Ear Bonding of ETM08 was aborted after finding precipitates inside Sodium Silicate Solution bottles, I contacted manufacturer and was told items had expired. Norna was notified and bonding was suspended, new solution is on its way to LHO, bonding will resume next week.
Measurements by Marielle van Veggel indicate that silicate bonds made with "old" sodium silicate solution do not have significantly lower strength or lower quality. For details see T1300482-v1: https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-T1300482-v1 Nonetheless, with an abundance of caution, we should replace the commercial sodium silicate bonding solution every year. The silicate bonding procedure (https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-E050228-v3) will be changed to specifically note this shelf life limit.