Questions & Answers
In a typical office where antistatic tile floors are being installed, does the installation require grounding wires at all walls that go under the tile and then continue through the wall to some grounding metal? A carpet company salesman told me it was necessary to have an electrician install the grounding wires. Or is the adhesive adequate for antistatic tile floors?
FYI, I am a property owner manager of various office buildings and one of my tenants is requesting ESD flooring. Please advise, thanks!
Sincerely, Patrick
Answer:
Patrick,
This is a very common question. There is very little reason to have an electrician make this connection. It is really nothing more than a physical connection involving a 24 inch flexible copper bridge between conductive adhesive and building steel or building ground. The easiest place to make such a connection is at the metal box surrounding an AC electrical receptacle. Other equally effective locations are metal studs that connect with AC outlets and large I beams that are buried into the ground.
Any true “static control floor” only needs to be grounded once for every 1000 square feet. The rest of the floor is electrically bonded to itself by virtue of the conductive materials comprising it. The floor and the adhesive both have intrinsic conductive (see this link) – not just anti-static – properties. Conductive properties can be measured and verified using an ohm meter. In the case of carpet, the word antistatic often means that the carpet is not a significant charge generator when it is new. Usually this type of carpet will be rated per a test method called AATCC-134. The spec is all but meaningless because it is performed on new carpet in a lab using leather soled shoes. The new carpet is always contaminated with antistatic residues used in the process of making the carpet. Antistats wear off in a matter of weeks. I would suggest checking for what we call an antistatic warranty. An antistatic warranty should be in place for the life of the carpet and the warranty should specifically address the actual ohms rating of the carpet.
Here is a link showing a typical grounding method for static control flooring.
The Best Way Ground ESD Flooring
Other Common ESD Flooring Questions
- How do I ground materials and carts to a conductive tile floor?
- Does it do any good to have ESD chairs if the floor is not ESD?
- I have a #6 AWG copper conductor and the copper strip/tape - how to I best MATE those together ? Or how do I ensure conductivity across the floor?
- What do you think of the ESD properties of bare concrete?
- Can you explain the differences between low static and anti-static with grounding?
- Are there any scientific studies about the performance of anti static flooring or conductive flooring for mission critical environments or data centers?
- Is ESD epoxy appropriate for a small server room?
- Is static control floor finish appropriate for an MRI suite in a hospital?
- Glossary and industry terminology explained...
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- Would I be better off with an antistatic or a conductive floor?
- How are floors made conductive?
- How long do conductive properties last?
- Could a conductive floor endanger people working with electrical equipment?
- If something is antistatic, does that mean it will conduct electricity?
- Do ESD tiles need to touch in order to be grounded?
- How does relative humidity affect the performance of an ESD floor?
- Can new floors be installed over old?
- Why should I worry about moisture protection with ESD flooring?
- ESD Standards; What is the correct system resistance?
