Calling All Photographers - Transmount Question

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Rebecca

Rebecca

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Feb 28, 2002
Posts
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Loc
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
A large (maybe 40 x 60) resin-coated Kodak paper is "Transmounted" to 1/4" Plexi. Framed with Coroplast backingboard and nicely made wooden strainer with cross braces screwed into the wooden frame. Snug but not too tight of a fit.

The piece is brand new, wrapped in polyethylene (with an air gap somewhere - this part I didn't see)and put into a plywood crate. Again, nicely made.

Put in storage locker on top of a bit of wool carpet. Thursday a toilet erupts, drains into storage locker, and soaks the wool carpet. Not discovered till Sunday. No waterstains or dripping wet situation in the crate, but there has got to have been a steep rise in RH in that crate.

The top and bottom edges of the photograph are tightly rippled, the ripples extending about 1/4" to 1/2" down and up from the edges.

To me, this sounds like the edges of the photographic paper have absorbed water vapor over the 3-4 days of high humidity, and expanded across the paper grain. BUT, I said I'd check with all you modern photographic experts.

Is there something in the Transmount mounting process that could have caused a similar paper expansion? Has anyone see this happen to "unhumidified" Transmounted photos?

Thanks.

Rebecca

[ 04-16-2003, 09:45 PM: Message edited by: Rebecca ]
 
Boy, that's a relief!

I never heard of it, either. I just figured it was Canadian for "Rubber cement on Acrylic."
 
Two things that may have contributed to the strong cockling of the edges of the photo are:
the aggressiveness with which moisture moves laterally through paper (here from the edges inward) and the fact that the acrylic could not
expand as the R.H. rose and thus, the center of
the photo was kept from moving and all of the
deformation was concentrated in the edges, where
the photo pulled away from the mount. Prints on
paper that have had their edges trapped under
spacers in frames can also show such tight cockling if the frame has been exposed to high
R.H. It is a similar situation but in reverse.

Hugh
 
Rebecca, Is this the process where the photo is mounted with the emulsion bonding to the acrylic? A process called duratrans, usually used in commercial applications. If so, the process is used when translucency is required (image is backlit). If this is the case, there is no paper carrier and you are dealing with resin supported emulsion or possibly emulsion on a mylar or similar clear plastic carrier. Cockling would indicate a failure in the bond. OUCH.
I'll check with the local photo gallery to see if they have any advice.
 
Hi you early birds!

I had never heard of Transmount either, but that's not suprising as there is a LOT of stuff out there I've never heard of!

It sounds like it might be what Wally calls duratrans - an acrylic adhesive bonding the front of the photo to the 1/4" Plexi. But it definately is resin coated paper, so I don't know about the backlighting.

I have a call into the photo lab that did the work to see what they have to say about the process - they wouldn't let me talk to the guys who actually do the work, but the front man may call.

My question is really for insurance purposes. There is no way that the tight cockles can be removed - the question really is, did the water cause it (insurance replaces art), or did the mounting process cause it.

Wally - do you have any idea how the adhesive works? Is the adhesive a water based emulsion put on wet (unlikely I'd think), or heat activated, or just a pressure thing? If there's no water involved, then it was almost certainly the flood that caused the problem.

Or, is it at all possible that the photo was mounted before it was completely dry from processing, and the pressure of the framing package caused the ripples? This also seems unlikely, but I was wondering if anyone involved in photography had ever had this kind of thing happen.

Rebecca
 
Look in your phonebook for exhibit builders/designers. They use duratrans for exhibits and if they don't mount them themselves, they know who does. They would be your best choice for info on these. When I worked for exhibit houses, we didn't actually mount them onto anything. We sandwiched them between clear plexi on the front and a milk plexi on the back. This then slid into a channel in front of flourescent lights for back lighting. ;)
 
Rebecca,

It doesn't sound like Duratrans to me. Duratrans is not a resin coated paper, it's a transparency with a white diffuse backing. Duratrans and RC prints are sometimes mounted onto acrylic using high pressure rollers and MacTac (the brand we used). Not a lot of help, other than to say it's probably not Duratrans.
I've never heard the
phrase transmounting either, but I've been out of that business for ten years.

Ruth
 
Well thank you everyone - I hope to speak to the actual guy in charge of all this soon, so then I'll have a better idea of the technology. I did speak to a conservator who has "transmounted" items in the institution's collection, with no sighs of tight ripples at edges, so it must be a water damage problem, not a "transmount" problem. Will let you know what I find out.

Rebecca
 
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