[Tech1] then and now

[patheigham]

Thanks for that, Chris,
What deteriorated quite quickly were the foam inserts to the Tram mic cases.
I lined my equipment cases (from Charles Smith – made exactly as Samcine cases)
with Ethafoam provided by them. Silly story – working on a dustsheet in my sitting room,
I upset the pot of adhesive, which overflowed the sheet, and went into the carpet. The best
solvent was petrol, so I applied copious quantities and cleaned the carpet. The fire risk was
enormous! No smoking, and no wife to bludgeon me! I reckoned the adhesive was a variation
of Evostick, or maybe napalm!
Pat

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Chris Woolf via Tech1
Sent: 12 August 2019 12:13
To: tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk
Subject: Re: [Tech1] then and now


On 12/08/2019 11:10, patheigham via Tech1 wrote:
.... 
 
I’ve found that foam gags deteriorate after a few years, reducing to a granular powder.
 
It's a popular misconception that plastics have permanence. They do, from the point of view of polluting the oceans in microscopic fashion, but not of retaining their physical manufactured form. UV light, oxygen and other airborne chemicals degrade all thermoplastics pretty fast, with the plasticisers that help shape them, leaking out over time.
They all become brittle and friable, with the life depending quite a lot on the fineness of the material. Hence foams and similar materials degrade much faster than window frames, just as wire wool rusts faster than a steel bridge - but few thermoplastics can run to more than a decade or two without obvious deterioration.
Chris Woolf


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