Mouse pad foam

Caroline Clawson <cclawson<-a t->fas< . >harvard< . >edu> writes

>We are interested in purchasing some mouse pad foam to cushion a
>workbench intended for framing and unframing.

We have not used that particular type of foam that I know of (we
tend to use self-healing cutting mats throughout our labs), but one
thing does come to mind. It seems likely to me that most commercial
foams are going to be proprietary material, thus I'm not sure issues
of offgassing will transcend all such foam pads.

One suggestion I have from an excellent source in the plastics
industry is the company KAPCO--apparently they deal directly with
foams, and might even be able to share information on offgassing,
bad odor, testing results, other specs. Try them at 800-843-5368.

George Leake
Harry Ransom Center Conservation Dept
UT Austin

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:33
                 Distributed: Thursday, October 9, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-33-009
                                  ***