Buy the correct ESD mats for your workbenches
By LearnESD.com Team

Many electronic companies spend a huge amount of money on their protective products yearly, all to protect their ESDS parts from damage.

Workers work at workbenches, assembling products that are sensitive to ESD.
They wear wrist strap, shoes, and smock to name a few and sit on chair while working.

Companies place mats on workbenches to protect the workbenches and their products.
ESD mats help to drain static charges that are on their surface to the ground.
Good mats would be the one that have ability to drain the static charges at a rate, which is not too fast or too slow.
ESD standard S4.1 recommends electrical resistance to ground to be from 1x10E6 to 1x10E9 ohm range.
It is important to know which mat to buy to ensure there is a proper protection given to the ESDS parts.

ESD mats come in many varieties. In general, mats are either made from vinyl or rubber material. They are available in a single homogeneous layered or multi-layered.
They are also present in different colours: for e.g. grey, light blue and green.

Homogeneous dissipative mat

A homogeneous mat is made from the same material throughout.
This mat is durable however it is not suitable for use as work surfaces in a factory floor.
The electrical resistance property is a bit higher than the required value of 1x10E6 to 1x10E9 ohm by S4.1 standard.

Multilayered mat

There are double and three layers mat.
The most common type is the two-layered mat.
Vinyl two-layered mat is cost effective but its electrical resistance property is higher than the required value of 1x10E6 to 1x10E9 ohm by S4.1 standard.
Therefore it is not suitable as work surfaces in a factory floor.

Rubber two-layered mat is widely used as work surfaces.
The top layer is usually static dissipative and the bottom layer is conductive.
Not only it has a good electrical property with resistance fall within the required value of 1x10E6 to 1x10E9 ohm by S4.1 standard, it also provides good resistant towards heat/solder and chemicals.

After having the correct mats installed as work surfaces inside the factory floor, it is equally important to know how to maintain the mats to ensure they last as long as they can.

ESD mats last longer when they are cleaned with a compatible cleaner, e.g. cleaner.




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