What are the benefits of oil-absorbent mats, and what differentiates the three types? Find out how to choose the right mat for your business with this guide.
Oil Absorbent Mats?
Does your business deal with spills on a day-to-day cycle? If so, oil-absorbent mats can save you a lot of time and energy. Oil-absorbent mats are valuable tools that catch and absorb any liquids that come into contact with them. Used across many industries, they keep facilities safe and efficient. Water to coolant, oil-absorbent mats soak up spills and keep your business dry.
Industries that benefit from oil-absorbent mats include manufacturing, automotive, and oil and gas. These industries regularly deal with spills around their equipment, leading to hazardous floors that are prone to slipping. Oil based liquids are frustrating to clean right, leading to the solution of oil-absorbent mats.
Not all mats are built the same. There are three primary mat types: quilted, hydro, and poly. All three types offer unique benefits and drawbacks—the right choice depends on your needs. Keep reading to learn about the types of mats and see which one would best fit in with your business.
Quilted Mats
Of the three types of mats, you may be the most familiar with quilted mats. Quilted mats are a convenient, versatile option often seen in food-grade facilities.
Cons of Quilted Mats
Quilted mats aren’t perfect—if they were we wouldn’t have two other mat types! While convenient and effective, there are draw-backs to quilted mats. The major drawback of quilted mats is that they simply aren’t as effective when dealing with thicker fluids like oil. This makes them poor choices for the automotive or aerospace industries, as those industries regularly face thick spills. A second drawback of quilted mats is that they visibly stain. While this isn’t that serious an issue, it can be off-putting in food industries if there are clients or customers around.
Quilted mats are the fast and flexible choice. They’re the right choice for your company if you deal with low volume, thin spills around your facility. If you regularly deal with thick liquids in large quantities, quilted mats are probably not the answer for you.
Pros of Quilted Mats
We describe quilted mats as “quick response” mats because they get rid of spills fast. Quilted mats are also multi-functional and capable of handling most spills. Food oils, cutting fluids, coolant, or water—quilted mats get the job done. Quilted mats are also lint free, making them popular choices in the food-grade facilities we mentioned earlier. Finally, quilted mats are excellent for moving around and wiping up spills. Where other mats may be grippy or thick, quilted mats are light and easy to move. To summarize, quilted mats are fast absorbers, lint free, and excellent for wiping up spills.
Hydro Mats
Hydro mats are the newest design of the three, and you can tell when looking at the features. Hydro mats aren’t particularly popular with any one industry, but they do have unique benefits worth looking into.
Pros of Hydro Mats
Hydro mats are hydrophobic—they repel water while absorbing oil and other liquids. While not quite as fast as a quilted mat, hydro mats are still quick at soaking up spills. One of the key benefits of a hydro mat is its grippiness. Hydro mats have an anti-slip design that makes them ideal for facilities with slippery surfaces. A final benefit of hydro mats is that it’s easy to tell when they’re saturated because of their simple, gray design.
Cons of Hydro Mats
Unfortunately, hydro mats lose their water-repelling properties after being laundered. While listed as a con, this could be a pro depending on the needs of your business. They retain their other properties but become more universal in application, so it depends on your needs.
Hydro mats are unique. They’re the right choice for you if you’re looking for a grippy mat with water repelling properties.
Poly Mats
Poly mats are geared towards heavy-duty spills and liquids. Frequently seen in industries like automotive or aerospace, poly mats are “fix-all” and capable of any situation.
Pros of Poly Mats
Poly mats are the ideal mat for intense spills and liquids. When compared to the more conventional pig mat, our 100% polypropylene poly mats are capable of soaking up 5 times more liquid—they don’t call them “marathon mats” for nothing. You also have the most versatility with our poly mats, as we have a variety of shapes, sizes, and thicknesses on offer.
Cons of Poly Mats
While they are effective, the absorption process of poly mats takes longer when compared to its peers, particularly with thinner liquids. Poly mats also have less wiping capability because of their size and composition, especially when compared to quilted mats.
Poly mats are the right choice for you if you need a heavy-duty mat that can handle any spill.
Our Mat Summary
All of the oil-absorbent mats we offer have their uses:
- Quilted mats are excellent for fast-paced facilities that rarely deal with thicker liquids.
- Hydro mats are ideal for facilities with slippery surfaces that are looking to collect liquids other than water.
- Poly mats are the ultimate choice when dealing with high volume spills of thick liquid.
Interested In A Mat? Contact Us!
If you’re interested in incorporating any of these oil-absorbent mats into your business, consider contacting us at Closed Loop Recycling. We offer mat recycling options where we collect, launder, and return your mats—this saves your business money and helps out the environment.
Don’t worry about transportation or extra leg work on your end, we handle the whole process. If you’re still unsure on partnering with us, contact us for a custom cost analysis where we work with you to find the most budget-friendly solution to your needs.