Protektive Pak - Questions And Answers

Problem: Conductive Epoxy Floor has a resistance reading of 1x10¹² and greater when measured in front of the lab work benches using a calibrated meter at 100 volts. The floor beyond the benches some 3 to 4 feet way measures 1x10⁶ to 1x10⁸ ohms / sq. ft. The floor is approximately 1 year old and has been cleaned using clear water only. Questions raised to the workers about chemicals used in the area indicate none used. The chairs that are used by the Engineers and technicians have plastic wheels. I have noted that benches that are not used much have good resistance in front of the bench where on the other hand, benches used heavily have very high resistance to an open condition. I used some 220 grit sand paper and lightly sanded the floor in front of one of the trouble spot benches and cleaned it with alcohol. The resistance then measured 1x10^9.5 Ohms/sq ft. Conclusion is that the chairs maybe depositing plastic onto the Epoxy floor and creating an insulative condition. Question, What can I use to correct this problem and not ruin our conductive floor? - Jim Fitzgibbons, General Instrument, Horsham, PA

You can try our cleaner, but it may not be strong enough to remove the plastic (from the plastic wheels) imbedded into the floor pours. Maybe a stripper would work better (to initially clean the floor). We would advise that you to check with the epoxy manufacturer on their cleaning recommendation. Typically, raw surfaces (without a finish) tend to allow stuff to get imbedded into it easier then if it was finished. General experience with ESD epoxy floors is that there may be an electrical resistance unevenness found over the floor's surface. This can be corrected by applying our Statproof® floor finish program. This will electrically smooth out the floor's surface resistance for consistency and compliance to ANSI/ESD S7.1 and ESD DS20.20 for floors. An additional response to Question #251 from Irvan Guss: We have had a problem with the chair casters depositing an insulative layer on our Epoxy floor. We solved part of our problem by changing from a hard caster (for carpets) to a soft caster which does not abrade off as much material onto the floor.

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