PROBLEM
A major medical device manufacturer operating in hybrid manufacturing areas was using blue tack mats to capture dirt from operatives’ “street shoes” as they entered the gowning room. Also, various consumables are used in the facility’s gowning room including bouffants, face masks, garments, ESD shoes, and gloves as part of their contamination control program. The medical manufacturer was spending thousands of dollars on several hundred cases of tack mats per year, and disposed of approximately one ton (2028 lbs) of used plastic peel off mat sheets in the trash per year.

SOLUTION
Dycem’s polymeric floor covering was identified and evaluated as an alternative to the tack mats. A key feature of the polymeric floor covering is its ability to embed particulate within its cellular structure, rather than to bind it with surface adhesive as is done with the tear off tack mat. The polymeric flooring can be cleaned with a damp mop and detergent and then squeegee dried and the lifetime for the Dycem flooring material is three years.

The benefits of the Dycem material were anticipated to be:

• Fewer particles in the gowning room
• Reduced expense (in that no peel-off mats would be purchased, stored, or peeled)
• A greener solution (as plastic peel-off mat sheets would not need disposal)