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Polymer Migration Jargon Buster
Polymer Migration Jargon Buster
About:
Definition:
POLYMER MIGRATION
- When two plastics are in contact the plasticisers in one can migrate to the other if the valency is positive.
- The results can include changes in colour, stiffness, dimensions, performance.
- The colour and pattern of tiles in an original floor can pass through to the new floor covering laid on top of the first.
- Plastic cove former and capping can shrink, adhesives can fail; seamless waterproof and hygienic skirtings bonded to floors can pull away from the walls and become impossible to repair or rebond, forming a dirt trap for bacteria to build up.
- More worrying are plasticising phthalates can migrate out of one plastic and be released into the environment.
- Some phthalates are listed as Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) so the loss from a product is worrying.
(NGS BRM ’13)
Relevance to Sustainable Construction:
Potential defects:
- Seamlessly joined/bonded coved skirtings are added to resilient floor coverings like PVC/Vinyl, rubber to make watertight floors to showers and wet rooms and easy-clean hygienic floors in hospitals and food preparation areas.
- The use of high phthalate content as plasticising polymers in PVC coved skirtings, formers and cappings and now incompatible adhesives has lead to polymer migration, shrinkage and adhesive failures resulting in gaps that are no longer bridgeable by the shrunk cove former and no longer repairable with the surfaces coated in plasticised adhesive.
- In Europe the use of coved skirtings in hospitals was abandoned some time ago.
(NGS BRM ’11-’15)
Opinion:
Examples:
Notes:
© GBE NGS ASWS BrianMurphy aka BrianSpecMan
30th October 2013 – 5th November 2018
Polymer Migration Jargon Buster
Images:
© GBE NGS ASWS BrianMurphy aka BrianSpecMan
30th October 2013 – 5th November 2018
Polymer Migration Jargon Buster
See also:
NGS JARGON BUSTER
- Capping Seal
- Cove
- Coved Skirting
- Cove Former
- Moulding
- Phthalates Esters
- Plasticisers
- Polymer migration (this page)
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
- PVC
- Skirting
- SVHC
- Substances ot Very High Concern
- Toxicity
NGS DEFECTS
NGS SOLUTIONS
NGS CPD
NGS CHECKLIST
NGS LINKS
- FSP Flooring Sustainability Partnership
- CFA Contract Flooring Association
- CFJ Contract Flooring Journal
NGS PROJECTS
NGS CALCULATOR
- NGS WasteCost© lite
- NGS have an ambition to create a flooring waste calculator
- A grant application to DEFRA September 2013 was rejected
NGS GREEN BUILDING SPECIFICATION
- Robust Specification Clause
- Robust Specification Work Section
- M50 Gemini Risk Free Cap & Coving
© GBE NGS ASWS BrianMurphy aka BrianSpecMan
30th October 2013 – 5th November 2018
