Ethafoam adhesive options

[benjamin_wooten]

Hi everybody, I have a quick question about which adhesive to use when gluing ethafoam strips into the sides, bottom, and lid of a crate. The crate is made of MDO sheeting, so that would be the surface opposite the foam strips inside the crate.

Any suggestions?

The crates will be holding a framed photography exhibition long-term in a climate-controlled warehouse.

Very best,

BEN

[Chris Barber]

Hi,
We use hotglue of the "coolmelt" variety for adhering ethafoam to wood, or to itself. You can cover the foam bumpers evenly in streams of glue or just tack them on with a few dabs, depending on the context. The bond is quite strong, and requires a heavy pallet knife or equivalent tool if you need to remove the bumpers and/or scrape excess from the crate wall.
-Chris

[Chris Barber]

For more discussion on hot glue in a nearby thread, click here (http://www.pacin.org/showthread.php?196-Archival-Hot-Glue-question.).

[Stew Henderson]

Hi,
Can anybody tell me the best way to adhere volara to ethafoam?
Thanks,
Stew

[T. Ashley McGrew]

Theoretically the best way is a process called heat welding. It basically consists of using a heat gun (like one you would use to strip paint - get an adjustable one) to heat both surfaces at the same time just to the point of being soft but before they start to deform and then rapidly place them together. The resulting bond introduces no additional material to be concerned about and is perfectly even which has a couple of advantages. There was a long discussion on the list serve a while back about it. You should be able to access it by going to the front page and clicking on the ListServe tab clicking the archive button and doing a search.


My entry is at this link (http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/htdig/pacinlist/2010-August/msg00040.html) but I am not sure if it will work in this context.

[Stew Henderson]

Thank you. I will check it out.