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Five-star archive safekeeping
In the new MERAK facility in Overijse, 200 kilometres of shelf space is waiting to house 7500 tonnes of paper. Your documents will enjoy true five-star accommodation. The norms here are modelled after the British Standard for the storage of historical archives. When it comes to the care to your documents, MERAK follows their example in the safeguarding of their precious collections.
An archive the size of a football field
 The MERAK facility in Overijse is the finishing touch in an investment project spanning 3 years and costing 10 million euros. A warehouse of 6000 m2 – the size of a football field – has been transformed into a hypermodern archive centre, ready to house a half million archive boxes.
In a separate area, powerful scanners and computers readily address the increasing demand for electronic archiving. > Merak archive safekeeping
Archive safekeeping with a different feel
 Do you have an image of an archive space as being cramped, musty and dusty? Try stroking your finger over any given box in the MERAK archive. No layer of dust here. Powerful filters pick up any dust particles down to 0.5 microns and neutralize any harmful molecules.
The temperature is also maintained at constant level. A smart air conditioning system holds to an ideal humidity level. The sunlight is screened out and replaced by low-UV artificial lighting. This prevents the oxidation and yellowing of the paper and cardboard fibres.
Merak archive safekeeping>
Water: friend and enemy to archive safekeeping
The archive facility has its own back-up power generator. For safety reasons it is housed in a separate building together with the heating plant. Security is assured and risk of fire damage avoided.
 Would you have guessed that our sprinkler system doesn’t use any water? At least not as long as two separate detectors haven’t sounded their alarm. In such a case, the pipes are immediately pressurized and the sectional sprinklers provide directed fire protection. A surgical approach where the volume of water and the area affected are kept to the absolute minimum.
And the immediate run-off of the fire-fighting water is assured: all the floors on every level are equipped with metal grills! And the original MERAK boxes are adequately water resistant to withstand such an incidental shower.
Archive safekeeping by the pros
All Merak archivists with supervisory responsibility are given regular training in fire-fighting techniques and maintain fire-fighter certification.
> Merak archive safekeeping
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