What’s the difference between celluloid and Darvic color bands?
The big advantage of celluloid bands is the ease with which you can seal them (with acetone). They also hold their “memory” a bit better than Darvic. Unfortunately, the U.K. manufacturer of celluloid is going out of business, and one by one, the celluloid colors are becoming unavailable. We will continue to order as many celluloid bands as we can, for as long as we can. Yellow and white are no longer available and we will discontinue those celluloid colors when supplies are exhausted. The disadvantage of celluloid, aside from unavailability, is the tendency for the colors to fade over time. Darvic is the trade name for un-plasticized PVC, which is dyed with colorfast dyes and is UV resistant. That’s the number one advantage of Darvic bands. It is possible to seal Darvic bands with plumber’s UPVC Solvent Cement, which uses methyl ethyl ketone as a solvent to partially dissolve the plastic to form a bond. Acetone will not work on Darvic bands and Superglue ™ is unsuitable because it d
