In the late 1970s I was working for a company that produced stamping oils. These oils were used for stamping metal parts such as car body panels.
The big news that year in that industry was that Chrysler bought some stamping oil that was contaminated with silicone. All the cars that were produced using that oil had paint failures, primarily on the roof, hook and trunk deck. The paint was coming off in sheets.
Chrysler had to pay to have those cars repainted. They included specific instructions to remove the paint down to the bare metal. But most of the paint shops relied on Prep-Sol (a solvent used to clean body surfaces prior to painting) and light scuffing.
Those paint jobs quickly failed. Chrysler found that solvent merely redistributed the silicone and very little got removed.
At the home office of Franklin Oil (the company I worked for) there was a sign on the front door: “Any salesman caught bringing silicone products or products containing silicone will be permanently banned from this facility.”
None of the above helps From The Northwest.
There are labs that will test for silicone on surfaces with what is known as a “swipe test”. They send you a kit with a special cloth that gets rubbed on the surface and returned to them for analysis. I have no idea what the cost is for this process. A google search will result in vendors.
Pledge lists silicone as an ingredient:
www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com
If this is a recurring problem with other customers, then I would consider adding a line to the contract: Surface adhesion is not guaranteed if the surfaces had provisionally been treated with products containing silicone.
Or just ask them if they had ever used Pledge or similar products on their cabinets.
