Specialized Seating – Is Polyurethane Or ESD Seating the Right Choice For Your Company?

ESD and Polyurethane seating, while perhaps not the most popular or well known choice for office chairs, is specialized seating that is sometimes required and needed by companies. Primarily used in the healthcare industry, the material that makes up these chairs is different than your typical fabric, mesh, leather material. From the chair’s back to the base to the type of casters/glides used on the chair are all specially constructed.
ESD (Static-Dissipative) chairs’ fabric make these chairs safe for use around sensitive components and equipment. ESD chairs are designed specifically to eliminate problems caused by combining conductive materials such as hooded static-free casters and upholstered in static-free fabric. Even simple movements such as reaching for a telephone can generate enough voltage to damage or degrade sensitive microelectronic components, which is why this specialty seating came about.
In order to resist static, an ESD chair is carefully and thoughtfully crafted. When the back of the chair is designed, the front and rear panels are covered with ESD compliant fabric or vinyl secured to copper bands inside the backrest. Electrical discharge from copper bands travel through die cast aluminum back bar to the metal frame of control mechanism. The seat of the chair is also secured to copper bands inside. The electrical discharge from Industrial Technology Companies the copper bands travels through the metal frame of the control mechanism to the gas lift. The metal frame of control mechanism makes contact with the chrome gas lift. From there, the spring plunger with ball bearing assures constant contact with gas lift for continuity throughout the chair. Even the casters and glides of ESD chairs are deliberately engineered to be conductive. Charge passes through casters or glides to conductive floor finish.
Polyurethane seating is primarily used in industrial, scientific, medical, laboratory, clean room, and electronic assembly environments. The polyurethane material resists stains, punctures, and damage from water, grease, and chemicals. There are two types of polyurethane seating available from manufacturers of high quality factory and industrial seating. The most common polyurethane seating come in the form of a thin profile seat of hardened polyurethane. Self skinned polyurethane seating is critically important to intensive work environments for its durability, toughness, and cleanliness. In this particular seating situation you must be willing to sacrifice comfort for long term durability and resistance to many things. The availability of self skinned polyurethane seating makes this type of chair a mainstay in many cost effective industrial environments.
Spray on polyurethane differs from standard self skinned polyurethane in the form of the polyurethane applied to the chair. In the latter, the polyurethane coat is applied to a polyurethane seat – the result is a hard, stiff sit. In the former, spray on polyurethane (otherwise known as SPU seating), the standard foam used in standard seats is coated with a durable polyurethane solution. Industrial Engineering Book The result is the most comfortable and durable polyurethane solution available. All SPU seating meets the specialized requirements of factory, clean room, laboratory, and other harsh environments where durability is essential. Most SPU and self skinned polyurethane is available only in black. Spray-on polyurethane seating is available on select industrial/healthcare chairs.