Protective film is designed for providing temporary protection to product surfaces during production, transportation and fabrication. Most protective film is made with plastic film (PE) with adhesive (Water-based Acrylic ) coated on its back side. 

If applied indoor without heating, PE film can be left on products for several years without degrading. If continuously exposed to the sun, normal PE protective film will degrade after 3 months. UV resistant PE protective film can last for half a year, or one year or one and half a year outside in the sun. A lot of protective films haven't been peeled off in time. Thus, the PE film are degraded, burned, twice burned and leaves residues that is ugly and difficult to be removed.

Adhesive also will age as time goes by. Water based acrylic adhesives are pressure, UV light, dwell time and heat sensitive adhesives. The more you have of each of these variables, especially in combination with each other, the "better" these adhesives perform that they won't let go of either the surface being protected nor the carrier film they rode in on.

So when we talk about removing the residue of protective film, we need to check that the residue is plastic film & adhesive or only adhesive. Because the plastic film is neither permeable nor dissolvable while adhesive may be dissolved by some solvents. Maybe residue on your item can be cleaned with one solvent, but you fail. That is probably because you are not applying the solvent on the plastic film instead of adhesive.

Even it is difficult to remove the residues, there are still people who have tried many methods to overcome the difficulties and some of them really did it. In this article, we have collected some methods that have been tried by many people and sort out. Hope it can help more people to remove protective film residues easily and quickly.

Solution 1, Recommended methods for removing residue of plastic film and adhesive.

If the residue is plastic film and adhesive together, recommend firstly find mechanical method of removing the film. And than refer to Situation 2 to remove adhesive residue.

Solution 2, Solvents recommended for dissolving adhesive residue only:

Have you tried any method or solvent mentioned above to remove protective film residue? Does it work or not?

Do you have other methods that can remove protective film residue effectively? Welcome to share with us by writing to us. Thank you!