Public and private documents
Conservation and maintenance
At Prodoc we are aware that documents are a fundamental asset for both museums and companies.
The legal, administrative, medical, or informative information contained in them are the support to undertake any activity and action.
Depending on their importance, they should therefore be preserved accurately and with constant monitoring and risk assessment over time.
Prodoc deals with the protection of documents, through:
- Monitoring the environments in which they are preserved (humidity, heat, bacterial loads).
- Risk assessment and risk mitigation
- Drafting of Emergency Plans
- Maintenance of storage materials (folders).
- Check for the presence of paper insects, mold and fungi and their eventual eradication.
- Emergency salvage in the event of an accident (fire, flooding, collapses, etc.).
- Drying, cleaning and vacuuming of documents.
- Restoration of wet books and repackaging of documents.
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Wet documents: Prodoc is the one to call
Water is an enemy of paper and documents. When an accident occurs due to a flood or even a fire (extinguishing water) in environments intended for storing documents, books or other paper material, it is essential to intervene as quickly as possible.
Documents in contact with water or in conditions of high relative humidity are exposed to extremely rapid deterioration dynamics that must be stopped in the shortest possible time.
Prodoc is able to intervene quickly to carry out safety activities by subjecting them to drying treatments and to clean up the environments invaded by water, with stagnation or high relative humidity values.
Document conservation: the importance of a clean and dry environment
In case of documents that are damp or damaged by water, Prodoc is able to intervene and restore them through drying and restoration processes.
Dry and restored documents are the first step in securing data and contents but it is essential to store the restored material in a healthy environment suitable for conservation.
Thanks to EDAM (parent company), Prodoc also deals with the clean up of the environments in which they are contained, so that the dried documents can be stored in sanitized environments, free of humidity and suitable for the conservation of paper material.
Drying through physical and non-chemical processes
Our systems are able to dry documents, books and archives using a freeze dryer. The process to which the goods to be recovered are subjected is physical and does not use chemicals that are potentially harmful to humans or the material to be recovered.
The freeze drier freezes the paper material and dries it in a vacuum environment. The water passes from the solid state directly to the gaseous one (sublimation).
Flooded documents or wet books?
The first 48 hours are crucial
Here’s what happens to paper material when it comes in contact with water. Timely intervention is essential to stop weed processes and chemical and mechanical damage
Weight and volume gain
The materials that make up the books and archival documents are hygroscopic and thermolabile: when attacked by water they increase in weight and volume. Ancient books up to 80%, modern books up to 60%.
Differentiated reactions
The various types of material react differently to water and humidity: the leather of the covers shrinks and darkens while the papers usually increase in volume.
Chemical and biological damage
As a result of the action of water, the damage is of a chemical type, therefore washing away of inks and stamps, and compacting of the papers, especially the coated ones. Biological damage is linked to the attack of materials by microorganisms.
Mechanical damage
To the chemical and biological damages it is necessary to add the possible mechanical damages deriving from the falling of the volumes from the boxes.