Analysis of Weather Data for Humidity Control for Paper Storage and Printing Press in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

One of the challenges of printing and paper industries is the issue of inappropriate humidity in the environment where the paper mills and printing shops or stores are located. Humidity of the environment is a factor of great concern for storage of papers and when printing. This work considers the needed optimum relative humidity that is required for high quality printing and analysis of a fifteen-year weather data of hourly dry bulb temperature (TDB) and relative humidity (RH) for Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet). A bin width of 1°C and 5% were used for TDB and RH respectively. The two-dimensional dry bulb temperature and relative humidity bin data were obtained for each month of the year. High relative humidity which is inimical to high quality printing production, occurs in many months of the year, especially June through October, hence dehumidification process would be desirable during such periods. The optimum relative humidity for quality printing of between 45%-55% occurred for about 1027.9 hours out of the 8766 hours in the year. Therefore, it can be concluded that dehumidification to the right humidity level is necessary most of the time in Abuja for good quality printing work.