Mass Deacidification: preserving more than Written Information

Abstract

A vast number of books and archive materials worldwide are threatened by acid decay or ink corrosion. Till now, many investigations demonstrated the effectiveness of mass deacidification to stop the deterioration process. Different quality standards guarantee the safety for the original items and allow after the long experience of ten years in operation more conclusive evaluations than measurements based on artificial ageing. Diverse mechanical properties were examined, and with sophisticated methods it could be shown that the neutralization compound was totally penetrating the treated papers in a solvent based mass process. Besides deacidification, a magnesium-titanium based process is also suitable for a gentle treatment of papers threatened or even damaged by ink corrosion.