Static electricity

[Guthartelec.]

Office with ceramic tile. Office staff states, they are being shocked when they touch metal in kitchen, screws on switch plates, sinks etc. but if you remove your shoes it goes away

Steps taken:
1We have checked for reverse polarity on all devices within the office suite
2. Checked bonding on all equipment, everything is properly bonded
3. Turned power completely off to the whole building, but static electricity still exist.
4. If you walk from kitchen onto carpet outside kitchen then step back in kitchen static goes away

 

[don_resqcapt19]

There are anti-static products (expensive) that can be applied to the floor to help with this. It has nothing to do with the electrical system. The ceramic is a very good insulator and permits the build up of a charge on the person because of the friction between the soles of the shoes and the flooring material.

 

[Joethemechanic]

I've been in automated packaging lines where the rolls of wrapper build up a strong static charge. They have some kind of anti-static fans that they say helps. I have no idea how they work. The ones they use are small and located to blow on the problem areas

 

[TwoBlocked]

More humidity helps. I've seen some warehouse areas of facilities with a water misting humidification system.

 

[GoldDigger]

I've been in automated packaging lines where the rolls of wrapper build up a strong static charge. They have some kind of anti-static fans that they say helps. I have no idea how they work. The ones they use are small and located to blow on the problem areas

If, as in the case of the packaging line, you know the polarity of the static charge, you can use a fan assembly that generates ions of the opposite polarity which can be captured by the charged object to reach a neutral state.
In the case of walking on a floor, I do not know the polarity of the charge produced but it could certainly be determined. However the fan-ionizer devices also produce ozone and in general are not suitable for blowing on people.
Another way to reduce the effects of static would be to provide a touch plate made of high resistance material or grounded through a high resistance which can allow the static charge to be grounded without a perceptible spark.

 

[petersonra]

Tell the employees that do not like the static shocks to buy anti-static shoes.

 

[garbo]

Not a fix but had a friend who kept getting static shocks with his new wall to wall carpet. He finally resorted to carrying around a 1/2 watt resistor. He hold hold one bare lead and touch switch plate with the other. Forget the ohmage. While working at a candy plant when they installed new type of 4' wide belts on metal detectors was called several times everyday saying either workers were getting shocked & best yet electrocuted. Had #12 guage cord feeding them and checked to make sure they were grounded. Finally ran #6 copper to nearest copper water line to prove stainless steel frames of metal detectors were grounded. They experimented with a silver then gold colored rope wrapped aluminum tinsel like you see on Christmas trees. Told them shocks will stop when they go back to o!d style belting. We did have 5 KV static eliminators on plastic wrap on wrapping machines.

 

[kwired]

I've been in automated packaging lines where the rolls of wrapper build up a strong static charge. They have some kind of anti-static fans that they say helps. I have no idea how they work. The ones they use are small and located to blow on the problem areas

It blows the excess electrons off and on the floor, be careful not to step in them or you will have a rather extreme charge on you afterwards.


You're welcome.

 

[Joethemechanic]

Years ago I was at a scrapyard that had a static problem in their sandblasting cabinet. They were blasting artificial joints that came from a crematorium to get the last bits of the dead people off. Not sure what they were using for abrasive media. It freaked the workers out, some of them were worried that they were getting possesed. I've got to say it did throw a pretty big spark when you opened the cabinet and reached in to take them out.

I think I told them to wear welding gloves

 

[Sea Nile]

Do an experiment, spray a layer of static guard on the floor and see if it goes away.