Are You Grounded with Anti-Static Flooring?: A Fault-Tolerant Solution for 9-1-1 Dispatch Centers

Dispatch Document

Specifying Flooring for Public Safety Emergency Communication Dispatch Operations

The purpose of an antistatic floor in a dispatch operation is to prevent or inhibit static discharges between dispatch personnel and their electronic communication equipment.  An effective anti static floor must inhibit accumulation of static charges on people working in these spaces. The floor must measure in the static dissipative range and meet the recommended grounding parameters of Motorola R56. 

What is R56 and why is it important?

Communication network downtime significantly impacts daily operations and much of potential downtime can be the result of non-compliance to minimum communication site standards. If the equipment isn’t properly grounded and incorporates surge suppression, it can significantly jeopardize your network, and it also puts those who maintain the site at significant risk. Originally developed by Motorola in 1987 to provide internal guidelines and requirements for the installation of communication equipment, infrastructure and facilities, the “Standards and Guidelines for Communication Sites” (R56) form the minimum standards required to provide expected system performance, reliability and equipment longevity. The Motorola guidelines have since become the recognized standard in the industry and serve as the most complete and rigorous specification for the protection of communication system equipment installed at public safety and commercial wireless communication sites.

R56 standards and guidelines for communications sites 10Mb download

The specification for flooring can be located on page 469

What is the recommended ohms resistance range for flooring in Motorola R56?

Equipment rooms and dispatch centers are operational equipment end user environments. These spaces have unique requirements for grounded flooring. Utilizing ANSI/ESD S20.20-2007 as a reference document, when writing specifications for these spaces is a common mistake. ANSI/ESD S20.20 is a process document used for implementing a static control program in ESD protected areas in electronics manufacturing.  There is little overlap between electronic manufacturing and protecting operational equipment with static free flooring. The correct reference documents for flooring specifiers are Motorola R56 and ATIS-0600321

These two documents are written specifically for telecommunication equipment environments. Unlike conductive flooring installed in explosives handling and electronics manufacturing, the flooring in a communication room should be specified in the static dissipative range.

Conductive Flooring: 2.5 X 10 E4 1.0 X 10 E6

Static Dissipative Floor: 1.0 X 10 E6 – 1.0 X 10 E9

C.3.3 FLOORING FROM MOTOROLA R56

PROTECTING AGAINST ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE (ESD) IN EQUIPMENT ROOMS AND DISPATCH CENTERS

Carpeting or floor tiles within an equipment room or dispatch center, including raised flooring, should have a resistance to ground measurement of between 10 E6 and 10 E9 ohms when measured using the test method of ANSI/ESD STM7.1-2001 or later. Existing flooring that does not meet this requirement should be treated with a topical solution such as an antistatic floor wax or spray solution. The effectiveness of antistatic solutions is temporary and varies with floor material and relative humidity. Flooring resistance should be monitored every two weeks minimum to verify conformance to the above requirements.

See ATIS-0600321.2010, section 4.2 and ANSI/ESD-S7.1-2005 for more information.

What to write in a bid request of flooring intended for use in an emergency 911 Communication Center or similar:

1. Flooring must comply with electrical resistance range noted in Motorola R56 and ATIS-0600321-2010.

2. Flooring must measure over 1 million ohms from any point on the floor to ground using an ohm meter based on test method ANSI/ESD S7.1-2005.

3. At the completion of the project the floor must be tested and certified by a trained individual. The certification letter must state compliance with the static dissipative electrical resistance range as outlined in Motorola R56 and ATIS-0600321-2010.

Static Dissipative Carpet can be installed as a floating floor using our GroundWise pads over raised access flooring  panels without glues and adhesives

Communication Equipment is sensitive to electrostatic discharge

ATIS-0600321.2010 

[Revision of ATIS-0600321.2005] 

American National Standard for Telecommunications 

ELECTRICAL PROTECTION FOR 

NETWORK OPERATOR-TYPE EQUIPMENT POSITIONS

Are You Grounded with Anti-Static Flooring?: A Fault-Tolerant Solution for 9-1-1 Dispatch Centers