Elastomerics Blog

Closed cell silicone sponge rubber is non-conductive, having a volume resistivity of 1 x 10¹⁴, test technicians and electrical engineers would typically want to keep this away from static sensitive test procedures. However, the broad temperature capability of closed cell silicone sponge, from -80°F to 400°F make it the ideal gasket product for sealing out air and humidity in environmental test chambers and integrated circuit test and handling equipment.

Other ESD foam products do not have the excellent compression set properties of high performance silicone sponge products like R10480-S (less than 10%). Nor will other ESD foam products perform over the broad temperature range of closed cell silicone sponge.

Stockwell Elastomerics is offering test strips of .250” thick x .500” wide soft closed cell sponge for evaluation. Half of the length is plain (orange) and the other half has our electrically conductive ESD grounding which is cross-linked into the surface to withstand moderate wear, deflection and long term aging under compression. The difference can be seen with an ohmmeter or multimeter, as demonstrated in this video:

Contact Stockwell Elastomerics for further assistance with materials for ESD protection, and ESD protection products such as conductive grounding pads (Conpads™), ESD gaskets and pads.