Static electricity is often perceived as a modern phenomenon when, in reality, it was used to identify amber in Greece more than twenty-five centuries ago in 624 BC. Over the years, there have been materials besides Amber that exhibited static electricity, and its correlation with friction was discovered. In 1744, C. F. Ludwig was the first to prove that electrical sparks can be harmful. Experiments in 1748 resulted in sparks that became so strong and painful that some subjects got injured and declined to repeat the experiments. Since then, static dissipation became a popular area of experimentation.
The key compound in establishing static dissipation is polymers. In the early 1800s, polymers were observed in the form of cellulose as a byproduct of organic compound experimentation.
There are multiple contradictory recordings of the first successful static dissipative flooring, but the earliest system was introduced in the 1800s by Swiss scientists. Later, in the 1940s modern polymer resins came into existence. The first version of conductive floor coatings appeared in 1955. This involved carbon and graphite fillers in flooring that were grounded to dissipate static for the first time. These floors used Vinyl, which came with the disadvantage of not being capable of withstanding heavy loads. Vinyl was followed by Epoxy in ESD flooring, although it proved to be stronger than vinyl, its results had shown to fail conductivity tests in the initial stages which, were later rectified. ESD carpets were manufactured but, owing to the short life span, it was deemed to be inefficient. In 2007, ESD rubber flooring emerged and was accepted for being easy to maintain but was not a popular choice to withstand heavy machinery. Later on, ESD tiles became a popularly sought after option due to ease in tiling but showed inefficient withstanding capabilities. All these issues led to ESD Epoxy being the most popularly sought after flooring material in manufacturing units. These floors still had the drawback of fluctuating and unstable resistance levels and were unable to produce 100% static dissipation.
This issue persisted until the year 2016 when the conductive carbon fibers were replaced by carbon nanomaterials which, assured thorough dissipation of static charges with a surface resistance that constantly remained within a range of 10 6 – 108 ohms.
Latern Nano Materials India Pvt Ltd. is India’s first manufacturer of nanotechnology infused ESD flooring which, has revolutionized flooring standards in manufacturing units across the country.
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