Polishing acrylic sheeting

Eugenia Stamatopoulou <stamatopoulou [at] deste__gr> writes

>I am looking for a material to polish a scratched surface of
>plexiglas. The problem is that the plexiglas is a part of the work
>that is a C-Print image. Do anybody have an idea about a polishing
>product that could be applied easily on the surface of the plexiglas
>and do not leaves any residue?

You could use an abrasive paste of low hardness. The only thing that
you must take care of, is the particle size of the paste. If you use
a colloidal size abrasive that leaves a scratch which is invisible
to eye due to the scattered light phenomenon, then you don't have any
problem. One paste that I have used with success, regarding not only
acrylics but also other hard transparent plastics (polycarbonate) is
PRE-LIM Surface Cleaner. It consists of a colloidal type abrasive
based on blended Neuburg silica chalks in a water/white spirit
emulsion. You can apply it with a soft rag or cotton and light
pressure. The other thing that I can not understand is the meaning
of C-Print Image. Is there any image printed or painted on the
Plexiglas? If this happens, take care not to remove the image and
test also the compatibility of the water/white spirit carrier. You
could have to do a test before applying the PRE-LIM to your acrylic.

You can find PRE-LIM Surface Cleaner from In Situ Museum and Archive
Services in Greece <URL:http://www.insituconservation.com>

Vasilios Tousis
Conservator
Technical Manager
IN SITU Museum and Archive Services
3, P. Papageorgiou
54635 Thessaloniki
Greece
+30 2310251081 2
Fax: +30 2310251083


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:43
                  Distributed: Monday, March 13, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-43-013
                                  ***