Removing pressure sensitive tape from garment

Diana Ornellas Bencatel <oficina.conserva.me<-a t->gmail< . >com> writes

>Does anyone have any advice/experience on how to safely peel off a
>sweater from a double-sided tape?
>
>This tape has been maintaining the sweater fixed to a frame's
>backboard these last years.  Now that the sweater is being prepared
>to be mounted in a new frame and in a more appropriated way, we
>would like to avoid losing the fibres that are strongly "glued" to
>the tape.

Depending on the age of the tape, you might find a silicone solvent
will release the adhesive without dissolving it.  Cyclomethicone
(octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, cyclomethicone D4;
decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, cyclomethicone D5; or generic
cyclomethicone, a mixture of D4 and D5) will often swell
silicone-based self adhesive based tape systems.  The solvents tend
to be expensive but are often available from companies that sell raw
materials for making your own cosmetics or hair care products.

The evaporation rate of the solvent is very slow and you will feel
sure that you are leaving a greasy stain of silicone behind, but it
will be completely evaporated in a day or two. (Try it on a sample
to convince yourself.)

If the tape's adhesive has oxidized to any significant extent, the
silicone solvent will not be sufficiently polar to release it.  You
can try adding isopropanol to the cyclomethicone to increase its
polarity.  I haven't had occasion to try this myself, so I can't say
if this will prove successful or not.  Good luck,

Chris Stavroudis
Paintings Conservator in Private Practice


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:17
               Distributed: Thursday, September 25, 2014
                       Message Id: cdl-28-17-002
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