High Accuracy Humidifiers At Druxford

High accuracy humidifiers from Spirax Sarco help keep historic aircraft in top condition at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridge.

Spirax Sarco humidifiers are helping to preserve historic aircraft at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire.

The accurate control offered by the Hygromatik CompactLine units ensures that the Relative Humidity (RH) inside the Museum's American Air Museum remains at a stable 45-50%, whatever the conditions outside.

Designed by Lord Foster, the spectacular glass-fronted American Air Museum is home to Duxford's unique collection of American combat aircraft, and stands as a memorial to the 30,000 Americans who died flying from bases in the UK during the Second World War.

To preserve the collection, the building was already equipped with a dehumidification system, from international climate experts Munters, to minimise corrosion of the aircraft.

However, the American Air Museum is an increasingly popular venue for conferences and other events, so the Museum decided to install a new heating system for use in cold weather.

The Museum called in Munters, which has its UK head office in Huntingdon.

Mr Maurice Weller, Muntersû sales engineer, realised that simply raising the temperature in the winter months would cause the RH to fall.

"The RH must be kept below 50% to protect the aircraft metal from corrosion," he says.

"On the other hand, too low an RH can deteriorate other materials, such as paint or cloth.

Fluctuating RH can make materials unstable as moisture is either absorbed or released.

Artefacts are preserved best when temperature and humidity are kept constant." So Munters opted to install two Spirax Sarco Hygromatik self-generative humidifiers in the building.

These use electrodes to generate up to 58 kg/h of steam by heating an internal reservoir.

According to Mr Weller, the company chose the Spirax Sarco units because they offered the relatively tight control of RH required by the museum: "These humidifiers respond quickly and are very easy to control." Hygromatik CompactLine units are microprocessor-controlled to ensure that the set humidification level is precisely maintained.

The controller also automatically selects the most economic mode of operation for the water quality as well as controlling the frequency and level of blowdown to reduce contamination in the cylinder.

"Nearly a year on, the system has performed really well, maintaining a constant RH of 45-50% in a temperature of 18 to 20sC," says Mr Weller.

Duxford is Europe's premier aviation museum and is home to a unique and fascinating collection of some 200 aircraft, from WW1 bi-planes to current combat aircraft.

It also showcases one of the finest collections of tanks, military vehicles and artillery in Britain and is a celebrated centre of excellence for aircraft restoration.

The American Air Museum won the £20,000 Stirling Prize to become Building of the Year in 1998.

Back to top