Hi All,  As it was related to me by John Omiatek (the head engineer

at Classic Player Pianos and now Storey & Clark Pianos), Classic Player

Pianos stopped using the Perflex pouch material when they went into

production of their player pianos.  After much research and product

testing, Classic settled on a material called Tuftane.  That is the

pouch material found in all of the Classic players.  Also, some time

later, Classic entered into an agreement with Baldwin and Wurlitzer

to make player pianos under those trade names.  All of these player

pianos used the same 'aluminum stack' design that is the 'trade mark'

of the 'modern' Universal and American player pianos.



To my knowledge, the only problem that Classic (and later Story and

Clark) ran into with the Tuftane pouches was getting them to stick

to the plastic ring.  During the time I was selling and servicing units

with Tuftane pouches, I encountered perhaps two dozen pouch failures

(out of many thousands).  I also installed these pouches in numerous

Universal and American players, and have yet to hear about one that

failed.



However, it should be stated here that I did rigorous testing of the

pouches before I installed them into a unit.  I did this by stressing

them far beyond what they would ever experience under normal usage.

This was accomplished by shooting 90 psi of compressed air at the pouch

at a distance of one foot using a standard air compressor and a jet

sprayer (typically used for cleaning).  They were further tested at 60"

of water vacuum once they had been installed, even though the vacuum

pump in the player never operated at over 30".



Musically,

John A Tuttle

Player-Care.com

Brick, New Jersey, USA