ESD Flooring Options

Resistance, or impedance, is measurable, and is expressed in ohms. The ohm is a unit of measurement named after Georg Ohm, the German physicist who discovered Ohm’s law. In specifications documents, schematics, and other materials, the ohm is represented by the symbol Ω (the Greek letter omega).

Put simply, higher resistance = lower conductivity.

A substance with resistance measured at zero ohms (0 Ω) would highly conductive conductive (carbon, silver, and copper all have resistance measured in a fraction of an ohm). On the opposite end of the spectrum, a substance with 1 billion ohms (1 × 10⁹ Ω) would have very low conductivity (rubber, which is so resistive that it’s used as an insulator, has a resistance in the 1.00×10¹³ Ω range, or 10,000,000,000,000 Ω, AKA ten trillion ohms).

In general terms defined by the ESD Association, “conductive” is describes any flooring with a resistance of up to 1 million ohms. “Dissipative” is used for anything greater than 1 million ohms and up to 1 billion ohms.

ESD Flooring Type	Resistance (Ω) Range (Low End)	Resistance (Ω) Range (High End)
Static Conductive	–	1 × 10⁶
Static Dissipative	1 × 10⁶	1 × 10⁹

Unfortunately, these categories are so broad that they aren’t entirely useful.

Thankfully, the ANSI 20.20 specification helps clarify things for us. It indicates that the maximum resistance of the flooring and the person (measured together) should be less than 3.5 × 10⁹ohms.

The NPFA has also specified that flooring should have no less than 25,000 ohms resistance. Below this number, the conductivity of the floor is considered to be too high and therefore unsafe due to risk of electric shock and other hazards.

As you can see, neither the minimum resistance specified by the NFPA nor the maximum specified by ANSI 20.20 lines up perfectly with our terms for “static conductive” or “static dissipative” flooring.

So… we’re left with making a selection based upon the specific needs of your industry. What is the application of the flooring? Will it be used in a clean room? Will it be used in electronics manufacturing? What are the considerations around flammable materials?

Other factors will affect the decision as well. Will the humidity and temperature of the environment be maintained within specific parameters? Both will affect conductivity, not just in the floor, but in the environment as a whole. What other building materials will be used?

Additionally, when specifying the levels of conductivity in flooring, there is a diversity in testing and measurement that exists which will cause test results to vary widely depending upon the methodologies used. It’s important to understand how these measurements will affect the final outcome where conductivity is concerned.

The Bottom Line?

There are a number of factors involved in the decision when you’re selecting between static conductive or static dissipative flooring. Our ESD control experts will be more than happy to help walk you through the decision-making process and the range of options available to you — both from a performance standpoint and from an aesthetic one. Contact us today!

07 Sep

How Does ESD Flooring Work?

When it comes to controlling Electrostatic Discharge in a commercial setting, one of the most important areas to address is the flooring. The floor is one of the single biggest surfaces, and almost every piece of furniture, major equipment, and even people will come into contact with flooring surfaces on a regular basis.

How does this impact your choice of flooring?

Well, obviously certain materials in carpeting are known to generate static electricity when the carpet fibers rub up against other materials, like the rubber in the soles of workers’ shoes. Since we quite obviously don’t want the flooring to make the ESD problem worse, we can rule out carpet that contributes to the buildup of static electricity.

This means that we start to look at the materials in the other available choices to see how they impact static electricity buildup and discharge.

Flooring & Electrostatic Discharge Pathways

It’s been said that electricity always follows the path of least resistance, but this is not actually completely true. Electricity will follow all available pathways when “circuits” are created (intentionally or not). The flow of electricity will, however, prefer pathways that have a lower impedance (resistance to electricity).

ESD flooring serves to create a preferred pathway for the flow of electricity, allowing the build-up of static electricity in devices, personnel, and equipment to have an immediate pathway to grounding.

Depending upon the situation, ESD flooring choices include ESD carpeting, ESD conductive tiles, or ESD dissipative tiles.

In the case of conductive tiles or ESD carpeting, the flooring materials contain conductive elements (e.g. carbon lines or conductive yarn fibers) that transmit electrical current through the flooring materials. ESD carpeting options are made with a conductive backing that helps facilitate this, whereas ESD tile is laid using a specially made conductive adhesive to adhere it to the subfloor. Current is then transmitted to conductive tape or copper strips placed beneath the surface of the floor.

A static grounding terminal attaches one of our ESD carpet installations to a grounding point

From there, grounding is achieved by connecting the conductive materials below the ESD flooring directly to a grounding point, or by placing a special grounding tile at regular intervals which is, in turn, connected to a grounding point.

The ESD conductive tiles and ESD carpets are manufactured and tested to have minimal resistance to electrical current, which increases the likelihood that any static charge will pass through the flooring and on to ground instead of damaging sensitive equipment or igniting flammable or explosive substances.

ESD dissipative floors work in a similar fashion, but are engineered to have a higher resistance than flooring classified as “conductive.” This causes electricity to flow to ground in a slower, more controlled manner.

Which flooring should you choose? We’ll talk about that further in our next blog post. In the meantime, contact one of our static control experts to help you create the solution that’s perfectly tailored to your situation!