Re: Adhesive
2003-03-16 by John/Julie Gittins
On 03/15/03 4:28 PM "Victor Simon" ibsimon@... wrote:
>I'm interested in the adhesive you mention below. Did you buy the $499
>applicator from Light Impressions, or use the included plastic
>squeegee? Also, the last time I checked out adhesion, I could find no
>archival, pressure-sensitive (no-heat) adhesives.
On 03/15/03 4:54 PM "Charles Bandes" byronbulb@... wrote:
>I've been curious about the adhesive used in the "Xyron" system (xyron.com)
>- it's a cold-mounting process, and they claim archival adhesive, and list
>photo mounting as one of the uses of their system. The machine that can
>handle 8x10 is $100ish, the bigger ones are substantially more. Looks like
>the adhesive itself costs about .75 per 8x10.
Vic and Charles,
From the product info on the xyron site, it looks to me like all the
Xyron mounting machines (different sizes) are similar in kind to the
one (20" wide) that Light Impressions sells. And the repositionable
adhesive ("#568") that L.I. handles sounds similar to one of the different
types offered by Xyron. On comparable products, the pricing seems about
the same.
I mentioned the "#568" adhesive in my earlier post because it was the
one cited in the Univ.of Chicago Library's "White Paper" on materials
that support long-term archival preservation; (I think it was Paul Roark
who pointed to this document in a post a few months back -- I can't find
the U. Chi. Library address, but my note says that the the 2 adhesives
they recommended were the #568 sheets and 3M's #415 two-sided tape).
Since in the past I've found that some "archival" materials were later
found not to be such, I noted #568 to keep things simple and put just
one adhesive on the board that's widely-approved and a safe bet for a
material that will keep Epson Professional Glossy paper (and others
like it)flat for a very long time. But there are other options that
I'd also trust.
For my own efforts to date with cold-mount materials, I've used a product
called "Clear Mount" that I get from TALAS (www.talasonline.com) in NYC,
a company that specializes in library-type conservation stuff; (their
prices are good, their product knowledge (via Jake and his son, Aaron)is
unusually deep, and their service is excellent). With "Clear Mount", I've
always done hand burnishing, but this was for paintings on paper, not photo
prints -- the occasional wrinkles that I've gotten when applying the
Clear Mount sheet were not a problem for the paintings, but they would be
for photos. So I'm going to try some other archival products that TALAS
carries. One is "GUDY 'O' (#870)", which is a thinner film than Clear Mount;
(GUDY 'O' is available in a number of widths, from 3/4" to 48" in 33ft
rolls, and is about 60 cents/sq ft). Another is "GUDY 'V' (#831), which
comes in 33ft rolls either 7.8" or 15.6" wide, and is heavier-duty than
the 'O' type). With all of these adhesive sheets, I'll use a print "brayer"
(available in different widths from art-supply places -- "Speedball" brand
isn't expensive and they're good -- a brayer is like a paint roller,
but it has a smooth and even rubber surface rather than the fuzzy kind
that's used for spreading paint) rather than shell out $500 for a machine
that can handle 13" wide paper.
In short, I guess what I'm saying is that I think there are a number of
archival cold-mount adhesives available which look like they'd provide
permanent mounting of photo prints to all kinds of supports (mat board,
sheet aluminum, lexan (a long-lasting plexiglass), etc). My personal
preference is to go with these cold-mount materials and avoid subjecting
prints to the heat of traditional dry-mounting.
Regards,
John
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