Documents

American Technologies, Inc. and American Restoration offers restoration of damaged books, documents, family collectables, business documents, keepsakes and photographs through a process called freeze-drying. This service is available to private residences as well as commercial operations such as hospitals, private businesses, contractors, libraries, schools and governmental institutions.

What is vacuum freeze-drying?

Vacuum freeze-drying is a simple process that removes water or moisture from items that have been frozen in order to retain the item's original shape and biological structure.

A four-step process

1)  The object must first be frozen solid. Freezing the object solid locks the product structure firmly into position and ensures that the original shape of the object will be retained once the process is complete. After the object is frozen solid, it is placed in a chamber that is connected to or contains a condenser.

2)  A condensing surface which is usually colder that -40° C is used to attract vapors away from the frozen object. It also protects the high-grade vacuum pump used in freeze-drying from water, oils and fats that may come from the object being freeze-dried.

3)  A vacuum pump providing low absolute pressure is also required. During the freeze-drying process, the vacuum pump is connected in series to the chamber and condenser, and turned on. When the proper pressure is reached inside the chamber, a vapor of moisture is drawn out of the object and collects onto the condenser.

4)  Once most of the vapor of moisture is drawn out of the object, heat is slowly applied to help remove any remaining vapors and to release bound water which is typically the most difficult type of moisture to remove from an object. Heat may be provided by any number of sources such as heat coils or light.

What can be vacuum freeze-dried?

• Books and manuscripts: Coated papers, drafting linens, leather, maps, parchment, pulp paper.

• Business/personal records and documents: Attorney-client files, company files, confidential records, medical records, plans or blueprints, product catalogs, reference materials, trade secret records, appraisals, birth/death certificates, contracts, household records, loan agreements, passports, school transcripts, securities, maps, tax records.

• Historical and collectable items: Badges, baseball cards, certificates, porous board stock boxes, rare documents, stamp collections, paper money collections.

• Keepsakes: Baby books, baskets, family collections, leather and rawhide collections, newspaper articles, cookbooks, recipe cards, scrapbooks.

• Textiles: Embroidery, flags, needlework, silks, tapestries.

• Paintings and drawings: Acrylics, drafting cloth, linen drawings, water colors.

• Photographs: Album prints, aperture cards, chromogenic prints, gelatin dry plate glass plates, matte and glossy collodion prints, photomechanical prints.