Elvace

Sorry I've been negligent in the communication department. I have been
busy beyond words.  Frankly, I was a bit concerned about the note in the
Abbey Newsletter. Basically, the story is this....  Paul Banks cautioned
us from purchasing adhesives from a DISTRIBUTOR rather than the
manufacturer, because a distributor was not necessarily going to get a
product from the same source each time.  The Newberry had some problems
with Jade 403 being inconsistent, hence the lesson of dealing with the
manufacturer.  At Columbia we always used Elvace 1874, though
admittedly, when the supply ran real low, we went to Talas instead of
contacting DuPont directly.  Anyway, to make a long story even longer,
Sandy Nyberg wanted to know if I would share in a PVA purchase that she
was making for the SOLINET workshops. I said sure, but wanted to go with
Elvace rather than Jade.  I also wanted to order it directly from DuPont
because of Paul's wisdom and the fact that long ago I swore that if ever
given the choice I would not order from Talas where people are ALWAYS
rude no matter how pleasant you are or how much you buy from them.  So
there!  Sandy and I did a bit of investigating and found that DuPont no
longer makes Elvace, but sold the product, (and patent, I presume) to
Reichhold Chemicals.  Reichhold Chemicals only sells the product in very
large quantities, so we are back to Talas and Elaine Haas if purchasing
PVA in quantities smaller than 55 gallon non-returnable steel or fiber
drums. Sandy and I ended up placing our order with Talas. Reichhold was
happy to send me the SPEC sheet on Elvace 1874 which is now known as
Elvace 40-704.  Reichold emphasized to me on the phone that NOTHING HAS
CHANGED but the product NAME. It is still a vinyl acetate-ethylene
copolymer and as far as I know, the pH range was always in the 5 range.

Some people like to know materials trivia, and when Ellen was visiting
Atlanta in December, I mentioned the aforementioned tale to her and
mailed her a photocopy of Reichhold's specs.  She apparently decided it
was newsworthy enough for the Newsletter, but was a bit confusing about
her delivery.

I will be happy to send copies of the specs to anyone who wants them or
you can contact Reichhold directly.  My point was only this: DuPont no
longer makes Elvace.  Reichhold makes Elvace. Everyone is not always on
the same wavelength. Maybe I'll mention it to Ellen when I get the
chance.  Life goes on. (Reichhold, incidentally, for those who are
interested/fascinated by this topic--I confess that my interest is
waning--can be contacted at its Emulsion Polymer Division, P.O. Drawer K
Dover Delaware 19903 (302) 736-9100.) Keep those cards and letters
coming in. Walter-- I really addressed this letter to the general arena
so I would be grateful if you would forward it.  I'll write a more
personal letter ASAP. Best regards and YES I hope to see you at AIC.

    **** Moderator's comments:   Oh, that one.  Ive heard that argument
    before (mostly from newberry derivatives) but it seems to overlook
    the VERY limited shelf life of elvace. have you ever *looked* at the
    bottom of those 55 gallon drums?  After the workshops we did here a
    few years ago I threw out a virtually new one (i.e. it was probably
    6 months old, by the time it made it through a couple of purchasing
    departments) because it was absolute sludge.

as for the newsletter: I sure would like to get ellen on the net.

General Info:

as this abbey business has been rather bugging me all day, I broke down
and looked in skeist.  c.e. blades says elvace (he mentions specifically
1872, 1873, and 1875 but not ours) is indeed e-va copolymer, with high
vinyl acetate content (ca 60- 95%).  'They may be viewed as
modifications of polyvinyl acetate with ethylene.  Such copolymerization
in essence reduces the incidence of acetate functionality with respect
to polyvinyl acetate as it occurs on the polymer chain. ... The presence
of ethylene in effect reduces the second order transition temperature
(Tg) of polyvinyl acetate, and in this regard such copolymers resemble
those which are obtained from the copolymerization of vinyl acetate with
other so called plasticizing comonomers such as 2-ethyl hexylacrylate,
ethyl acrylate, dibutyl maleate, dibutyl fumurate, vinyl stearate and
others.  so I guess we can continue to call it pva(c) with something
approaching good conscience.

                                  ***
                   Conservation DistList Instance 1:1
                   Distributed: Tuesday, May 17, 1988
                        Message Id: cdl-1-1-018
                                  ***