Thursday, June 16, 2005

Why Use an ESD Floor Finish?

ESD floor finish can provide protection and extend the life of your static control floor !

  • Protects your flooring and investment
  • Reduces maintenance cost.
  • Dramatically extends the floors life cycle.
  • Heel scuff marks just roll right off!
  • Reduces tribocharging.
  • Seals all seams and porosity.
  • Improves chemical resistance.
  • High gloss for clean high tech appearance.

Like you, an esd floor works hard for it's living. Unlike you (we hope), ESD flooring needs to perform flawlessly often 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Conventional wisdom from the esd flooring material manufacturers dictate that their materials do not require (in fact they do not recommend) using any type of floor finish.

Unfortunately this outdated conventional wisdom hasn't had to maintain a floor in a real working environment!

Past reasons for not using an esd floor finish primarily focused on the somewhat large increase in resistance levels that many of the older formulations achieved. Newer formulations are tailored to provide resistance levels compliant with the latest EOS ESD 2020 guidlines, providing only marginal decreases in conductivity and (generally speaking) only providing these decreases to flooring materials that start out in the conductive range


In this un-retouched photo it's easy to see where the floor finish (and protection begins). While a pencil will leave an obvious mark (as do heel straps) on the uncoated surface, the coated surface will accept neither.

Reductions in tribocharging (as well as increases in the floor finishes conductivity )are further enhanced by high speed polishing of the finish. It's important to note that modifications to the floors conductivity will be minimal under the higher ambient relative humidity conditions prevalent in many manufacturing environments, therefore it's best to fully evaluate several choices in your environment under your operating and load conditions. Check your specifications than test your floors electrical conductivity prior to applying small 2'x2' test patches. Apply the finishes according to manufacturers recommendations in area's that receive the most abuse possible. Evaluate the products for visual performance against wear, electrical conductivity and ease of application. Remember "all static control floor finishes are not created equal" (contrary to what your local floor maintenance supplier may tell you). Thorough evaluation and the right product will yield dramatic results.

StopESD offers excellent static control floor chemicals for both vinyl tile and carpet: http://www.stopesd.com/static_control_chemicals.html