Curling problem with laminated foam board

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FramerBill

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Joined
Dec 20, 2001
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Yorktown Heights, New York
Over the course of the past few months two customers for whom we have done work for have come back to our shop with the same problem: Laminated foam boards that are bowing up in the middle.

For both of the customers we mounted (large to very large prints) onto foam board and then laminated them . The foam board ranged from 3/16" ("Hartman") to 1/2" (manufacturer unknown). The sizes of the prints ranged from 24x30" to 44x54" (the latter being 1/2" foam). The first customer hung his prints in a (potentially humid) basement, so I thought this was the cause of the problem. However, yesterday a second customer came in with the same problem. When asked about the environmental conditions surrounding the prints the customer said that they were in an upstairs bedroom and he always keeps his A/C on. I believed him, and thus the humidity assumption may have been wrong.

Has anyone seen this problem before? Is mounting & laminating on foam not advisable? Is their a better surface to use when laminating ?

PS: I "solved" the problem with these customers by recommending a framing solution at a discount. They both seemed satisfied with this, however I am not and am looking for a proper solution. Any assistance appreciated.
 
In my experience, the bowing is caused by changes in humidity, not just moisture.

Larger pieces of fomebord are more likely to bow.

Try gator foam for large pieces, instead of fomebord.

I have seen large fomebord braced up with strecther bars on the back, it was flat, but I thought it looked tacky.
 
Bill,

Your problem comes from the fact that you have sealed only one side of a piece of paper coated board. The other side is exposed to any change in humidity and it doesn't take that much to cause warpage. If your problem continues, try countermounting something to the back side of the board. That should seal both sides and minimize the warping. You could use the liner paper out of a print envelope or something similar. It sounds like the posters were hung without frames. An unframed piece of foamboard that size is hard to keep straight under the best of conditions.

Additionally, if you are buying bargain foamboard, many times the paper on both sides is tensioned slightly different thus causing it to bow towards the side that is tighter. There isn't much you can do with that problem except change brands of foamboard.

Framerguy

Edit:

If the mounted poster is warping outwards toward&nbspthe face of the poster (convex vs. concave), I have no clue what to do. That is going against the theory of the unsealed surface absorbing moisture and expanding thus causing the warp.

[ 09-08-2003, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: Framerguy ]
 
I have never guaranteed fome core board (as a dry mounting substrate,) to not bow or warp.
Sometimes it stays flat, usually it doesn't. I always tell customers that it should end up in a frame slapped under a piece of glass someday and that'll solve the warping deal.
I tried Mighty Mount as a substrate (it IS more rigid-sort of in between gator board and fc) but it reacts oddly to heat- it'll sometimes weepwow and get kinda hilly- like some sort of sensitivity to heat. I don't use it anymore for dry mounting.
The only frameless method of displaying that I can guarantee against warping is one of those "plak" mounting services (on MDF.) They will laminate the face as well. And oversize is no problem.

edie the cya goddess
 
Originally posted by FramerBill:
Lamenating both sides? Sorry, that was not on the manufacturer's instruction sheet. Why would that help?
Click to expand...
Bill,

Re-read my post at the top of this thread again. It explains why you should countermount (mount something on the reverse of the mounting board) to help minimize the warpage. It doesn't necessarily need to be laminated, just a sheet of adhesive with a sheet of white paper mounted to it. The adhesive will actually do the sealing, not the paper. It is simply there to cover the adhesive.

Again, it may not be a problem you can solve by countermounting. If the surface papers of the foamboard are of uneven tension, the board will almost always warp towards the side with the greater tension. This happens with just about all brands of foamboard at one time or another. It isn't a common problem with the better grades of foamboard but occasionally it happens. I had to send back a case of Art Care a few years ago because it was warping just sitting in the foamboard bin.

Framerguy
 
Unfortunately, the larger the board size, the greater the potential for foamboard to show a bow. Framerguy is right .... countermounting will help to eliminate this.
Your other option for larger jobs is to go to a substrate like MightyCore manufactured by Bienfang. It is a harder foamboard product available in 1/4" and 1/2". Similar to Gator but not as expensive.
 
This was an excellent question. The core of my business in mounting and laminating onto a variety of substrates.
Countermounting is the only way of avoiding the 'warp' - no matter what substrate is used, MDF, gatorfoam, foamcore - I have been the unlucky person to have been on a vertical learning curve.

Tried painting the reverse of MDF (to seal), even laquer was recommended by joiners to me. But, no. Even heating the reverse side first and then mounting. The theory there was to remove the same amount of moisture/tension from the board from both sides - nope.

It seems an expensive and time consuming option, but if the client wants something that size mounted and laminated on one side - so be it.

All the best.
 
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