COMPUTER ACCESS FLOOR SYSTEMS

We are pleased to offer Computer Access Floor Cleaning Services. Proper care of a raised floor ensures optimal performance for your flooring system and greatly improves the life expectancy of your raised floor. A raised floor system plays an important role in creating the ideal environment for your equipment and personnel. Although most floor systems are extremely durable, it is still important to maintain a floor system properly. Periodic cleaning of the floor surface and subfloor area increases the operating efficiency and reliability of the equipment and extends the life of the floor system.

OSHA Recommended HEPA Vacuum Cleaners are used during our Computer Access Under Floor and Top Floor cleaning process. Mold, lead, and very fine dust will take a toll on delicate equipment. The basic vacuum cleaner will suck up the dust, but it is not capable of containing most of the equipment-damaging and allergenic particles in its bag. Those of you who use those types of vacuums have probably noticed the musty smell or the sneezing they cause. In fact, dust not only passes out through the filter and back into the room, it becomes airborne, ready to be sucked into the powerful intakes of your equipment. A special High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter can stop 99.97% of the particles down to 0.003 microns. A micron is one-millionth of a meter or one-thousandth of a millimeter or about 1/25,400th of an inch.

During UNE Access Floor Cleaning, UNE Access Floor Cleaner is used on access flooring around sensitive equipment because of its excellent ability to dissipate static electricity. The additional use of anti-static coatings is not necessary.

Standard grades of laminated floor tile have a volume resistance in the range of 5*105 to 2*1010 ohms at 500 volts when tested at 50% RH and 72ºF. Typical values for volume resistance will be in the 10 ohm range, depending on the laminate thickness. Once the floor is installed, its electrical properties will be affected by humidity, adhesives used, panel paint system, and the overall continuity to ground.

UNE laminated flooring products are manufactured specifically for floor surfacing on access flooring systems. They comply with requirements for low static generation and retention, coupled with a washable surface requiring no waxing.

Extensive research and testing resulted in the development of this product. Unlike other cleaning products, UNE Access Floor Cleaner will not affect the static-dissipating properties of high-pressure laminated flooring, an important consideration when cleaning computer room flooring. The formula contains no ammonia or abrasives and is non-flammable.

UNE Access Floor Cleaner is a product developed and formulated for use on high-pressure laminate on a raised floor system. UNE Access Floor Cleaner not only cleans the specific soils associated with computer rooms, but it also enhances the static-dissipating properties of the floor by removing the layer of dirt and dust that acts as an insulating barrier for static dissipation on the top surface of the floor.

Conditions in which panels do not fit securely allow dust and debris to fall into the subfloor. When the subfloor area functions as the air plenum, dust and debris littering the subfloor is blown into equipment by the air conditioning. This can result in equipment failure and unexpected downtime. Raised floor systems must be properly maintained for equipment cooling systems to work efficiently and to prevent contamination of the airflow.

Surface conditions such as wax build-up elevate the floor's static dissipation properties, an important consideration when static control is critical. All of these undesirable conditions can be corrected and prevented through UNE proper maintenance service techniques.

When these problems appear within your raised floor system, it is important to determine the cause and work to solve the problems before they become major threats to the work environment and personnel. Utilizing UNE Access Floor Maintenance Services is the first step to proper care of your Access Flooring System.

Micro-contamination in the Computer Room

Access flooring has been installed in computer centers for more than 30 years now. Age may be starting to show. Let's take a look at the problems that develop with a raised floor and how they can contribute to micro-contamination.

The most common structural problem is a condition known as lateral instability. This occurs when the floor system becomes loose and unstable. This condition allows debris to fall between the cracks and land in the air supply plenum. Raised floors are intended to be level with no gaps or cracks.

Vertical instability or rocking panels also contribute to contamination. When this condition exists, debris, dust, and other contaminates fall into the subfloor supply plenum and contaminate the airflow. Aside from contamination, rocking panels should be eliminated. They create a safety hazard for your employees, and if left to rock, other problems will develop.

Missing edge trim is a common sight in computer rooms. It is the absence of trim on a raised floor panel that creates a "canal" or "dirtway" for contamination to hide and eventually work its way into the supply plenum. This causes dirt and dust to collect on the grid and results in rapid aging of a floor system.

Contamination is invited under the floor when the raised floor is cut and those cutouts are not properly sealed. Sealing is accomplished with a special type of trim that allows for a piece of foam rubber to cover the opening. It's also efficient for your raised floor to be sealed to maintain the static pressure of the air plenum.

Rust on the floor components must be removed, and the cause eliminated. Rust is usually caused by improper maintenance (water mops), a leak under the raised floor, or over-humidity of the air conditioning. The rust flakes off and becomes a damaging particulate that travels at high velocities.

Multiple problems can contribute to contamination under an operating computer floor:

• Plenum debris is a common sight when subfloors are not maintained. This debris should never be allowed to accumulate. Your raised floor is a supply plenum for your air conditioning, and the air is not filtered before it reaches your computer equipment. Regular subfloor vacuuming will eliminate harmful particulates.
• The forced air from the air conditioning system and the blowers within computers is designed to keep the electronic components operating at the proper temperature, ensuring long life and maximum reliability. An excessive amount of soot will reduce the airflow across a component. This will increase the component's temperature and shorten its life.
• A computer room needs to be cleaned on a regularly scheduled basis. This is particularly important after an installation or upgrade. Besides the obvious places such as the tops of system cabinets and the floor surface, periodically clean underneath the raised floor and any other dust-catching surfaces such as ductwork and raised floor airflow panels. Specialized computer room cleaning companies use techniques and equipment designed to clean efficiently without recontaminating the computer environment or disturbing operation.

The following considerations may be helpful when instructing personnel in cleaning procedures:

• Avoid the use of harsh cleaning solutions and chemicals containing ammonia, chlorine, or harsh detergents.
• Do not sweep, because airborne dust will be generated.
• Use a dry lint-free dust mop on an access floor.
• Perform spot cleaning with a damp mop.
• Don’t allow powder cleaners in the facility for carpet or hard surfaces.
• Make sure the products used have been tested according to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) standards and that the chemicals do not interfere with the static-dissipating properties of your floor.
• Have your raised floor professionally cleaned at least two times a year.

Purchase a low or lint-free dedicated mop, along with a seamless bucket and mark ACCESS FLOOR ONLY. In-house maintenance people need training in your facility. Insist the janitorial service use this dedicated mop in your areas only.

Let's talk about janitors for just a minute. They are major contributors to contamination in your facility because they do not understand the critical nature of operating computer equipment. They do a series of things that can be harmful because they are not trained on data centers. It's just another room to clean.

Janitors will bring the same mops used to clean the bathrooms and the kitchen into your computer room. The chemicals and wax that build up in the mops are mopped onto your access floor. After the floor dries, it is not clean. It is contaminated. If there was wax on the mop, then the floor your paid dearly for to dissipate the static electricity has been temporarily insulated...insulated by the barrier of wax.

Another way janitors bring particulates in is by bringing a giant 64 gallon garbage can on rollers, wheeling it up your ramp, and then proceeding to empty the waste receptacles inside the computer room. This creates high-flying particulates. Not only do you have the waste from your room to worry about, but you now have the entire building’s particulates to deal with in your closed room.

It is important to get other operating facility references on everyone who enters your facility for any reason to perform work. Make sure they understand the function of your room and your equipment.

A computer facility is a dynamic environment where many activities occur on a regular basis. Maintenance and upgrades are completed on the computer system, the air-conditioning system, the public telephone network, and the architectural elements within the facility. Installation of new and additional power, data, security, or fire protection circuits is a recurring event. With proper planning, it should be possible to perform these activities with minimal contamination.

It is important to remember that in your indoor artificial work environment there typically isn't any fresh air. Cleaning of your work environment should be performed frequently and regularly to keep equipment operational. In addition to damaging your computer system, airborne contamination can be hazardous to your health.