The importance of glass in museum display cases

With the development of cultural industries around the world, governments, private enterprises collectors, such as participation in the construction of the cultural industry enthusiasm is growing. Museum display case glass is an important part of the museum, acting as the audience and the collection of important ‘communication’ windows, the role of the glass is obvious. But how can we pick out the museum display cabinet glass in line with the display norms, has become a museum together to face the problem.

Cultural relics are on display in the process, in addition to natural and man-made factors such as the more obvious, some harmful factors that are not obvious if prevention is not in place, but also the cultural relics will cause damage. For example, light intensity, temperature and humidity changes, airborne pollutants and suspended solids. To prevent damage to cultural relics in the display process, usually people will use the display cabinet as a protective facility for cultural relics, in the composition of this protective facility, the museum display cabinet glass plays the following three key roles.

-01- Insulate harmful gases

Some museums have poor sealing of the exhibition cabinet, resulting in harmful gases in the cabinet and reacting with the artefacts, causing serious damage to the artefacts. For example, in paintings, hydrogen sulphide reacts with pigments and causes discolouration; in textiles, for example, chlorine easily hydrolyzes and oxidises with fibres, to their gradual deterioration. To prevent these hazards, it is important to ensure that the display cabinets are well sealed and that the glass size of the cabinets must be accurate enough.

-02- Facilitate the control of temperature and humidity

The accurate size of the museum display case glass is conducive to the control of temperature and humidity inside the cabinet. Relative humidity is an important factor affecting the integrity of cultural relics, when the relative humidity is higher than 65%, it will to the growth of microorganisms, thus posing a threat to the integrity of cultural relics; when the relative humidity is lower than 30%, it will to organic artefacts to become brittle or flaking. Only when the display cabinet and display cabinet glass are seamless, to form a stable cabinet environment, for the constant temperature and humidity system to give full play to its role in providing favourable conditions.

-03- Blocking harmful light

Mention of harmful light has to mention ultraviolet light, ultraviolet light is a kind of large energy, destructive and strong invisible light. Dyes will fade under the action of ultraviolet light, thus causing irreversible damage to textiles, paintings and other cultural relics. However, with the continuous development of museum display case glass technology, the current museum display case glass can effectively block 99.9% of ultraviolet rays, which fundamentally prevents the damage of ultraviolet rays on cultural relics.

From the above problems and actual reflections, let us understand the importance of museum display case glass. At the beginning of the museum, the display cabinet glass requirements are very simple, the main concern is ‘glass this material is transparent’, although to meet the requirements of the acceptance side. However in the actual use of the process found that this glass is very easy to rupture, theft, and may also hurt the tourists in the cultural relics. With the rapid development of the glass industry, a product called ‘toughened glass’ was born, a high-strength glass into the museum administrators' line of sight, because the toughened glass is 4 to 5 times the strength of ordinary glass, so that the cultural relics cabinet glass is no longer so easy to rupture, to a certain extent, but also reduces the possibility of theft. Although toughened glass is applied to the museum cabinet, it is, after all, for the architectural design of the glass, not to the requirements of the heritage cabinet designed, there are many shortcomings, the biggest shortcoming is the spontaneous explosion, that is, the explosion of non-human nature. The moment of self-detonation will produce a very strong impulse, violently spilling the debris in one direction, which may injure the audience and cultural relics. The toughened glass surface will also have mottled, affecting the audience viewing. There are ordinary glass that will have 8% reflectivity toughened glass is no exception. So toughened glass also faded out of the field of museum display cabinets.

However, with the development of the times and the upgrading of museums, to better protect and display cultural relics, museums are upgrading the material and process requirements of display case glass and starting to apply low-reflection glass. Crystalline Glass Technology also introduces the latest AGC (Ajaxu) technology - developed anti-deformation low reflection glass, the trend of science and technology to help the development of the cultural and museum industry. It makes the reflective surface of museum display case glass drop from 8 per cent to less than 0.8 per cent, and the light transmittance can reach 99 per cent. Low-reflective glass surface eliminates the reflection and the interference between the display window, so visitors viewing cultural relics will not see their reflection, There can be ‘zero interval’ to appreciate the cultural relics. The second is to resist colour deviation. Museum display case glass's low discolouration rate can show the real lustre of cultural relics, which is very important for clothing, paintings and other sensitive to the colour of the artefacts. Real colour, texture, and halo will bring the audience unlimited fantasy. For protection, the is anti-ultraviolet, through the treatment of museum display case glass can isolate 99.9% of the ultraviolet. The second is security, which is an important function of the museum display case glass. Selection of double laminated glass practices museum display case glass, the glass ‘hard’ and film ‘soft’ combined, just and soft, can be useful to prevent hard objects and * bomb impact, protection of cultural relics safety.

A museum as a collection, research, and display of cultural relics remains, in addition to being open to the public to visit the basic functions, but also bears the heritage, popularises and promotes the value and significance of outstanding traditional history and culture, is the public better understand their own country and nation's history, culture, humanism and other important places. With the wave of ‘let the cultural relics live’, the value and role of museum education is increasingly prominent, and the museum display cabinets as the museum inside the important display items, its value is of great significance. Cultural relics are precious items that have survived many years of historical changes. Not only carries a lot of history, and cultural value but also encompasses a lot of inheritors' unlimited love and cherish.