24 Product Developments Munters brings bronze age into the present
ORFORD MUSEUM COLLECTS and displays historical material found in Orford and the surrounding area in Suffolk. The museum is situated inside Orford Castle which is owned and maintained by English Heritage.
As a building, Orford Castle affords the museum and its visitors a visually attractive home that is steeped in history. However, it is stone-built and unheated, providing very little protection against environmental damage for the exhibits.
“Due to its age and the way it was built,” says Jennifer Hall, Orford Museum curator, “a significant volume of moisture is absorbed by the building, especially in the winter when the cold temperatures cause condensation to build.”
Without protection, the exhibits are exposed to potential moisture-related damage. This issue was no more apparent than when Orford Museum bid to bring a locally-found Bronze Age hoard from Ipswich Museum to Orford.
In order to progress the bid, specific criteria including strict monitoring and control of relative humidity levels had to be achieved.
Many metals will corrode rapidly in the presence of condensation, with the rate of corrosion further accelerated by natural and industrial pollutants.
If exposed to high humidity, Bronze can develop ‘Bronze disease,’ an irreversible corrosion process that will destroy the artefacts if they are not properly protected. In order to ensure the required conditions could be achieved, Orford Museum consulted English Heritage, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of London for advice. They recommended Munters, who enabled Orford Museum to reassure Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service
that relative humidity levels would be consistently maintained below 50% RH, therefore securing a long-term loan of the Bronze Age exhibits.
At first, Orford Museum purchased one MG50 desiccant dehumidifier for its archaeology collection. The MG50 desiccant dehumidifier is a compact, lightweight unit that is well-suited for smaller spaces.
At the heart of the dehumidifier lies Munters desiccant rotor (wheel), a principle designed by Carl Munters more than 60 years ago. Two air streams pass simultaneously through the slowly rotating rotor that is treated with a highly effective desiccant.
One air stream is dehumidified to provide the necessary dry air, the other dries the rotor, exhausting the accumulated moisture externally. With the MG50 having proved beneficial to the archeology artefacts, Orford Museum raised funds to purchase a further four MG50 dehumidifiers resulting in all five of the upright cases being monitored, protecting and conserving the collections in the museum.
Inside each display case, Munters humidistats constantly monitor conditions, automatically turning the dehumidifiers on and off as needed. This ensures humidity levels are maintained consistently day and night all year round, while also maximising energy efficiency.
It was also essential that there could be no impact on Orford Castle itself. One of the benefits of the MG50 dehumidifier is that it does not need to be fitted on a wall, it is easy to move around and is small enough that it does not obstruct the view of the display cases for visitors. Each MG50 dehumidifier has been placed inside a specially designed small
metal box next to each display case and supplies dry air through minimal pipe work.
As part of the conditions for the loan of the Bronze Age exhibits, Orford Museum are to ensure that the display case is opened very rarely, and regular reports on climate conditions are to be supplied to the Curatorial Advisor at Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service.
To achieve this, the humidistats that are fitted inside each case are made clearly visible to the curator in order to ease the process of taking humidity readings and prevent unnecessarily opening the cases.
Exceptional performance from a small package
The MiniBlue R, part of the Blue Diamond range from Charles Austen Pumps has all the benefits of the rotary diaphragm technology, but in a smaller package. It is small enough to retrofit around existing installations and quiet enough for ceiling mounting. The MiniBlue R has been designed to combine performance, reliability and installation flexibility. By offering a revised version of the MiniBlue the pump remains compact enough to mount remotely and incorporates the electronics needed to operate the thermistor controlled reservoir sensor, allowing the pump to operate only when condensate is present.
Supplied with the MiniBlue R is ACR News January 2014
a ducting kit with 65mm x 70mm dimensions, and the company says that it is quick to site and securely mount the reservoir within a dedicated elbow. Simply connect up supplied pump and condensate lines which sit within the duct. The MiniBlue R has a flow rate of up to 8l/hr and is said to be very quiet with low vibration.
With the required power supply of 230V, the unit has a low power consumption of 70 mA. Mini Blue R is part of the Blue Diamond Pump range, included in this range is the MiniBlue, MaxiBlue and MegaBlue. The MiniBlue R and complete Blue Diamond range is backed up with a three year warranty.
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