Non-skid Rubber ESD mats - any way to remove the coating? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: salvagedcircuitry
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 06:33:23 am
content: Hi Guys,I came across a pretty good deal on 30ft of unused new rubber esd mat. It seems to be high quality, does not smell much, does not melt with lead free solder but it has a rather strange non-skid coating. The surface is a matte blue with no surface textureI have never come across an esd mat quite like this. If you place anything on top of the mat and try to move the item, the item barely moves. It is as if the ESD mat surface coefficient of friction is through the roof. You have to aggressively push anything on the surface to move it across the mat.Has anyone ever experienced an ESD mat like this? Is there any way to reduce the non-skid coating or remove it?Thanks!

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 06:41:59 am
content: Such a non skid feature sounds like a good thing to me, keeps things in place.Is the mat surface perhaps made out of soft silicone? Don't think its a very static safe material but perhaps they figured out something conductive to mix in to make it work. The stuff is resistant to soldering iron levels of heat and pretty much all the usual chemicals you come across. It tends to be very grippy on its own when its nice and clean.Perhaps it will loose some of its grippyness once it gets dirty and dusty. Maybe rubbing on a bit of baby powder might help accelerate that.

author: salvagedcircuitry
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 07:11:23 am
content: I believe the base material is natural rubber. I can imagine the grip being useful at times, but if I wanted to slide a good ol boat anchor on my mat for repair and analysis, it would be easier if I picked it up moved it and put it back down rather than trying to slide it.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 07:50:21 am
content: Don't think heavy boatanchsors would slide very well on most mat materialsOne thing you could also try is spraying it with some furniture polish. The stuff is incredibly slippery as i have found by on accident when the stuff got on the floor, it turns floors into pretty much ice rings.For boatanchor servicing i ended up using a tool cart. I have stiff packing foam on top of it so its safe to lay things down on it. Then since the cart is on caster wheels i can move it around to get at all sides of a disassembled boatanchor without having to lift it every time.

author: salvagedcircuitry
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2021, 06:36:24 pm
content: Quote from: Berni on February 04, 2021, 07:50:21 amHmm. I think I'm going to give that a shot on a small cutoff segment. I am debating using googone and see if that helps. I tried cleaning a segment with IPA and it seems to help ever so slightly. I think a majority of the issue is because the surface is not textured so there's a lot of friction.

author: S. Petrukhin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2021, 02:08:42 pm
content: Quote from: salvagedcircuitry on February 04, 2021, 06:33:23 amAnd where is the link to the wonderful mat?