'Antistatic' mat question

D

DDad

Active member
I have an 'antistatic' silicone mat from Amazon, photo below.

When I rub my hairy arms on it, it develops enough static charge to make the hair stand up...doesn't seem antistatic at all.

The description says it has a resistance of 10 to the 6th to 10 to the 8th power. So 1 megohm to 100 megohms. But my Klein Tools DMM reads OL, no megohm reading, not matter how close I put the probes together on the mat.

Should I be able to get a resistance reading on a 'real' antistatic mat?

Anyone got a minute to take a reading on their mat? Would love to find a silicone antistatic mat so can resist solder heat, but more important I want a mat that is actually antistatic.

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1) silicon is an insulator. No surprise that you can't get a reading on it
2) anti-static and ESD resistance are not the same things. Ideally you want to ESD mat, not an anti-static mat. An ESD mat has a combination of layers of insulators and conductors and is earth grounded(and is only effective when earth grounded, so don't skip it). It is designed to allow static discharge through it but limiting the discharge to an isolated area. Through it, not across it.. Your antistatic mat is merely a silicon cookie sheet and won't allow discharge, leaving your workpiece at risk of ESD.
It will protect your benchtop from solder and heat. That's about it.
 
jwin615 said:
1) silicon is an insulator. No surprise that you can't get a reading on it
2) anti-static and ESD resistance are not the same things. Ideally you want to ESD mat, not an anti-static mat. An ESD mat has a combination of layers of insulators and conductors and is earth grounded(and is only effective when earth grounded, so don't skip it). It is designed to allow static discharge through it but limiting the discharge to an isolated area. Through it, not across it.. Your antistatic mat is merely a silicon cookie sheet and won't allow discharge, leaving your workpiece at risk of ESD.
It will protect your benchtop from solder and heat. That's about it.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Any recommendations on an ESD mat?
 
Ideally you want a mat that is ANSI/ESD S20.20 rated anything with that rating will do. It's nice to have more that on clasp location. Easier to adjust to your work bench and nice to be able to snap a wrist strap on when needed(fets, BBDs and other devices prone to ESDeath)
 
Kinda depends on what size and color you are after
This one doesn't look bad for the price. Comes with a grounding strap and hub.
You can ground it on a faceplate mounting screw on a wall socket.
 
I had one that came with an attachment that attached to the mat and plugged into the wall. The “hot” and “neutral” prongs were plastic. Only the ground prong was metal and “electrically” tied to the cord/mat.

Guess the idea was to direct any static charges from the mat onto your household ground. No way to evaluate how well it actually did/didn’t work, but it seems conceptually plausible 🤷‍♀️
 
I have one of the cheap silicon mats as well but don’t trust it so I always keep my projects on top of the build document. Just be careful not to burn anything lol.
 
bluedmc777 said:
I have one of the cheap silicon mats as well but don’t trust it so I always keep my projects on top of the build document. Just be careful not to burn anything lol.
Click to expand...
It's not the mat that carries the charge. It's you.
But only if your local humidity drops below 40%ish.
this is probably the best video on esr I've ever seen, by far. Old guy from New Jersey iirc smoking and talking in the 70s.
Well worth the 80 mintues
 
Certified esd trainer for ANSI.ESD standards for a DOD grade company where absolute standards compliance are necessary, and tested monthly. The mat needs to be grounded to an electrical earth ground. Practically from my pedal and pc building experience, equipotential bonding is adequate. I however don't follow any of these rules when building 100+ pedals. If you're worried the absolute best way to mitigate static charge problems at home is a wrist strap that goes to an outlets ground
 
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