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 -------- At 12:28 AM 10/28/98 -0500, Charles Sprickman wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 1998, Tim Pozar wrote:
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 "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word." - Andrew Jackson "What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite." -- Bertrand Russell
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