'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)
 
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