An antistatic plasticizer is a cationic antistat carried in a plasticizer, so it joins the plasticizer package of a flexible PVC compound and stays distributed through the wear layer of the floor. Dosed into the compound or the plastisol, it brings a vinyl floor into the static-dissipative band of 106 to 109 ohms, which is the range ANSI/ESD S20.20 caps at 109 ohms for the person, footwear and floor together. PATstat 313 is the grade P.A.T. Products makes for the purpose: 43 percent active, a clear liquid at about 300 mPa.s, free of volatile solvents, added at room temperature with no masterbatch step.
Why the antistat goes into the compound
Vinyl is an insulator, so an untreated floor holds the charge a person generates walking on it. The charge attracts dust and scuff, shocks people at a cart handle or a door, and puts electronics at risk in the rooms where a discharge is a real cost: data centers, electronics assembly, cleanrooms, laboratories, operating rooms, control rooms.
Static control can be applied to the surface as a finish, or built into the compound. A topical antistat lives in the finish and leaves with it, on the wear cycle and the maintenance schedule. A cationic antistat dosed into the PVC is present through the full thickness of the wear layer, so a floor that wears does not lose its static control, and a floor that is stripped and recoated does not need re-treating.
How it behaves in the compound
Because the carrier is a plasticizer, the additive blends into flexible PVC the way the rest of the plasticizer package does. It is metered with the liquid additives, it fuses with the compound, and it is counted in the plasticizer total. The antistat itself is cationic and strongly polar, so it lowers the electrical resistance of the system at small additions; the exact value depends on the formulation and the dose, and it usually lands between 109 and 106 ohms.
The mechanism is the same one every cationic antistat uses. A share of the molecules migrates to the surface and orients there, and the polar head draws a thin water film from the air that, with the ionic additive, forms the conductive path. The reading depends on humidity, so a floor is read at 12 percent relative humidity as well as 50 percent. And the effect builds as migration proceeds, so the number a week after production is the number to qualify on.
PATstat 313 is an antistatic additive, not a conductivity agent. It carries a floor into the antistatic and static-dissipative tiers. Conductive flooring at or below 106 ohms, the tier specified where charge has to be gone as fast as the grounding plan allows, normally takes a conductive filler such as carbon in the compound, and the antistat works alongside it.
Compounding static-control vinyl?
Tell us the floor, the polymer and process, the plasticizer you build on and the standard you design to. We will recommend a starting dose and ship a sample to trial in your compound.
Request a SampleThe tiers and the standards a floor is sold against
Antistatic. Defined by behavior. The European walk test, EN 1815, measures the body voltage a person generates crossing the floor, and EN 14041 declares a resilient or laminate floor antistatic at 2 kV or less.
Static-dissipative. Above 1.0 x 106 ohms and below 1.0 x 109 ohms to ground. This is the working band for electronics, and the band an antistatic plasticizer is built to hit.
Conductive. At or below 1.0 x 106 ohms to ground. Normally reached with a conductive filler.
North American ESD programs design to ANSI/ESD S20.20, which points at ANSI/ESD STM7.1 for the flooring material on its own, STM97.1 for the system resistance with a person standing on the installed floor in the footwear the space allows, and STM97.2 for the peak body voltage, capped at under 100 volts. ASTM F150 is the resilient-flooring resistance method a flooring data sheet usually quotes. IEC 61340-4-1 and 4-5 are the international route. The bands, the three resistance measurements and why they differ are in static-dissipative vs conductive flooring.
Dosing PATstat 313
PATstat 313 is added in its delivery form at room temperature and below. No pre-heating, no dilution, no masterbatch. It meters into the PVC compound, the dry blend or the plastisol with a pump or a dispenser and disperses easily. The dose is set to the resistance target, and because it is a liquid on the line, the dose can be adjusted between runs instead of reordering a pelletized concentrate. It is one finished grade, made to a fixed specification, with a certificate of analysis on every lot; the PATstat line is open for a different plasticizer carrier or a different loading against a specific system.
Qualifying the compound
Run the dose ladder in the production compound and fuse it the way the line does. Condition the panels at 50 percent relative humidity and 23 degrees C and read resistance per the method the specification quotes, STM7.1 or ASTM F150 for the material; then condition at 12 percent and read again, because the dry reading is the one that separates static control built into the compound from static control borrowed from the weather. Read again after a week. Then check what the floor has to keep: color and clarity of the wear layer, gloss, plate-out on the calender or the coating head, heat stability, and the physicals the floor was qualified on. Pick the lowest dose that holds the number dry. For a floor sold into an ESD program, finish with the walk test in the footwear the program allows, because a floor can sit inside the dissipative band and still generate more than 100 volts on a walker.
Where it goes
Luxury vinyl tile and plank, glue-down, click and rigid core. Vinyl composition tile. Homogeneous and heterogeneous sheet, where static control runs across a welded surface. Static-dissipative tile built to an ESD program. Vinyl-faced access-floor panels for data centers and control rooms, where the floor is part of the grounding plan. Wall base and trim that carry the same treatment as the floor.
PATstat 313, made by P.A.T. Products
The antistatic plasticizer for resilient and vinyl flooring. 25 kg and 200 kg drums, 1,000 kg totes, 12-month shelf life, certificate of analysis per lot, supplied across North America.
See the antistatic additives rangeFrequently asked
What is an antistatic plasticizer?
A cationic antistat carried in a plasticizer, so it joins the plasticizer package of a flexible PVC compound instead of sitting on the surface as a finish. In a floor it distributes static control through the wear layer. PATstat 313 is the grade P.A.T. Products makes for resilient and vinyl flooring.
What resistance does PATstat 313 reach?
Usually between 109 and 106 ohms, the antistatic and static-dissipative band, with the exact value set by the formulation and the dose. It is an antistatic additive, not a conductivity agent; a conductive floor at or below 106 ohms normally needs a conductive filler alongside it.
Does it change the plasticizer balance of the compound?
It is a plasticizer-carried liquid, so count it in the plasticizer total and trial the physicals at the chosen dose. At the low levels a static-control target needs, the change to hardness and tensile is small, and the ladder confirms it for your compound.
Does the floor pass in dry winter air?
Read it at 12 percent relative humidity to find out. A migrating antistat conducts through a water film it draws from the air, and the film thins as the air dries, so the flooring protocols condition at 12 percent and 50 percent. Building the antistat into the compound keeps it present; where the specification has to hold below 106 ohms in dry air, add a conductive filler.
How is it supplied?
In 25 kg and 200 kg steel drums and 1,000 kg totes, with a 12-month shelf life in the closed container, a Technical Data Sheet and Safety Data Sheet, and a certificate of analysis on each lot. Its components are REACH-registered and listed on TSCA, DSL and the other major inventories. It is classified as dangerous under Regulation (EC) No. 1272/2008 and is not for food-contact use.