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.
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.