Air-Stream Drying of Paper

Abstract

Airflow drying has originally been applied in printmaking and hand papermaking workshops in order to shorten drying times and maintaining planarity of paper. The technique was already suggested by R. Futernick in 1988 and was first introduced to paper conservation at the Western Regional Paper Conservation Laboratory in San Francisco. In this contribution, the physical basics of the drying process, including a simple drying stack prepared from corrugated board, are described. Drying is carried out in stacks of archival-quality corrugated cardboards and other paperboard materials under slight pressure. The stack of cardboards is equipped with a blower that provides a continuous airflow through the open channels of the card boards. The water is removed from the stacks by continuous evaporation through the moisture absorbing board until equilibrium with the ambient air is reached.