Facilities

The laboratory was significantly expanded in 2019, and the facilities have been developed for their application to materials commonly treated in the School of Conservation, for students' use for practical treatments and academic research.

• Tensometer
• FTIR Spectrometer is a top range tool applicable to both organic and inorganic material, often the first choice for identification of the generic type of a sample.
• Portable X-ray Fluorescence (PXRF) Spectrometer enables identification of the majority of elements and is particularly useful for establishing components of metals, alloys, pigments and impurities in organic materials.
• Fluorescence Microscope enables optical identification of components of small cross-sections, through selective illumination and reflectance, and also has a polarising function and digital image capture facility.
• Visible Light Spectrometer gives an industry-standard measure of the reflected colour of a surface and is particularly useful for comparing and quantifying colour changes in ageing and degradation studies.
• UV-visible Spectrometer measures the absorbance of both ultraviolet and visible radiation; changes in absorbance in this region can be used to monitor and predict the degradation of materials and its rate.

The equipment is used to perform analytical techniques commonly used in the heritage sector, so students will graduate with a familiarity with their general applications.