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Lasers Cleaning of Patrimonial Plasters
Eric Tanguy, Nathalie Huet, Armand Vincotte
To cite this version:
Eric Tanguy, Nathalie Huet, Armand Vincotte. Lasers Cleaning of Patrimonial Plasters. Lasers in
the Conservation of Artworks (LACONA V), Dec 2004, Osnabrück, Germany. pp.125-132,
�10.1007/3-540-27176-7_15�. �hal-00935184�
l
of t
h
e sc
ul
pt
ur
es
i
n the m
u-ger and Richard W.
L
evy
for
as
u
r
in
g t
h
e x
-r
ay
flu
o
r
esce
n
ce
n.
ahara,
o
.
Sartiani, A. deCruz, ombini,"The Er:YAGlaser.An ntings: testing and evaluation," ll-14, (2001) 121-124.d M. Rizzi, "A novelapproach ting materials by Er:YAGlaser ier, Paris (2003)
'he Role ofLasers in Fine Arts :WS, 10 (1999) 36-40
sr, "Laser removalofcontam
i-LiHeritage, supplement 1-2000,
rbioper la pulitura deidipinti: e-Decembre(2001)55-61 ics & chemistry ofsurface abla
-IV, "Lasersintheconservation '-120
Lasers Cleaning of Patrimonial Plasters
E.
Tang
u
y", N.
Hu
et+, and A.
Vi
nço
t
te''
1 University of Nantes,LPIO,Facultédes Scienceset Techniques, 2, ruedela Houssinière,44000Nantes, France
eric.tanguy@physique.univ-nantes.fr
2 Arc'Antique, 26,rue de laHaute Forêt, 44300 Nantes, France
arc.antique@wanadoo.fr
Abstract. The use of the lasers Q-switched Nd:YAG to removethe dust of the
stone monuments especially sculpture gradually replaces the more abrasivetech -nique of sandblasting.This tendencymadeus considerthelasers as solution for the
cleaning ofceramics and theplasters.Indeedinmuseums,thesematerials areoften coveredwith dirty mark (dust, grease, etc.) whichisdifficult to remove without
damaging the object. Thispaper deals withthe impact of different types of lasers
(Nd:YAG first and third harmonic)irradiation on plaster andwith the effects on
itsmorphologyand its crystallography. Plasteris an interesting materialbecause of
itstypicalacicular crystals altered at low temperature. That is whysynthesis sam
-pleswereprepared, constrained in temperature then analysed byvariousprocesses
(SEM,XRD,TGA... ). Theseresultswerecomparedwithsamplescleaned bylaser.
That enabled usto concludethat plasters cleaned byUV-laser (third harmonicof
the Nd:YAG) underwent neither yellowing,nor morphologicalorcrystallographic changes.It hasto beopposed to theintenseyellowing,andsometimesmorpholog
-icaldestruction,which appears with an infraredwavelength (first harmonic ofthe
Nd:YAG).
1 Introduction
N
um
e
rou
s
plaste
r
s
are
f
o
und i
n m
u
se
um
s
(
o
rigin
a
l
sc
ul
p
tur
es,
fin
e c
op
ies
o
r
s
impl
e cas
t
s
)
. P
l
as
ter
e
nd
s t
o get dirt
y
v
e
r
y
qui
c
kl
y wha
t i
s
due to it
s
min
e
r
a
logic
a
l
a
nd ph
ys
ic
a
l characteri
s
tic
s
(di
e
l
ect
ri
c
con
s
t
a
n
t .
.
.
).
Be
ca
u
se
of i
ts
n
at
ur
a
l fr
a
gilit
y a
nd
s
ensitivit
y
to moi
st
ure and physi
ca
l
ac
t
i
on
s,
t
he
r
e
m
ov
in
g
o
f greasy d
u
st is ord
in
ary base
d
on
p
ee
l
i
n
g met
h
o
d
s or ru
b
b
i
ng
-
out
.
Som
et
im
es
the
s
e tradition
a
l t
ec
h
nique
s
turn out to b
e
ineffectiv
e
or d
a
m
ag
in
g
es
p
e
c
ia
ll
y
when fi
n
ene
s
sof d
e
t
ai
l
s
e
x
clud
e
ph
ys
i
ca
l op
e
r
a
tion ar wh
e
n
t
he du
st
l
aye
r
s a
r
e t
oo h
ar
d
.
In
th
o
se cas
e
s,
t
he u
s
e
o
f l
ase
r
s,
a
l
ready em
pl
oye
d
far
sto
n
e [
1
]
,
h
as
then been
c
on
s
id
e
red
.
2
Choi
ce
of the Wa
ve
l
e
n
g
t
h
Th
e
fir
st tests ha
v
e s
h
ow
n
t
h
at a
f
ter clea
ni
ng wit
h
a
n in
frared Nd:YAG
l
aser
an
in
te
n
se ye
ll
owingappeared (Fig. la) whi
l
e the
use of the third harmonic
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'DVXPN Âqpau"B a p ?l{::>1O::>? l a 'l-s "B ld·1 ·~!d Mg IA lUO.gharmonic, (b) 2nd harmonic,
give out a too white surface
,cleaning, The
yellowingob-Glaser [2
,
3] is reversible by
'ithout apparent damage for
irdh
a
rmoni
c
of the Nd:YAG
Jut that neither
morpholog-'. Therefore
,
we made some
rtworks and the dirty marks
the results obtained in this
r of the Molda 3 typ
e,
typi-1
1%) and mixed the powder
rmmon that the sculptor
s
or
tion of milk to improve
tex-tal moulds of approximately
,
causing any tran
s
formation
to the face in contact with
this kind of surface are less
in contact with the mould
,
l'hus
,
the possible effects of
l
damage on surface will be
LasersCleaning of Patrimonial Plasters 127
Fig. 2. Crystal morphologyof the faceincontact with the air
Fig. 3. Deposit of carbon graphit
A natural dust contamination would be too long and
insufficientlyrepro-ducibl
e
. We thus chose a deposit of carbon graphite reduced to powder
a
nd
applied to the brush (Fig
.
3)
.
This powder forms part of porosities and makes
it possible to obtain a fine and homogeneouslayer.
4 Treatment
in Temperature
Laser ablation induced a fast but localizedrise in tempe
r
ature in the medium.
However the modifications of phase of the plaster occur for temperatures
ranging between lOODCand 1200DCFig. 4
.
Plaster is an interesting
mate-rial because of its typical acicular crystals (CaS04
.
2H20
P)
altered at low
temperature (120DC
=CaS0
4
.0,5H20
P) [4].
In order to detect possible
mod-ifications of phases of the plaster cleaned by laser
,
samples were fir
s
t th
e
r-mally treated
,
at various temperatures
,
then they were observed with th
e
SEM and, eventually th
e
y were reduced to powder and analysed by x-rays
diffraction (Fig. 5). Th
e
s
e
data will be employed as references and will b
e
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e
~ 400 G hydrate ),:H2o
l
~
G .'ê200 lriteIII 0 L..._ ;' 10 20 30 40 50 2thêta (degré) on of the temperature 500 H H roc-e 400 A A C- H:la
g300 A~
H ~ 200 A =~)
.~ 100 H G A.k
o1\'",",,',
10 20 30 40 50 2thêta (degré) transformation of the sample 2 thêta (degré) 400.---~ 3000e H H ";;'300 g-o ~200 :£ ~ 100 the fundamental wavelength thod of cleaning by the thirdo was dirtied and cleaned on
son (Fig.
6)
.
The energy used2)
and 90mJ (0.72 Jjcm2) at10 20 30 40 50
Fig. 5. Modificationofthe plaster phases versustemperature at 20, 100 and 3000C
(DRX - SEM),G: gypsum, H: hemihydrate, A: anhydrite
nples treated in temperature
ig. 7
by UV does not undergo any
l. Moreover, this method of
laser shows clearly that the
lour. On the other hand, it is
e fundamental wavelength of
dification of its surface, that
the influence of the heat on
Referenceplaster
Carboned plaster to be cleared
Fig. 6. Samplebeforecleaning
mated at O.16Jjcm2 for the
hold ofthe plaster isaround
Hn~ ém ' znojoc aqt laqt~aU say n latS'BId aqt JOllu ~ U'Bap aqj, IU~t 'BOJ at~qM. aEll'B1Jaqt uaAa I aqt JOarruorua s auy aqt pUTI paU'Bap ÂpJa pad al'BsaJ'B Jms ' paapuI ' StInSal ÂlOp'BJSq'BSqt~ M. (; wJ /
r
I
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O
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s
z
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~
"
..J...Â
d.H...J
40 45 50 2thêta (degré) ne avelengthat 0.72Jjcm2(DRX-.gt.h:fractionation of thecrystals
n
a
i
s
form
e
d on
t
h
e s
urf
a
ce of
.rt
o
f
a
pie
t
a u
s
in
g U
V l
as
e
r
surfaces
a
r
e
perf
ec
tl
y
cl
ea
ned
Lasers CleaningofPatrimonial Plasters 131
Fig. 9. plasma formed on the surface
Uncleaned area
Uncleaned area
a b
Fig. 10. Pieta partially cleaned byUVlaser
and th
e
fine
s
tructur
e
of the moulding or th
e s
urfac
e
qu
a
li
ty
is still p
res
erv
e
d
,
e
ven
t
h
e
f
ra
gil
e w
hi
te c
oa
t
ing
.
6 Conclusion
Th
e
cl
ea
nin
g
of th
e
pl
as
t
e
r u
s
ing
t
h
e
third h
a
rmonic of
N
d
:
YAGl
aser m
o
di
-fie
s
n
e
ither the co
l
our
,
neithe
r
th
e c
ryst
a
llo
-
graphi
c
s
t
ructur
e
nor
t
h
e
pha
se
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