SiPie

Moved to a brand new office in November last year and the composition of the carpet means that our Print Room is now a haven for brutal electric shocks (most staff, not just me)

We had the carpet treated once during cleaning and this cured the static completely.... for a while. Now the shocks are back with a vengeance and to my amazement the Facilities Manager says this treatment will not be repeated and if I am still bothered with it, then I am to use a water spray over the whole floor Not a wind up by the way...!

This does temporarily reduce the static build up but surely this has other implications (apart from making the floor feckin slidy)

Don't want staff to slip and break their necks but also with the amount of electrical equipment in the print room, I can't help but think that this is none too wise

Also the 3 Canon CLC5000's don't seem to like working very well in an area where there is alot of static and is therefore causing me even more grief .....

Surely spraying water on the feckin carpet can't be a good idea....

Anyone who paid any attention in physics at school got any factual info that I can put in his direction ?

Thanks in advance
Si

ProperCharlie

I've never known anyone to sustain an injury from static electricity.

Dracoro

Hmmm, spraying water near electrical devices, very clever.

Tell your boss that you refuse to use the room, s/he should then channel it through the company and the boss of the faculties manager should either a)wave the big stick and get the carpet treated regularly or b) have a non-static on in it's place.

In theory anyway.

SiPie

Errrr... Hello

Water, electrical equipment


Thanks Dracaro
Unfortunately it's the facilities manager that's refusing to treat it ....

Anyone else?

Dracoro

Might be worth investigating health risks from prologned or regular contact with static electricity.

ProperCharlie

I wasn't suggesting that spraying water everywhere is a good idea. I was just commenting that I haven't known anyone get injured from naturally occuring static electricity. If anyone knows different, then let's hear it.

From the HSE website:

in other words - just get on with it.

SiPie

Have a look here Proper Charlie

Taken from above article........I agree with the 'get on with it approach', but unfortunately I am responsible for looking after temps' welfare and half of them we get tend to be American or Australian.

The yanks are just looking for a law suite

Hence, I've got to at least research this, as the jolts are pretty considerable.....not just your normal car door shock. Your elbow joints really feel the jolt

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Vigorously shuffle your feet all the way to the Facilities Managers office, then touch him on the nose with your finger

ProperCharlie

Fair enough, but it still basically says that it's highly unlikely (in normal situations impossible) to suffer an injury because of the electrical discharge from static build up, but the shock can result in falling over or similar accident.

Ringpeas

You need to earth the carpet

Tentenths

LOL

IWatkins

Remove the carpet ?

Allan

iTrader: (1)

I don’t have much experience of static in an office environment, but you'll probably find that the charge generated varies with the type of shoe you wear, humidity, temperature and even the clothes you wear.

Although mainly dealing with the Electronics industry, the link below is to a company we use at work. I have no idea if they can offer any advice for an office environment, however you could try contacting them.

http://www.static-safe.net/index.html

Allan

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Does anyone in your office actually climb ladders or shuffle around carrying heavy loads though? Is the actual accident risk real and/or measurable?

Static at the levels you're talking about is completely harmless to people - it's an annoyance, nothing more. The reason it's taken seriously in the electronics industry is that it can damage electronic components at levels much less than you'd be able to detect with your fingers - the risk is to equipment, not personnel.

I'd also be very surprised indeed if the problems with your photocopier (or whatever) are anything to do with it. Electrical equipment responds to radio interference if anything, and static build-up produces no such interference until it actually discharges (usually, but not always, with a spark).

SiPie

Yes... it's a print room, and I'm maybe just a weakling, but I'd say boxes of A3 aren't the lightest things I've carried

Well...... 3 hard drives have been replaced in 3 Fiery controllers (20 grand boxes that RIP and process files prior to printing) and the Canon engineers are all leaning towards the fact that the increase in static may have something to do with this....... Their words .. not mine

As soon as the static returns the printers all coincidentally start behaving oddly to say the least...

It's a feckin annoyance all right......

As mentioned earlier in the thread, it's a real jolt that gives you the feeling you've had your elbow and shoulder joint tugged big style and it's thrown people backwards. I've seen myself working with acetates (obviously plenty of static involved their admittedly) and then watched as a blue streak jumps from my cufflinks on to a metal table surround ......

Trust me, this is not some minor annoyance...

See how you'd feel when you are getting these shocks all day off most things you touch, regardless of shoe sole type ....

Shocking

ProperCharlie

How about getting a humidifier in there? May help the problem and shouldn't damage the equipment so long as you don't go mad with it and turn the place into a steam room.

beemerboy

halfords anti static strips on the troooser legs should sort it.
or a pair of marigolds...

dont use the room mate, if you feel uncomfortable.

BB

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Sorry, not trying to belittle how annoying it must be - but there's a difference between that and being an actual risk to your health or safety. I agree that making the floor slippery with a water spray would be a dumb idea, although the risk to your equipment of a light mist sprayed at floor level would be nil. (You might like to mention that a fine mist of cooking oil would work better still at reducing static and would have a more permanent effect too as it doesn't evaporate See how that goes down...)

Hard discs enclosed within a chassis are pretty well protected from any static discharge, frankly I'd be amazed if they were suffering any damage from it. Every piece of equipment in the EU has to pass remarkably stringent ESD tests before it can be legally sold - hard drives tend to fail prematurely because of manufacturing defects (including ESD damage during the assembly of the equipment), elevated temperature or vibration. How warm is the room, and how well ventilated is the equipment?

Not sure about your Canon stuff, although frankly I very much doubt the technicians who come out to fix it have the faintest idea how ESD affects equipment. Few enough design engineers do.

Andy
(Snr electronic design engineer, ex-Cisco)

SiPie

PMSL


Agreed Andy and I'll admit to being very sceptical also...just really trying to get to the bottom of this.

The humidity is supposed to be kept to a minimum but the machines have indicated levels of up to 68% so your point re a humidifier may be worth looking into.

I totally appreciate that it's not a serious health risk but more of a personal annoyance and discomfort for staff

Not sure about the cooking oil though

Many thanks for your input Andy ..... appreciated

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Strange... that could well be your problem - link. Low humidity only makes ESD problems worse.

Most equipment is rated to work up to about 90% RH provided it's non-condensing, so I can't understand why anyone would specifically want it to be low unless it's for comfort - and even then, people in air conditioned buildings with low humidity tend to complain of dryness-related discomfort (eyes especially).

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Agreed, low humidity makes static worse. Another idea might be to use an Ionizer, part of your problem may be the copiers themselves which of course use electrostatics to work.

Again try and get professional advice on the ionizer, cheap ones are rarely worth it.

Allan

Leslie

It is a real nuisance Sipie, I remember that in Las Vegas which has a very dry atmosphere, you used to get shocks like that all the time when walking around some of the casinos. The shocks could be quite large at times too.

The tip to cope with it was to hold an ignition key on the metal bit and touch the door handles or whatever with the key to ground the static. You don't feel the shock like that.

Les