Anyway...no solvents on records. Solvents bleach out the plasticizers. They wick it right out.
This is bad news for the record.
Eg, to make sure that the stickers on a Teo cable case will actually stick, I do a quick wipe of the surface of the case with a 99.99% isopropanol.
For some plastics to be ’glueable’, for a polypropylene to be glueable, you can buy a combination of high grade superglue and a companion container or marker (rub on mating surface with marker) of a high volatile type solvent. It cleans the surface of the polypropylene so that the glue will adhere. These two part systems seem to have an additional bonding aspect but one part of the system is definitely surface prep for removal of plasticizers.
http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/sg_plstc/overview/Loctite-Plastics-Bonding-System.htm The polypropylene will then bond with use of this product but the mating surfaces are afterward different than they were originally, regarding strength and flexibility.
If the record’s vynil material did not have the plasticizer in it, it would be nearly as hard as a rock. And likely fragile.
~~~~~~~~~~
Additionally, this can be a problem when running a blow moulding operation, where you can use what is known as ’regrind’. Where you take the scraps, grind them down and add them to the new pellets that feed into the injection moulding machine. If the level of regrind vs virgin pellets (of the given plastic material) is too high a ratio, your moulds (preforms) will fail. All the heat involved in injection moulding and then blow moulding the preform that is made in the injection moulding process, this leaches out the plasticizers.
The stench in Chinese rubber products (you can smell it when you walk in some hardware stores) is this plasticizer product. The Chinese tend to use a lot of it to cover up the fact that they can’t quite yet make a perfect plastic like the western countries have learned to make, over the years. They over soften to prevent the opposite, and some issues of a degradation that would be unacceptably fast, in various ways. It still causes the plastics to fail differently than the western produced ones, and too soon, regardless. Give it another decade and the Chinese will finally have the plastics built right. Which is all about the lore involved in the actual process, which is learned over time, via experience and feedback. Part of the essential meaning of the line: ’the map is not the territory’.
~~~~~~~~~~
Since a record is all about the surface quality, and the volatiles will attack the surface, then no volatiles in the mix. If volatiles are in the mix, reduced in amount/level, is probably the best way to go. Specific formulas that have been found to be gentle enough, is the way to go.
The release compound is probably the real problem and the situation is made worse by the fact that what you use to get rid of release compound also poses some danger to the record.
Easy does it.
I have not personally had time to play with an ultrasonic RCM, but have played a bit with buying, installing, using, and tuning/tear down/calibrating/etc various ultrasonic sealing hardware in the industrial end of things. I am familiar with how they work and how they deal with surfaces, frequencies, etc... and water based mediums.
In such analysis, a properly executed untrasonic RCM is probably the best device you can buy for cleaning records. Again, not just a willy-nilly produced bit of ultrasonic RCM (the map is not the territory!-be sure your machine of choice was not made by people who know as little as the average dude!).
But..look to buy a well researched and well engineered one, that has some proper lore of how ultrasonics and water might deal with a record - being part of the engineering fundamentals in it's design and build.
Then distinguishing between who is producing original inventions vs who is copying and pasting (parroting/mirroring/mimicking) the engineering and calling it the same, with zero lore, knowledge and skill behind the effort. IE, the problem with Chinese purchases for the past 20 years. You almost have to investigate at the level that Elon Musk hires via. By asking the solutions to problems encountered by prospective employees. The real professional will be able to detail evrey aspect, where as the non principle parrot, will fail.
The vast bulk of customers have no time for that, nor the skill set required to evaluate what is in in front of them.... thus the parrot-mimics end up with a considerable amount of sales. Sometimes the original inventor can go under, due to onslaught of thieving parrots/mimics/copycats, who steal their thunder.
Happens all the time and we've seen it in high end audio.
