Velcro and Vinyl

Pmerems · #1 08-23-2010, 08:12 PM

Have you ever heard of ?Plasticizer Migration?? I surely hadn?t until I called the engineering department at Velcro to discuss a problem I was having with the adhesive on their product.

I installed some of their industrial strength Velcro on the bottom of my stick boot to secure it to the cockpit floor. The stick boot is vinyl and warps around the aluminum base plate which forms the stick boot assembly. The vinyl is exposed on the boot of the assembly and the Velcro adhesive is in direct contact with the vinyl. After the initial installation of the Velcro everything was fine. A few weeks later I removed the stick boots and found ?Goo? (no better term-very scientific) oozing out from between the Velcro and vinyl. I first thought it was a bit warm in the shop and this must be the adhesive softening due to heat. But something didn?t seem right.

So I call Velcro and spoke to their PhD is their product development area. The moment I told him about the Velcro on vinyl and the ?Goo? he said that?s ?Plasticizer Migration?. Not being a chemical engineer I wanted to know more and specifically what can I do about it. It turns out the adhesive on the Velcro actually reacts with the plasticizer (basically a softening agent) in the vinyl and forms the ?Goo? that was oozing out all round my stick boot assembly. He informed me that there are some new adhesives they have developed and he sent my some Velcro samples to try. I haven?t installed them yet but I will in the next week or so.

So if you think you are having problems with your Velcro adhesive and you think it melting/softening due to heat, it is most likely ?Plasticizer Migration?

I will keep you all posted.

Sid Lambert · #2 08-23-2010, 08:30 PM

While I'm no chemist, this issue is common in my industry. If you can find a water-based velcro adhesive you will be fine. Solvents eat plastics and some adhesives are solvent based. (So you can apply them with water if needed) Some solvent based adhesives will work but it seems you have found an incompatibility.

clevtool · #3 08-25-2010, 11:00 AM

I am assuming the plasticizer in the vinyl is the problem? I have seen that problem with other things. I ended up cleaning the vinyl surface with isopropyl alcohol really well and the problem went away. I think that the plasticizer comes out over time though, so in your case it may redevelop??

erich weaver · #4 08-25-2010, 11:40 AM

I have this problem BIG TIME on a patch of velcro that I put on my vinyl-lined glare shield to lock my SPOT unit in place. Gets really hot up there, and a gooy mess seeped out and looks awful. Will the isopropyl alcohol clean this up, or is it just a treatment to prevent it from happening in the first place?

erich

clevtool · #5 08-26-2010, 08:23 AM

I am not sure if IPA would work to clean it? My situation was with vinyl decals on vinyl that would not stick due to the plasticizer on the surface. I don't know if it keeps coming out over time, but I would guess so. We usually sew on non-sticky velcro to the vinyl, but obviously you would have had to do that prior to install. The interior ladies here said that 3M adhesive remover takes the goo off, but it also takes the 'finish' off of the vinyl so for our purposes it is then unusable. They didn't know if that finish included the UV protection that would then lead to cracking and fading?