Chosen Solution
In reference to iFixit’s own Portable Anti-static Mat which can be purchased directly through iFixit store….. Is this mat heat resistant as I will need to be soldering and reflowing components. ……..Alternatively.. the special phone repair mats (NOT iFixit branded(see picture attached)) that are supplied with the sections for placing components (these are identified as ESD but not supplied with a grounding socket…. Are these ESD safe or falsely advertised. Many thanks Paul
The iFixit anti-static (ESD) mat can be used to support a logic board which is being soldered. Reflowing requires heating the logic board to a set temp as well as desoldering/resoldering the given component/s. Applying direct heat to the mat will damage it and you do need to keep the mat clean of solder and flux as the small odd solder beads could create a short on your work piece, and the flux can damage the conductivity of the mat to shed the static charge. Anything that is conductive can be thought as being ESD safe. But! That object or whats in it could have a static charge which needs to be dissipated! So its important the tray be placed on the ESD mat for the static charge to dissipate into the mat and then onwards to the earth grounding connection. So let’s look at an example: You have two desks in two different rooms and have a nice wool rug that when you walk across it you get a nice static charge between them. So in Room-A you have a bunch of old systems and you need to take some of the MOSFET logic which is very static sensitive to the other room as your work surface in Room-A is setup with a ESD mat you have no risks and you place the parts into the tray to carry to the other room. With the tray in hand you walk across the rug gaining a charge as you are holding the tray the tray and its contents acquire the static charge, you don’t touch the parts only the tray, you carefully place the tray in Room-B benches ESD mat leaving it sit there for a good 5 minutes as you get a cup of coffee. You come back to the bench and before touching anything you put the ESD wrist strap on giving it a minute to equalize your static charge. You then touch your tools and other gear which is not grounded and then lastly you start working pulling the parts out of your tray… So did you damage or prevent damage to the parts? Did you find the possible failure/s here in the story?
