After a footwear/flooring system is qualified for personnel grounding, ANSI/ESD S20.20-2021 recommends periodic body-voltage testing to verify that voltage remains below 100 volts (Table 2, footnote 6). Under that footnote, periodic testing is recommended, not required, and no repeat interval is specified. Initial qualification is separate: both the resistance and peak-voltage qualification limits must be met.
ANSI/ESD S20.20-2021 is the ESD Association’s electrostatic discharge (ESD) program standard, approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Qualification still requires both limits
The periodic recommendation applies after qualification. To qualify a footwear/flooring system used for personnel grounding, Table 2 of S20.20-2021 requires both the resistance and peak-voltage qualification limits to be met.
Who sets the interval?
S20.20-2021 puts the frequency in the compliance verification plan
Footnote 6 gives no repeat interval. Section 7.4 of S20.20-2021 requires a compliance verification plan that identifies the ESD control items to be tested periodically and how often they are tested.
The TR53-01-22 foreword assigns intervals to the organization
ESD TR53-01-22 is the ESD Association’s technical report on compliance verification. Its foreword says that organizations performing the report’s compliance verification procedures must determine the time intervals between verifications. It recommends basing those intervals on how critical the ESD control items are to the organization’s ESD control program. The foreword is not part of the technical report itself.
JESD625C.01 recommends periodic walking-voltage testing
JESD625C.01 is published by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association. Note 3 to Table 2 of JEDEC JESD625C.01 (March 2024) recommends periodically performing the walking voltage test using ANSI/ESD STM97.2. The note gives no repeat interval.
STM97.2 is the standard test method for measuring body voltage with a person, flooring and static-control footwear.
Setting the repeat-testing schedule
When setting the repeat-testing schedule, review how your facility’s ESD compliance verification plan addresses periodic walking body-voltage testing. If the plan does not address it, ask the person responsible for the ESD program to review the recommendation and document the facility’s approach. The cited footnote does not supply a default testing interval.
Contact Craftsman Concrete Floors to discuss how flooring and footwear testing fit into your facility’s ESD floor testing plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Under ANSI/ESD S20.20-2021 Table 2, footnote 6, periodic body-voltage testing for a qualified footwear/flooring personnel-grounding system is recommended, not required. The test verifies that voltage remains below 100 volts, and the footnote specifies no repeat interval. Initial qualification is separate and requires both the resistance and peak-voltage limits to be met.
ANSI/ESD S20.20-2021 Table 2 footnote 6 gives no repeat interval; section 7.4 requires periodic test frequencies in the compliance verification plan. The ESD TR53-01-22 foreword assigns intervals to the organization performing the verification and recommends basing them on how critical the control item is to the organization’s ESD control program. That foreword is not part of the technical report itself.
No. ANSI/ESD S20.20-2021 Table 2 requires both resistance and peak-voltage qualification limits to be met for a footwear/flooring system used to ground personnel.