General Questions

ESD flooring is an essential grounding solution that many businesses’ use to prevent electrostatic discharge in their static safe environments. It is widely used for industrial static control since many items in these areas are sensitive to static therefore prevention methods are required. By grounding the charge, anti-static flooring prevents the ESD from building up and discharging into the environment; where it could be destructive to goods or dangerous to people. To dissipate static, or draw static charges away from people or objects, the floor in any static-sensitive environment must be grounded. For electronics manufacturing applications that require the use of ESD footwear it’s fine to use charge-generating flooring materials like conductive vinyl.

If you intend to carry electrostatic sensitive devices around with you within the EPA, you should consider using ESD flooring in conjunction with the appropriate ESD footwear or ESD heel grounders to ground any static charge. Antistatic flooring should be installed in high-traffic/high-use networked environments to minimise static charge and to provide additional protection against static damage. ESD flooring should be installed anywhere the threat of uncontrolled static electricity buildup and discharge is a concern and could jeopardise the performance and operation of electronics systems or the handling, assembly and repair of electronics.

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Selecting a flooring for your business can be overwhelming with many to choose from; especially when you need to consider the materials, industry standards and requirements. Anti static flooring is often a beneficial choice for industries such as healthcare, electronics and military locations.

Controls static discharge

The main purpose of ESD flooring is to help reduce possible electrostatic discharge (ESD). ESD flooring is especially important within industries where static can cause interference or damage to employees and/or equipment. These can include: electronic and high tech areas, cleanrooms, operating theatres, classrooms and industrial areas.

Excellent for high-traffic/high-use networked environments

ESD flooring minimises static charge and provides additional protection against static damage.

Grounds people and products

ESD flooring ensures people and products are grounded in the static sensitive environment.

Durable

The majority of anti static floors are manufactured from hard-wearing and long-lasting materials such as rubber, tiles and vinyl.

Low maintenance

Both installation and care of ESD floors are generally extremely simple. Most ESD floors can often be placed over existing floors, interlock, and can be sealed easily with floor finish products. At Bondline, we offer the very best in pre-sales and after-sales service including a free floor audit, expert advice, full preparation and installation service, annual testing and calibration and a full cleaning and after-care service.

Easy to clean

An ESD floor requires specialised care when it comes to cleaning. If you do not clean or maintain your antistatic floor, you could compromise the ESD properties of the floor. This could lead to expensive replacement costs of the damaged electronics and the floor itself. In order for your floor to perform its best long-term you should use the appropriate floor treatments such as our ESD floor cleaner.

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If you are looking for a flooring solution for your workplace that controls static charge, you may be wondering what the difference is between ESD and anti static flooring and which one to purchase. Ultimately, each type of flooring prevents a person from building up a charge as they walk across the floor so they do not get a shock when they touch something that conducts electricity. However, the top layer of an anti-static floor has a coating that dissipates static across its surface so you never build up enough charge to get a shock, whereas ESD is a much more robust solution because it is actually earthed. ESD flooring gives a much higher level of protection than anti-static matting. This is because it is actually grounded.

The term anti-static refers to a very specific electrical resistance range of between 10⁹ and 10 to the 11 and only means that the floor itself will not generate static. It does not mean that the floor will eliminate static build up or dissipate static that may have already been built up in the body. This can only be achieved with a conductive (resistance range of between 10⁴ x 10⁶) or a dissipative (10⁷ to 10⁹) floor covering.

In general, you will need an ESD floor if you are manufacturing, repairing, servicing, handling or using equipment that is susceptible to damage from electro-static discharge, typical sectors would include the manufacture of components for the electronics industry, aviation, automotive, IT, medical, oil and gas, telecoms and IT for example. For electronics manufacturing applications that require the use of ESD footwear it’s fine to use charge-generating flooring materials like conductive vinyl.

Click here to view our full range of ESD Flooring.

In many cases it is possible depending on your current flooring. We recommend a site survey to establish whether this is possible or if your existing floor needs to be removed before the new ESD floor can be laid.

If you would like to discuss this further with our team, please contact us and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.