Stephen Stuart wrote:
> I'm looking for carpeting for the area outside of a machine room that
> won't cause the "shuffle your feet and shock yourself" phenomenon. I
> noticed most datacenters I've seen are carpeted up to the entrance without
> any ESD problems. Is there special "anti-ESD" carpet? Where might I find
> it?
Yes. Searching AltaVista for "anti-static carpet" (without the quotes)
will produce results of which the following is in the first ten matches:
http://accessfloor.com/top/carpet/default.html
I once recommended anti-static carpet for a machine room, and I was
very happy with the way it turned out. I might be able to dig up the
name of the supplier if you contact me off-line.
Stephen
This stuff is expensive. Most of anti-static carpet fabric will have
wire threaded through it and a drain wire attached that you should ground.
It may be far easier to pick up a grounded chair mat that you can place
at the table. Any used office supply place should have them.
Tim
This stuff is expensive. Most of anti-static carpet fabric will have
wire threaded through it and a drain wire attached that you should ground.
Just to formally close out the carpet thread, there appears to be a single
source for the stuff. 3M makes tiles and treatments, and many carpet
companies have carpet that has a special anti-static backing, but only one
seems to have "certified" static-free carpet.
You can find it at http://www.utp.com. The process involves some
type of conductive carbon fiber woven into it that is bound to a
conductive backing. At approx. every 1000 sq. feet there is a grounding
strap. The carpet is available in rolls or in tile-sized pieces, and
looks to be completely safe for any computing environment. Pricing starts
at about $22/sq yd. for the roll product. Any carpet installer should be
able to order it and install it, as there is no special process involved
other than attaching the grounding strap, and anyone who's handy should be
able to figure that part out. The folks at UTP are pretty friendly on the
phone and will answer any technical questions you can think of. You get
some nice free samples if you call.
We're going with this solution. Our machine room is very small, and the
surrounding build/test/repair/work area isn't that much larger and could
use some static reduction.
Charles
>
It may be far easier to pick up a grounded chair mat that you can place
at the table. Any used office supply place should have them.
Tim
--
Snail: Tim Pozar / LNS / 1978 45th Ave / San Francisco CA 94116 / USA
POTS: +1 415 665 3790 Radio: KC6GNJ / KAE6247
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If I may, don't expect your carpet installer to know how to figure the
grounding straps out. I've known way too many of them.
You should pre-determin where the straps are going to be and how they are
to be attached to the grounding source and amke sure that it's actually
available where the strap is.
I could see a carpet installer doing one of the following:
1) cut it off
2) tuck it under
3) nail it to the floor
4) ignore it and maybe you can find it when he's done
5) "I don't know what to do with this, so I'll leave it exposed for you to
deal with"
6) "Listen, I don't know anything about 'grounding' a rug. I'll have to
come back later.
Nothing like carpet installers...
James