Sticky Mats

JPL has several rooms on its campus that have specific procedures for employees to keep the area "clean." As a class, we experienced the 25 foot space simulator building. Although it is not a "clean room" like the high bay, it is an area that requires minimizing the amount of dust and dirt particles. Upon entering, every person is required to clean their shoes off on a sticky mat, also known as a tacky mat. This pulls off most of the dirt and dust particles from the bottom of shoes so that the concrete floor can remain free of these particles.

The mats are constructed from either 30 or 60 layers of polyethylene film. The layers are 1/8 of an inch and laminated into one pad. The layers can then be peeled off from the top when it has collected too much dirt, and can be thrown away in a regular garbage.

It is important to use these sticky pads upon entering environments that should be sterile.  They are used not only at JPL, but also in operating rooms at hospitals, other labs, and even basketball courts. It is vital to keep areas such as the high bay perfectly clean because scientists are building instruments to test things in space, and our earthly particles could contaminate and affect the results or the tests.

In more sterile environments like the high bay, employees will use a shoe cleaning machine to remove any smaller particles that a sticky pad can't reach. They then go through an air shower removes particles from clothing. Next, they enter the robing room where they put on a "bunny suit" that covers their entire body,

shoe covers, a cap, and even a face mask. Workers must continually monitor their cleanliness by replacing suits with holes or tears, and often stepping on sticky mats inside the clean room because particles of dust from skin can be air blown and people can track them from walking on the regular ground.