2 - The causes of the decay

The decay of the material can be triggered by internal factors (the nature of the constituent materials and manufacture of the object...) and by external factors (thermohygrometric parameters, light, pollution...) that often interact with one another.

- Damage of a biological sort
Attacks from insects or micro-organisms (fig. 3), attacks from animals (rodents)...

- Damage of a mechanical sort
Tears, lacerations (fig. 4), dry folds, gaps, crinkling of the protective coating, rolled up material...

- Damage of a chemical-physical nature
Oxidation of the paper (fig. 5), fixative decay

- Damage caused by man
Careless handling, neglect, etc.

- Damage caused by natural or anthropic events
Floods, earthquakes, wars.


1 - The constituent materials and the manufacturing technique

3 - Conservation solutions

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