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Equilibration Procedures
Equilibration Procedures
When storing objects at low temperatures, care must be taken
that damage from condensation does not occur. Condensation will form when the
temperature of the object is lower than the dew point7of the
environment.
There are two ways of preventing this condensation forming
and damaging the object. Either ensure that the temperature of the object is
above the dew point of the surrounding room, or surround the object with
moisture-resistant packaging so that the moisture is kept away from the film
(Bigourdan & Reilly, 1997).
Tim Padfield of the Danish National Museum recommends that
care should be taken not to decrease or increase the temperature too rapidly,
regardless of whether the package is sealed8. Padfield advises that
the material be sealed inside a polyethylene freezer bag, and then placed
inside a picnic cooler, before being placed in a refrigerator or freezer.
Likewise, for retrieval the materials should be allowed to equilibrate slowly
to ambient conditions. Again, a picnic cooler or esky would be suitable.
Additionally, a refrigerator or cold store could be used as an intermediate
storage environment during equilibration.
Generally for cool stores above 0 ºC overnight is
sufficient for equilibration.
(7) Dew point: The temperature at which the
air is 100% saturated.
(8) Personal communication with the
author.
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