Eurocare project 1681 - LACLEPA

LASER CLEANING OF PAPER AND PARCHMENT

  • Project Description
  • Partners
  • Publications



    • 1. Project Description

    The aim of the LACLEPA project is the development of a prototype Laser cleaning system for historical paper and parchment including a catalogue of working parameters to define the optimum conditions for application by paper conservators. The use of laser light proves to be a promising technique of contactless dry cleaning due to its selectivity, micro-precision and absence of chemical aids.

    Cleaning of paper and parchment artifacts is necessary not only because of aesthetic but also because of conservation reasons: any foreign material, such as dirt, can either serve as a culture medium for microorganisms or can penetrate deeper into the material under increased humidity of the environment.

    Conventional dry and wet cleaning methods have proved insufficient in numerous cases as there are e.g. brittle papers, fissures and sensitive inscripts.The main problem lies in the fibre structure of paper and parchment. Dirt and fluid cleaning media may irreversibly penetrate into the bulk structure where removal is either impossible or leads to mechanical or chemical destruction.

    The objective of the project is to develop a prototype Laser cleaning system particularly fit for flexible paper and parchment cleaning. The design of the system has to be compact, easy to use and economical to allow operation by trained paper conservators at public and private institutions. The method will be based on the use of pulsed Lasers, ensuring the preservation of the delicate artifacts by minimizing the absorption volume, the heat affected zone and the mechanical shock.

    Contactless cleaning can be performed by applying short laser pulses in the nanosecond pulse duration regime. Fast removal of stains and dirt will be achieved by evaporation while inscripts are preserved and the composite structures consisting of cellulose or protein fibres remain chemically and structurally intact. This result will be achieved by ultimate confinement of the optical and thermal energy to a minimum volume in the foreign dirt phases.

    Complementing the laser system, a catalogue of working parameters for several artifact types, including e.g. optimum Laser fluence ranges and damage treshold datas, will be defined to allow the conservators to determine the optimum conditions for cleaning the objects in a minimum of time and with the utmost security of substrate preservation.

    2. Partners

    3. Publications
    Submitted by Jana Kolar
    Internet address: http://www.nuk.uni-lj.si/jana/EUREKA/LACLEPA.html