I see there are several very useful threads on how to darken the cladding. Rather that make duplicates on each thread. I thought I would post this here. I hope the people with ongoing thread update their pics I am watching closely.
I am also hoping that a understanding of the problem will help those people develop a fix. With the knowledge it will very likely never completely go away.
In the rubber industry we would call that "greying" Bloom. And plastics are very similar in process as rubber/
The bloom is not the fading of the color from the sun. Although sunlight does draw it out faster. A vx that had been stored its entire life in a dark room would eventually bloom.
The bloom is typically a compound in the raw plastic or rubber. Most if the time it is either a filler. An ingredient that shouldn't effect testing properties that make for larger batches (like adding water to whiskey) or a mold release agent. To allow the product to be removed from molding without tearing.
The effectiveness of the products we are using is not how well they protect from the environment. But rather keeping this compound from leaching to the surface. The best way to hold the bloom at bay is with paint type of products. Because they hold it in. But paint on a simi rigid product is sketchy at best.
The reason stuff blooms is because whether its plastic or rubber. None of the things are fully cured. Rubber can be as low as 60% cured, not sure about plastic but I am sure its state of cure would not be 100%. Because 100% would make the rubber or plastic brittle. This is why heat guns are pretty effective at making it stay away longer.
We used to use Toluene to remove. Which by the way is absorbed through your genitals like 200% faster than you hands (to much free time in the lab with the MSDS books) It will remove bloom. But it will do nothing to hold it at bay.
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