ESD Carpet Grounding

Technical Documents: How to Ground a Floor

Make no mistake! To achieve the electrical specifications for the ESD Flooring Materials you have selected your floor must be grounded. Proper grounding techniques are important in even the most basic of environments, and critical in explosive, ordinance and munitions environments. Every installation is different! We generally supply (at no charge with your flooring order) a quantity of grounding hardware appropriate for basic grounding in non-critical standard environments. Further, the quantity of grounding hardware we provide is for use with installations utilizing one of our conductive adhesive floor bonding mechanisms applied to concrete substrates. Using more (or less) grounding locations and hardware will allow you to "fine tune" your conductivity (if required). Conditions such as highly insulative substrates (wood, carpet, etc) that you wish to cover with your new ESD Flooring or environments encountering extreme sensitivity to ESD "events" (hard drive manufacturing, raw sensitive electronic component handling, explosive, munitions etc) may require increasing your grounding hardware requirements. Clients are urged to evaluate their conditions and environment and contact us as needed if additional grounding may be required. Sections One and Two of this Document encompass the use of two types of standard grounding hardware provided by ESD Carpet. While Drawings and Overviews in Section Three provide information on the quantity of grounding required for the following environments. Basic: Office, Telecom, many manufacturing environments.

Advanced (or for insulative substrates): Raw component handling, hard drive mg, etc.

Critical: Ordinance and explosive environments.

OVERVIEW

ESD Carpeting and Vinyl Flooring (marketed under the trade names of ZeroStat Carpet must be grounded to provide reliable elimination of electrostatic potential. These instructions are designed to provide a comprehensive overview for the majority of environments utilizing our static dissipative and conductive flooring materials. Our ESD Flooring materials are designed to work in conjunction with either our liquid conductive adhesive (GZ C-2000) or our unique releasable adhesive "Tape" (URAS). Both adhesives provide reliable anchoring of the flooring, as well as a conductive media allowing equalization of electrostatic potential for subsequent elimination via ground mechanism(s). Two Types of grounding mechanisms are available from GndZero.com. Grounding suggestions for both types of adhesives and GZ Grounding mechanisms are similar, however the quantity of grounding hardware and connections are increased for Advanced and Critical applications see Section Three).

Goal: To provide a reliable mechanical connection from your ESD flooring and adhesive to a dependable earthed electrical ground in your building.

Section One of Three
INSTALLATION AND USAGE OF FLOOR GROUNDING PLATES:

USGZ ESD Floor Grounding Plates (PN: SP-GNDPLT-ASM) are manufactured in a 2.625 wide X 3.625 heavy gage stainless steel. These devices are supplied complete with a conductive adhesive backing and heavy gage test lead wiring terminated with a #10 ring terminal. The plates are designed to be placed on top of ESD flooring materials and attached to flooring by removing the adhesive liner (on the underside of the plates) and pressing firmly in place. The attachment of ground terminal wire (#10 ring terminal eyelet) to center screw of AC electrical face plate cover is compliant with most state and local codes and provides a good mechanical connection of flooring to the electrical grounding system of your building (see figure 1). If your grounding requirements mandate a "attachment to AC Electrical Ground" we recommend utilizing a local electrician to ground terminal wires. In Basic environments, these plates may be used without a copper (or brass) foil underlayment, however best results are generally obtained by placing a small 3' long piece of copper (or brass) onto the substrate edge and up a wall (by a wall outlet preferably) prior to applying the adhesive. The foil is subsequently folded over the top of the flooring (for about 2") and covered with a grounded plate. The Plates should always be used in conjunction with the a more extensive foil grounding tape underlayment when installing in Advanced or Critical Environments or when applying static dissipative or conductive materials on top of highly insulative surfaces such as wood or carpeted substrates. When used with copper foil grounding tape, the function of the plate is to provide a mechanically reliable attachment of copper foil flooring underlayment grid to ground. Simply fold terminated copper foil strip over the top of the flooring (trim if necessary to a length of about 2 inches), remove adhesive liner from plate, place plate over foil "tab," press firmly in place and ground. Further details for recommended usage of foil grid tape can be found in section Two with appropriate diagrams listed in Section Three.

Section Two of Three
Installation and usage of USGZ Copper (or Brass) Foil Grounding Grid Tape.

This .500 wide X 108 foot long Copper (or Brass) foil, adhesive backed tape is supplied in roll form (PN: TP-7521) and is extremely useful for pre-placing a grid or ground strap beneath your ESD flooring material. The function of the tape is to provide a strap, pattern or grid underlayment beneath the ESD floor prior to covering with the appropriate conductive adhesive. The foil is subsequently attached to multiple permanently grounded objects (such as water pipes, building superstructures, metal beams, building electrical conduit systems, etc). To apply, sweep substrate to remove loose dust and abrasives. Using the diagrams below decide on the appropriate quantity for your environment (please contact our Engineering Dept if you have any questions). Remove the adhesive liner (backing) from the Foil and press firmly in place on substrate. Gently pull tape as you unroll (to keep from puckering), smooth the tape in place with foot or towel. The tape may be attached to ground by simply (with liner removed), running the tape up (or on) the permanently grounded object. More secure mechanical connections may be achieved by using the tape in conjunction with our USGZ ESD Floor Grounding Plates listed in Section One.