Eco-friendly and right micro climate surroundings is vital to prevent valuable museum objects within museum display cases from being damaged.In addition to the application of inert and eco-friendly materials for constructing museum display cases, in order to ensure priceless museum objects to stay in a simlar microclimate environment to the original one before excavation, museum grade display cases are equipped with micro climate control system like silica gel tray to passively keep relatively constant humidity, or electronic micro-climate control system with air filtering system to both keep internal space to be as clean as posssible and actively keep humidity and temperature to fluctuate just within the preset climate values that are most appropriate to historical objects. Therefore the priceless museum objects will not be disintegrated or degraded due to polluted surroundings as well as abnormal humidity and temperature.Passive or active micro-climate systems are discretely installed within lower lockable plinths/bases which are completely independent from internal display space.
I. ECO-FRIENDLY DISPLAY ENVIRONMENT
For building museum grade display cases, WANGDA SHOWCASES just select qualifed inert and eco-friendly materials that passed Oddy Test or equivalent test and are certified with no emission of harmful chemical and VOCs. The Oddy test is a procedure created at the British Museum by conservation scientist William Andrew Oddy[1] in 1973,[2] in order to test materials for safety in and around art objects. Often, materials for construction and museum contexts (including artefact conservation) are evaluated for safety. However, though materials may be safe for building purposes, they may emit trace amounts of chemicals that can harm museum objects over time. Acidsformaldehyde, and other pollutants can damage and even destroy delicate artifacts if artifacts are too close to the unqualifed building materials. Due to the involvement of cutting-edge sealing technology, the excellent airtightness with minimal air exchange not more than 0.1 per 24 hours effectively prevents the outside dust, pets and/or air pollutant from entering into internal display space.
II. PASSIVE MICROCLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEM

Silicon gel such as Prosorb or Artsorb or equivalent, will be put in the discrete,sealed and lockable steel boxes with invisible air pores interlinked with internal display spaces,to passively absorb or release moisture through air exchange for balancing the relative humidity with adjustment precision at ±5% for relative humidity between 40%-60%.

With longer life span and the exceptional ability of absorbing surpassed moisture and desorbing absorbed moisture,Prosorb is preferred silica gel ideally suitable to passive relative humidity adjustment for museum grade display cases,showcases,display cabinets.Prosorb will keep relatively constant humidity between 40%–60% RH,an ideal humidity range for most of museum objects.Prosorb usually come with rigid plastic cassettes which are built by sturdy polypropylene and vapour permeable non-woven polyester fabric, with loose beads filled.

Advantage of Prosorb

*Free of chlorides-PROSorb contains no lithium chloride, as some other products do (Lithium chloride is a chemical - salt, potentially harmful to many metals. This salt can be transferred to metals in dust or by human touch). PROSorb consists of 97% SiO2 and 3% Al2O3.

*Low abrasion-PROSorb beads produce less dust than other silica gels (abrasion < 0,05 weight-% according to MIL-D).

*High bulk density-1 kg PROSorb only needs a volume of ca. 1,5 l (much less than some other silica gels).

*Long term stability-PROSorb maintains the greater part of its capacity well beyond the 2-5 years when other silica gels have lost a large portion of their capacity.

*Economical-PROSorb is much cheaper than the other products sold for the same purpose.

*Temperature dependency-PROSorb is conditioned in relation to temperature. PROSorb reacts in the same way organic materials do. Therefore there will be no, or little, transfer of water vapour between organic materials and PROSorb if the temperature changes. Under fluctuating temperatures this property protects wooden objects and other organic materials from swelling or shrinking: The conditioning indicated on the labels refers to 20°C. At 10°C the conditioning of the cassettes will be around 1 - 1,5 % RH lower, at 30°C around 1 - 1,5 % RH higher.

The comparison of technical data for different silica gel dehumidifier

Full-size Cassettes

Dimensions: L 335 mm, W 110 mm, H 44 mm.

Content: 950 g beads

Consumption:One or more cassettes per one cubic metre of display space,up to actual circumstance application

Half-size cassettes

Dimensions: L 335 mm, W 110 mm, H 24 mm.

Content: 500 g beads.

Consumption: One half-size cassette for display space not more than 0.7 m³,up to actual circumstance application


III . ACTIVE MICROCLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEM


Electronic active micro-climate control system usually keeps relative humidity between 35%~75% with high control precision ±1.5%, and customized climate system can maintain humidity between 20%~ 80%.Active climate control system will automatically identify preset humidity value and actively dehumidify or humidify to maintain humidity within the preset range.The air positive pressure function of the system will stop air pollutants at external atmosphere to enter into display space of museum display cases.

The active climate system with combined dehumidifier and humidifier unit is usually installed invisibly in the lower discrete and lockable plinth of museum display cases/showcases. The display space of museum display cases/showcases is interlinked to the Climate system by two flexible hoses, forming an airtight recirculation system.Air will be actively extracted from display space into climate system or will be actively circulated back into display space. The sensors within display space will real-timely monitor both temperature and relative humidity,and will keep continuous communication with climate system after the preferred climate value is preset well.When monitored RH value deviates from the preset one, the dehumidification by condensing or humidification by evaporation will be immediately activated automatically. A 500 ml water tank is integrated together with active climate system for condensate supply for dehumidification process and also for reservoir use for the humidification process. The modes of operation "humidification" and "dehumidification" are indicated visually on the control panel. Alarming will be activated once the preset climate value not be reached.Remote alarming signal conveying can be customized and incorporated through wireless intelligence system. One basic-model of micro-climate unit will work well for well-sealed display space not more than 8m³,and for larger display space, more units will be needed or special climate units will be customized. A slave unit will be controlled by it's associated master unit. Active microclimate control system is able to be remote monitored and controlled as all the real-time data of RH and temperature can be conveyed through WLAN or cable to a central computer or other terminal control devices.