I have a customer that is concerned about mounting issues with Yupo 144# in the 26x40 full sheet size. They are concerned that a tape hinge will not be strong enough over time and want advice on what adhesives are appropriate and if there are any issues with heat drymounting. Does the manufacturer make any specific recommendations?

Also, on another post (about Yupo yellowing) you recommend Lascaux Fixativ as an non-yellowing sealant, but it is my understanding that while the spray itself is non-yellowing, the Fixativ is not a UV protectant and you would need a UV varnish to prevent the Yupo itself from yellowing. Could you clarify?

I do not recommend dry mounting any valuable art work, photograph, or document. The process is irreversible. That is not to say that YUPO cannot be dry mounted. It can be with good results, at your discretion.

YUPO will yellow when subjected to UV rays. Do not place the art work in direct sunlight or expose it to florescent lighting without the protection of an ultraviolet shield. The glazing, whether glass or acrylic, should be UV filtering to minimize the damage of light to the art. Even if the art is not exposed to direct sunlight UV rays can still do damage to the art.

As myself as an artist use Yupo paper i can give some answers. It is possible to mount yupo with a double-sided pressure sensitive adhesive to almost any surface, but you need some skill to do so. Easyier is to use acrylic medium or acrylic gel medium to adhere to porous substrates while applying pressure overnight. Pressure sensative adhesives lastup to 50 years while acrylic media last much longer. The manufacturer of yupo advises to use EAV-hotmelt to mount Yupo.

I have tried adhering yupo a number of ways. If the mounting board (foamcore) is not heavy or stiff enough then the Yupo warps. If they Yupo is not adhered extremely well then it develops bubbles under it. Yupo also will "warp" with temperature changes.

Please find below two truly informative articles written by Chris A Paschke, CPF GCF of Designs Ink that appeared in 'Picture Framing Magazine'

“Yupo Part 1: What To Do with Yupo”
http://designsinkart.com/library/M-YupoP1-201511.htm

“Yupo Part 2: Mounting Synthetic Papers”
http://designsinkart.com/library/M-YupoP2-201601.htm


The above links to the articles have been reposted with permission by Ms Paschke.
The articles were written for professional picture framers and the contents and copyright are the property of Ms. Paschke

That would be Ms. Paschke.

Having read these articles, I conclude only that there is not a straightforward way to mount Yupo. Most of my efforts have failed.
Having it drymounted seems best, but cannot be depended on--sometimes works and sometimes you have problems.
Without a reasonable and dependable way to mount Yupo I sadly conclude only that I should not be using it for Artwork., which is too bad, as I am doing
the most amazing work with it, and love using it! www.robdavenport_artist.com to see some of it.

Hi Rob,

Sorry you're having difficulty mounting YUPO. Can you let us know a bit more about what you are mounting YUPO to?

Thanks!

Gator board. I use the heavier yupo I think it is 144lb.
The commercially done dry mount amounts to double sided adhesive sheets run through a big press.
I have the current thought that perhaps the back side of the yupo might be lightly
Sanded and acrylic primer known for adhesion applied and let cure before attempting the dry mount for
What would hopefully be more consistant results.
Like most people I tried various gels and adhesives that I could do myself with catastrophic failure rates
Any advice appreciated!

According to the Paschke articles in PFM magazine, it seems both pressure-sensitive and Dry Mount techniques will work with YUPO:

"KoolTack InstaMount is a commercial pressure-sensitive board that has tested well with Tyvek and Yupo

MountCor and MountCor Canvas bond at 130°F and both love Yupo, Tyvek, and polyester encapsulates. Omega/M&M Heat Activated Mount (HAM) bond at 170°F; and Bainbridge Heat Activated Foam (HAF) mounts at 160°F-180°F, both love synthetic papers"

We have some new information that might be of interest on this thread:

We recommend a polyurethane-based adhesive called 3M PUR adhesive. For mounting to wood, the best part number would be 3M™ Scotch-Weld™ PUR Adhesive TS230. There are probably other polyurethane-based adhesives available as well.

Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) based hot glues are also compatible. Many hot glue sticks are made of EVA but some formulations could vary and I’m not sure if they have to disclose composition.

We also recommend double-sided tapes 3M 476XL or 3M 9456. We believe these will work with wood/YUPO but cannot say for certain.

The key would be the adhesive should be able to bond polypropylene (YUPO) to the desired material, such as wood. Water-based adhesives, however, will not work.

If you are bonding to wood, the wood and any type of treatment can impact the adhesive bond strength.

Excess temperature from the adhesive could cause YUPO to distort or shrink so care must be taken to use the lowest temperature possible.

I am searching for a reliable way to mount yupo to wood panels. I have read all the above comments including the recommendation for the 3m product. Having researched the 3m adhesive I can think of no way to apply it evenly in a studio setting given that the open time is just 4 minutes. They say it can be sprayed but information on that technique is not available. I need/want a way to mount the entire surface to wood panel. I have used spray adhesives and extra heavy acrylic matte medium, both of which were difficult to work with, left corners or patches not properly adhered and a generally unprofessional appearance.
Honestly, i am very keen to crack this nut as I want to continue using yupo but can’t in good conscience sell work that is not reliably mounted.

In addition to the information in the last post you might want to look into this adhesive:

https://www.talasonline.com/Gudy-831

I mounted an alcohol ink painting 12 x 12" done on yupo paper onto archival mat board. I have mounted several pieces before without any problems using acryic gel medium. The piece was heavily weighted and left for more than 24 hours. A few days after removing the piece from the weights (it was fine initially) I noticed some air bubbles. More air bubbles have since popped up. Is there any way at all to fix this?

I am also having bubbles pop up in my Yupo paintings mounted to wood panel. This is very distressing for buyers and for me. I have tried peeling back the Yupo painting in the corner but it separates. What can I do about an already existing bubble in the middle of a paining?

I've had mixed success with Acrylic gel medium. The medium has a lot of water in it and Yupo does expand slightly when wet so I think this is the source of the bubbles. I've had success using acrylic gel medium to adhere Yupo to wood panel using this process: fully seal the wood panel (I use two coats of Golden GAC 100), when this is completely dry, apply the gel medium to the panel as evenly as possible. Foam brush works well. Use a palette knife to make sure the medium is well applied on the edges and corners. Lay down your piece over the gel medium and cover with something flat like plywood. Weight the plywood but not too much. Don't squeeze out all the gel medium. Let it dry for at least 24 hours.
I'm going to try they Gudy -831 mentioned above. It will have less water and might solve the bubble problem.

In conjunction with Yupo we developed this guide to mount YUPO to various surfaces.

https://legionpaper.com/blog/2021/5/25/tips-on-how-to-mount-yupo

With help from Legion tech support I was guided to this forum. I've read through this post about mounting Yupo, the Legion white paper, the two Paschke Online posts. A lot of the advice concerns Gel Mounting with pressure (although Golden does not endorse it), and dry mounting the entire sheet with either heat or pressure. What I, and I think others, are seeking is to replicate traditional framing techniques with Yupo: meaning that they are archival, reversible, and have as little contact with the arwork as possible. With traditional framing tapes it is recommended to adhere only about 1/4 inch of the tape to the artwork when creating the tape hinge to mount it. I am seeking to float mount pieces on Yupo to mat board with frame spacers to create space between the glazing and the piece; pretty standard in traditional framing. So the task is to mount the nonporous Yupo to a porous surface in a way that the mounting bond won't fail but that has no aggressive effect on the piece.

One material suggested in the white paper is Gudy 831 sheeets. I thought I could create a kind of framing tape by adhering one side to paper and cutting it in strips. But I see that Gudy is also now producing tapes:
https://www.neschen.de/en/product/gudy-ds-10-11-12/

The Neschen website describes both the Gudy 831 and the tapes as having "pH-neutral, water-based and age-resistant adhesive." The webpage for the tapes additionally describes it as 'solvent-free, ageing-resistant, permanently elastic acrylate adhesive." So it is water-based, but it being acrylate makes it compatible with Yupo?

So many artists are working on Yupo now, I hope that materials are developed that replicate framing techniques in a way that will be chemically stable. I actually contacted Legion tech support with an unrelated question about whether Yupo is hygroscopic, so I was grateful that the answer included the caveat about framing with water-based adhesives. I've framed probably five pieces over the past few years using them, but now have to re-think and, I guess re-do those presentations.