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Static-dissipative Flooring

Glossary Term

Static-dissipative floors are defined by a property called electrical resistance. Electrical resistance, measured in ohms, is a material’s ability to resist, or stop, the flow of electricity.

One of the two important parameters for describing a static control floor is resistance to ground or path to ground. In order to qualify as static dissipative, a floor must have an electrical resistance to ground that’s > 1.0 x 10E6 (one million ohms) AND ≤ 1 x 10E9 (one billion ohms).

The term “static dissipative” should not be confused with the terms “conductive,” “antistatic” or “low charge generating.”

A static-control floor can be dissipative (or conductive) and still generate charges significant enough to cause an ESD event.

Note: the secondary definition below does NOT apply to ESD flooring or flooring materials.

2) Another definition of static dissipative is: a material that can conduct an electrical charge and has an inherent resistivity range between 1 x 10E4 ohms and 1 x 10E11 ohms. Sometimes referred to as electrically dissipative.

Read: Conductive vs Dissipative: Does It Matter?

Walking Body Voltage

The static charge, in volts, generated by a person walking across the floor. Static charges that accumulate on the body discharge to the first object the person touches, potentially damaging or disrupting sensitive electronics. Learn about how ESD flooring works

Voltage Suppression

Voltage suppression occurs when an ESD-protective material, such as a static-dissipative table covering, suppresses static charges rather than dissipating charges to ground. For instance, an ESD laminate with a buried conductive layer will suppress the electrostatic field from a charged object, but is incapable of discharging static even when the charged object touches its surface.

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. Flooring should always be tested for VOC content by independent certification organizations like FloorScore and GreenGuard.

Triboelectric Series

A list of common materials, such as leather, nylon, wool, and paper, showing whether a material tends to give up or take on electrons when in frictional contact with other materials on the list. Those that give up electrons become positively charged, and materials that accept electrons become negatively charged. In the ESD industry, the

Triboelectric Charging

Whenever two objects with different electrical characteristics make contact and separate, the molecules in the two materials interact, forming an electrical bond. Separating the materials creates friction. This frictional force draws electrons away from one material and deposits an excess of electrons on the other, leaving a positive or negative electrical charge on both materials.

Total Cost of Ownership

The real cost of a product, encompassing the cost of the material, along with installation, maintenance, anticipated repairs and necessary monitoring. These hidden costs are often overlooked or ignored in the initial cost analysis, but they add up and over time can outpace the expense of owning a floor with a higher material cost. For

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