{"id":137,"date":"2009-02-26T21:43:55","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T21:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esdpros.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2009-02-26T21:43:55","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T21:43:55","slug":"can-esd-wax-be-applied-to-bring-back-dissipative-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/can-esd-wax-be-applied-to-bring-back-dissipative-properties\/","title":{"rendered":"Can ESD Wax be applied to bring back dissipative properties?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q: <\/strong>Into our manufacturing area we have a dissipative floor installed, some areas has lost the dissipative properties, we are using ESD wax to correct those areas.<\/p>\n

We are not having good results, we measure point to point and point to ground and these areas still measure insulative, my question is:
\nThe ESD wax only works in floors with dissipative properties, or could it be applied on areas where the floor has lost the dissipation properties?\u201d<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Thanks for contacting us.\u00a0 This is one of those questions that I like to pounce on, because it brings up many current misconceptions in the ESD flooring industry.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to answer your question about using chemicals to perhaps patch up certain areas in your flooring system, but I\u2019m going to reach beyond that question and give a comparison of the ESD flooring system vs an otherwise non-ESD flooring system with an ESD sealer applied to it.\u00a0 We supply both options here, by the way.\u00a0 I hope you find what you need here and that this response helps guide you in your application.
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\nI\u2019d like to know if your floor was cleaned up and perhaps dust mopped and\/or dry mopped prior to making your readings.\u00a0 I\u2019d also like to know if you\u2019re using the \u201cclean electrode with a minimum 70% isopropanol-water solution using a clean, low-linting cloth and allowing electrode to dry\u201d prior to measurements as per ANSI\/ESD S7.1-2005 6.2.1.1.\u00a0 This is crucial to getting good true and consistent readings.\u00a0 It seems strange to me that you have a static dissipative flooring system and it\u2019s \u201cwearing off\u201d or going away.\u00a0 Is there any possibility of contaminants affecting some of these areas?<\/p>\n

Where the Static Dissipative flooring system is acceptable, what is the readings for Point to Point and Resistance to Ground?\u00a0 I would assume the readings are between 1.0E6 \u2126 and 1.0E9 \u2126 , is this correct.\u00a0 And where you find it to be insulative, it\u2019s above a gig ohm?<\/p>\n

Yes, there are products we provide- such as ZS-Diamond Seal that will keep the inherent ESD resistance properties of an otherwise Static Conductive or Static Dissipative flooring system by adding a slight bit of resistance to it, but also increasing its ability to keep clean and is easier to remove scuff marks.\u00a0 We also have a product, ZS-Coat\u00a0 to be used on a non-ESD flooring system that will bring it into the Static Dissipative range.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen this product keep the flooring system to below 1.0E9 \u2126 and perhaps down to the 1.0E8 \u2126 range for PTP and RTG if properly applied and maintained.\u00a0 I believe this requires 3 to 5 coats up front and 2 coats thereafter to maintain.\u00a0 This would seem like a good short-term solution, but would not be economically feasible in the long term.\u00a0 I used to work for a company for 8 years that installed a VCT flooring tile in the electronics assembly, QC, production test, burn-in, Tech Services field-repair, and packaging area\u2026 and they to this day rely solely on a chemical to make their otherwise non-ESD flooring system Static Dissipative.\u00a0 And the maintenance crew reapplies this chemical every month.\u00a0 It is now just over 10 years since I worked for that company and they\u2019re still doing this!<\/p>\n

They could have installed a flooring system up front like our Static Conductive DuroStat SMT Solid-Vinyl tile and would have spent maybe a 10th of what they\u2019re spending now.\u00a0 Or we could go in and install this tile right over their existing flooring system using\u00a0 our Pressure Sensitive Conductive adhesive system for non-porous applications and copper grid and they\u2019d have a brand-new Static Conductive flooring system with a full Engineer\u2019s Technical Report with Certification of ESD Flooring which meets and\/or exceeds the requirements set forth in ANSI\/ESD S20.20-2007 (Protection of Electrical and Electronic Parts, Assemblies and Equipment) via ANSI\/ESD S7.1-2005 (Resistive Characterization of Materials-Floor Materials) and ANSI\/ESD S6.1-2005 (Grounding) and ANSI\/ESD STM97.1-2006 (Floor Materials and Footwear-Resistance Measurement in Combination with a Person) and ANSI\/ESD STM97.2-2006 (Floor Materials and Footwear-Voltage Measurement in Combination with a Person because I have all the tools and test equipment AND the experience on how to use it AND the smarts to interpret the data and apply the proper Technical Elements with the proper installation to get the job done right the first time).\u00a0 That was a long sentence.\u00a0 All this would add a mere 1\/8 inch to their existing flooring system and do away with the need to apply these otherwise effective chemicals every month or three.\u00a0 I guarantee that their flooring system would read less than 1.0E6 \u2126 when properly cleaned and maintained if necessary and more than about 1.0E5 \u2126 PTP and RTG throughout their whole flooring system and would generate less than 10 volts ptp and perhaps as low as about 5 volts ptp with the proper footwear ( I recommend Static Dissipative ESD shoes [specifically the SH-4341 M or SH-431 W] or Sole Grounders [these give lower Body Voltage Generation than mere heel grounders from what I\u2019ve experienced]).\u00a0 A flooring system like this should last 20+ years.\u00a0 The ESD properties just don\u2019t go away and the pattern is continuous throughout the whole 1\/8th inch of the product.\u00a0 That\u2019s approximately 3.2 mm or 125 mils of thickness.\u00a0 No amount of stripping and buffing could wear that floor down.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a salesman, but I\u2019m passionate about the electrical and mechanical abilities of this flooring system.\u00a0 If I was going to install this floor, use this floor, maintain this floor\u2026 this is what I would want.\u00a0 Besides that, you\u2019ve got a top-performance flooring system (lowest Body Voltage Generation on the market) for less money in the long run, and much less maintenance.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d like to stress this; any money spent on ESD compliance is money well spent.\u00a0 It pales in comparison to money spent in the Electronics Industry worldwide.\u00a0 For example, in 2004, about $85 Billion was spent worldwide for ESD failures and about $35-$40 Billion of that in the US alone and these losses are already budgeted and paid for.\u00a0 Think of losses at the device level, sub-assembly, finished goods, and ultimately, out-of-box failure which leads to shipping costs, field service, unhappy customers, etc.\u00a0 So ESD compliance is a profit center.\u00a0 So I\u2019m not against using ESD sealers if it\u2019s what a company can afford at the time or for temporary solutions.<\/p>\n

I hope this has been helpful and please feel free to comment or question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: Into our manufacturing area we have a dissipative floor installed, some areas has lost the dissipative properties, we are using ESD wax to correct those areas. We are not having good results, we measure point to point and point to ground and these areas still measure insulative, my question is: The ESD wax only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,10,11,25],"tags":[125,133,147,152],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esd-compliance","category-esd-protection","category-flooring","category-footwear","category-tile","tag-sd-sealer","tag-static-conductive-vinyl","tag-vct","tag-wax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gndzero.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}