Cell Phone Coating

I supposed a cell phone qualifies as "comp" anymore...

My nephew's Pantech Crux has be decommissioned. There is a plastic
coating on the entire front surface of the phone, that has worn
off--mostly on the edges.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grinder2112/8129607372/

It sort of distracting how scabby it looks, and that layer is apparently
not essential to the function of the touch screen.

How should I go about removing the rest of that crud without tearing up
the next layer down?

Grinder wrote:
> I supposed a cell phone qualifies as "comp" anymore...
>
> My nephew's Pantech Crux has be decommissioned. There is a plastic
> coating on the entire front surface of the phone, that has worn
> off--mostly on the edges.
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/grinder2112/8129607372/
>
> It sort of distracting how scabby it looks, and that layer is apparently
> not essential to the function of the touch screen.
>
> How should I go about removing the rest of that crud without tearing up
> the next layer down?

It would be pretty difficult to pick a solvent that will remove
the clearcoat, without damaging something else.

Paul

On 10/28/2012 1:19 AM, Paul wrote:
> Grinder wrote:
>> I supposed a cell phone qualifies as "comp" anymore...
>>
>> My nephew's Pantech Crux has be decommissioned. There is a plastic
>> coating on the entire front surface of the phone, that has worn
>> off--mostly on the edges.
>>
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/grinder2112/8129607372/
>>
>> It sort of distracting how scabby it looks, and that layer is
>> apparently not essential to the function of the touch screen.
>>
>> How should I go about removing the rest of that crud without tearing
>> up the next layer down?
>
> It would be pretty difficult to pick a solvent that will remove
> the clearcoat, without damaging something else.

Just a little clarification:

The outer layer appears to be a thin bit of plastic affixed (not so
well) with an adhesive.

Grinder wrote:
> On 10/28/2012 1:19 AM, Paul wrote:
>> Grinder wrote:
>>> I supposed a cell phone qualifies as "comp" anymore...
>>>
>>> My nephew's Pantech Crux has be decommissioned. There is a plastic
>>> coating on the entire front surface of the phone, that has worn
>>> off--mostly on the edges.
>>>
>>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/grinder2112/8129607372/
>>>
>>> It sort of distracting how scabby it looks, and that layer is
>>> apparently not essential to the function of the touch screen.
>>>
>>> How should I go about removing the rest of that crud without tearing
>>> up the next layer down?
>>
>> It would be pretty difficult to pick a solvent that will remove
>> the clearcoat, without damaging something else.
>
> Just a little clarification:
>
> The outer layer appears to be a thin bit of plastic affixed (not so
> well) with an adhesive.
>

But whatever solvent you use, will be in contact with the adhesive, as
well as the layer underneath.

If the adhesive underneath was contact cement, then perhaps toluene would
work. If the adhesive was epoxy, I doubt anything you applied, would be safe
for the layer underneath.

Whatever they've used, it should have been "UV stable". And perhaps
that was a contributor to it failing like that.

If the layer underneath is glass, then you can use an array of solvents.
Whereas, if there was a plastic underneath, the solvent you choose could
fog it, and ruin the display qualities. For example, acetone will fog
plastics.

Then the question would be, where can you buy solvents these days.
I got acetone at the hardware store, but that was years ago. I
don't know where I'd find toluene (the base solvent of things
like airplane cement, and maybe something a glue sniffer might
be attracted to). I can find 1 gallon quantities, for a small
fortune, but then the problem would likely be they can't be
shipped by courier. So you'd need to locate a retailer within
driving distance.

There's mention here of the usage of hexane on capacitive touchscreens.
But it's hard to say whether they were cleaning up adhesive residue,
or just generally cleaning the screen with it. It sounds like they
didn't properly ventilate the work area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexane

Paul