On Tue, 10 Jan 2017 08:20:15 -0600, Richard Robinson
wrote:

Eiron said:

But the interesting thing is that the translucent EMI inner sleeves
(marked 6/80 - a date code?) had become brittle and shattered as I removed
the disc. Perhaps it's the same strategy of built-in obsolescence that
produced foam surrounds.

It's a possible explanation, I'm not sure it's a necessary one. I had to
ditch a 30yo very good and much loved tent a couple of years back, likewise
because the (synthetic) fabric became brittle and split too badly to seem
worth fixing (or trusting). ... It could just be that decades-old synthetics
weren't perfect. Maybe "They" knew that, maybe they didn't, I don't know.
Nor do I know how long the contemporary-equivalent replacements will last.

Most extra-flexible plastics will suffer this fate. They are made
flexible by the inclusion of plasticisers - liquids that get between
the polymer chains and lubricate them so they slide over each other
rather than binding together. But over time they evaporate, leaving
the gaps behind, resulting in the plastic falling apart.

I think there are now plastics that are inherently flexible and should
have a much longer life.

d

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