Simply put, air drying is document drying with the help of air. In this method the documents are spread out in a clean and dry place. Fans and fresh air are then used for document drying.
Air drying works best when there are small number of documents to be dried or the documents are only slightly wet.
It's not suitable for document drying when the paper is made of coated material.
Dehumidification
Dehumidification is the process in which dehumidifiers are used in the house to control the humidity and the moisture. Controlling the moisture helps in document drying.
Dehumidification works best when the documents to be dried are damp or only moderately wet.
It's not suitable for drying bound or coated paper.
Freeze Drying
Another method used is freeze drying. In freeze-drying, the documents are kept in a self-defrosting freezer.
To be able to reduce the distortion and facilitate faster drying, the temperature in the freezer is kept between minus 10 to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
For faster document drying, the documents should be spread out in the freezer.
Vacuum Drying by Heat
In this method the wet or frozen documents are kept in a vacuum chamber.
Once the documents are placed in the chamber, the vacuum is drawn and heat is introduced in the chamber. The documents are allowed to dry at a temperature of more than 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Or the process of freezing and thawing are used one by one to dry them.
This method works best with documents that are not bound together and have suffered extensive damage due to water.
Vacuum Drying by Freezing
Similar to vacuum drying by heat, in this method also, the wet or frozen documents are placed in a vacuum chamber. Here also the vacuum is drawn and heat is introduced in the chamber. However, unlike the former method, the temperatures in this method are kept below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
This method works best when the documents and books are very wet. It is also the best document drying method for drying coated paper.
Vacuum freeze drying prevents further distortion of your documents. It also prevents water soluble inks from further damage.
When you hire a professional for document drying, the chances are that the expert would recommend one of these five methods for drying and salvaging your documents. Which method is suggested by the professional will depend on two factors: the extent of the water damage to your documents and the kind of documents which need to be salvaged. Information about the different document drying methods will help you be armed with more knowledge about the different methods available and will help you make sure that the professional uses the right method for your document drying needs.
