a frozen book display case

[tempo]

Hi Refrigeration Engineers,

I need to make or more likely have made a small refrigerated display case.

We are making a book about water and will bind the pages and do the cover in ice. Ideally, we would like to have a glass box or dome, with a refrigeration unit underneath.
It would be nice to have it as small and as quiet as possible, although it doesn’t need to be completely silent. A small self contained unit that could be plugged in and placed on a pedestal. It will be completely enclosed, that is, the book is not meant to be touched.

Our main concern in designing the display case is condensation and frosting, the book will need to be displayed for a month or longer… it will sit in a climate controlled museum, ‘room temperature’ I suppose.

I was thinking that a standard vapor-compression unit would be ideal, but any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. An idea for modifying an existing off the shelf refrigerator would also be great!
I have experience in electronics and mechanical systems, but don’t really feel comfortable (or qualified) working with toxic gasses under pressure ;) which is why we would most likely need to have something built by a professional.

We will be doing this project in Brussels, so if anyone knows of a company or person doing custom work like this in Brussels, Belgium, or anywhere in the neighborhood really, I would really like to meet them!

Thanks in advance for any response, this will be a beautiful book, and needs a display case to match.

[Tycho]

Does it need to be viewable from all four sides or just one?

if it's enough with one side it could be possible to remove the door from a standalone freezer and glue in place a thick plexiglas sheet in place of the door.


the main problem I think, will be the plexiglas, it would have to be thick to prevent condensation on the outside, on the inside I would have purged the air with dry nitrogen gas.

other than that I don't think it should be to hard to set up

[Peter_1]

I'm located not that far from Brussels and we have done similar projects.
You can see in my postings we've made several special cooling systems.
Attached a picture of a pyramid we made for the double glazing factory Saint Gobain.
The 4 sides were in different sorts of glass: single glass, normal double glass, glass with an improved isolation factor (I can't remember the right name)
Inside was a temperature of -10°C and there was a small snow landscape inside (snowman, christmas tree and artificial snow)
On each side was a hand picture so that you could feel the temperature difference.
It was many years on the biggest building Fair in Brussels: Batibouw.

[tempo]

hey, nice,

The display will have to be viewable from all sides, i've attached an image of how bindings are traditionally displayed in galleries.

Peter, the pyramid looks great! this is pretty much what we are looking for, other than certain cosmetic differences, like size...

It shouldn't be much wider than the displayed book, but it can be as tall as it needs to be. I imagine this is just a matter of component arrangement?
The volume to be cooled is pretty small though.
Glass would be a square or a dome.. color.. yeah, just cosmetics.

My partner in crime, for this project, is in London at the moment, but i will email with her to see when she will come back, and then maybe i can PM you to make an appointment for a meeting?
and send you some more specific dimensions... or any other info you might need..?

I'll have a search through your posts to find some of your other projects :)