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Old 5th June 2026 | 13:19
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MechEngr
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Joined: Oct 2019
: Non-Aircrew
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I would add to the Airbus comments on suction cups - to make a suction cup effective and having a long hang time the material has to be particularly soft so it can conform to and seal off the tiny scratches that are almost invisible on every surface. To do this the makers use plasticizers that make the plastic even more plastic. These are liquids that are soaked into the bulk material prior to molding the suction cup. Add some heat and they unsoak, potentially into any other plastic material they are in proximity to, particularly when in direct contact.

The thin foggy film that forms on the inside of car windows is the out-gassed plasticizer that is used to soften molded vinyl, such as for car dashboards, and it is when that plasticizer is exhausted that the dashboards get brittle and crack.

From personal experience - I had a computer gaming joystick which I set on top of the flat top of a CRT. Over a few weeks of not using it the suction cups melted their way into CRT housing. due to the warmth driving the plasticizer from the suction cups into the molded case.
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