How To Use Anti Static Mat

Take y'all ever wondered how to use an anti static mat? Are you thinking about working on your computer, or finding that production yields are decreasing in your facility? If you are assembling electronics the drop in product yields is probably being acquired past static electricity. Anti static mats are used to dissipate static electricity from piece of work surfaces and then that electronics are non destroyed by ESD (electrostatic discharges).

Types of Anti Static Mats

Anti Static Mats for a computer or pc edifice are placed over tables to dissipate static charges from those work surfaces.

Anti Static Mats are typically static dissipative on the elevation, and conductive on the bottom.

Anti static mats are "grounded" past being placed on top of a conductive work surface or past using grounding cables to connect them to an electrical outlet.

The top surface is static dissipative. (The side that is bluish, gray, or light-green.)

The bottom surface is conductive. Since it is impregnated with carbon it is black.

A textile is static dissipative if it offers between 1 x 10e6 and less than one x 10e12 ohms of resistance.

A material is conductive if information technology offers less than 1 x 10e6 ohms of resistance.

To footing someone continuing on an ungrounded floor, it is recommended to utilise anti static floor mats.

These mats are typically blackness because they are impregnated with carbon. Snaps on the corner of the mat allow you to bypass the floor, sending static directly from the mat to an electric outlet using a grounding cablevision.

In one case anti static mats are roofing the table and floor you are on your way to being in compliance with ANSI/ESD S6.ane (ESD Grounding Methods Requirements for Workstations).

Grounding Anti Static Mats

Since carbon is conductive if the mat is laid on top of conducting tables and floors static will travel through the mat, into the table, and dissipate at the flooring into the footing.

However, typically you lot will want to connect an anti static mat for pc edifice to an electric outlet.

Electrical outlets are commonly the best footing for a mat in any building. This is considering the wiring of outlets typically follows the piping of the edifice to globe underneath the building.

Snaps for Anti Static Mats

A material is insulative if it has greater than ane 10 10e12 ohms of resistance.

Mutual insulators are carpets, floor paints, drinking glass, plastics, and wood.

Insulating materials crusade static to exist created on piece of work surfaces and contribute to electrostatic discharges (ESD) being created.

If an anti static mat is isolated from electrical ground by insulators (carpets, painted floors, or tables), you need to connect it to an electrical outlet past using a grounding cablevision.

To "basis" anti static mats, we insert a conductive snap on the corner of the anti static mat.

The snap is where y'all will connect the grounding cable. The conductivity of the snap will create a dedicated path for static to travel off the mat and into the cablevision.

Grounding Cables

There are 2 primary types of grounding cables yous can employ to connect an anti static mat to an electric outlet.

A mat footing is used to footing the mat separately from other surfaces.

A common point ground is used to basis the mat and a wrist strap at a common signal.

Grounding cables made in the United States typically end in an "eyelet" – a #10 band terminal– to screw straight into a standard US electrical outlet.

Grounding cables typically come with 1 meg ohm (1 x 10e6 ohms) resistors to ensure that electricity moving through them is always traveling at a static dissipative rate.

The purpose of the resistor is to dull down an electrostatic discharge event (ESD) from a highly charged ungrounded surface from discharging instantaneously through the string. The resistor slows downward ESD a few more than milliseconds than if information technology were not present.

Continuous Monitors

"Typical Examination programs recommend that wrist straps that are used daily should be tested daily. However, if the products that are beingness produced are of such value that cognition of a continuous, reliable ground is needed, then continuous monitoring should be considered or fifty-fifty required."
– ANSI / ESD TR20.20

How ESD Mats work with Continous Monitor

A continuous monitor is an alternative to using mat grounds.

When a monitor is used it is to guarantee the ground connection of an anti static mat and a wrist strap.

They audibly and visually alert you when the mat or the wrist strap is not grounded.

It works past applying a continuous test voltage to the wrist strap and monitoring the distortions.

Testing Anti Static Mats

"The degree of protection afforded past a worksurface is strongly related to the time needed to discharge an object…. [R]esistance seems the best single predictor of performance of ESD-protective worksurfaces."
– ANSI / ESD S4.i-2006

The standard used internationally to test anti static mats is ESD Association Standard Test Method (STM) 4.i- 2017 "Worksurfaces-Resistance Measurements".

It recommends two tests – resistance measured top-to-top (RTT), and resistance measured top-to-ground (RTG).

The resistance top-to-tiptop exam measures whether or not the mat is static dissipative on its summit surface.

The resistance top-to-ground examination measures whether or not the mat is conducting to ground at a static dissipative rate.

< 1 x 10e9 ohms of resistance in an RTG test is generally considered the high end of what is suitable for an anti static mat that will be used for an activity similar pc building.

To perform these tests y'all would use an ESD Resistance Meter. The meter will accuse voltage through the mat to measure its resistance.

Article Headline: How to Employ An Anti Static Mat Article Description: A review of ESD grounding and testing methods for anti static mats. Published Date: 2017-04-twenty Modified Date: 2021-ten-21 Image URL: https://elimstat.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/How-to-Apply-an-Anti-Static-Mat.jpg Publisher Name: Elimstat.com Logo URL: https://elimstat.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Elimstat-Sign_BB.png