Vacuum foam plastic

Anita Henry <bunz [at] musicb__mcgill__ca> writes

Anita Henry <bunz [at] musicb__mcgill__ca> writes

>I recently received a George Segal sculpture made from Vacuum Foam
>Plastic. The plastic has yellowed considerably (it used to be
>white), and has become quite brittle. A small loss and splinter
>developed in one of the corners, very likely as a result of someone
>knocking it accidentally.

[...] I suspect that there is an error lurking. You can have 'Vacuum
Formed Plastics' which is essentially a sheet of plastics material
that has been heated and formed to a shape. Typically this would
include sandwich trays, or the trays inside a box of chocolates into
which each chocolate goes.

The alternative is 'Foamed Plastics' which are plastics which are
made into a foam in the manufacturing process.

The description you give sounds as though it is a 'foamed' material
but as there are many different chemical types it is not possible to
make any conservation comments, apart from, 'identify the material
first'.

Colin Williamson

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:68
                 Distributed: Friday, February 19, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-68-008
                                  ***