Modern Metals In Cultural Heritage

This practical guide provides artists, conservators, curators, and other heritage professionals with tools for understanding, evaluating, and approaching the care and treatment of modern metals. The proliferation of new metals—such as stainless steels, aluminum alloys, and metallic coatings—in modern and contemporary art and architecture has made the need for professionals who can address their conservation more critical than ever. This volume seeks to bridge the gap between the vast technical literature on metals and the pressing needs of conservators, curators, and other heritage professionals without a metallurgy background. It offers practical information in a simple and direct way, enabling curators, conservators, and artists alike to understand and evaluate the objects under their care. This invaluable reference reframes information formerly found only in specialized technical and industrial publications for the context of cultural heritage conservation. As the first book to address the properties, testing, and maintenance issues of the hundreds of metals and alloys available since the beginning of the twentieth century, it is destined to become an essential resource for conservators, artists, fabricators, curators, collectors, and anyone working with modern metals.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the metallographic study of ancient metals. Metallography is important both conceptually as a microstructural science and in terms of its application to the study of ancient and historic metals. Metallography is a well-established methodology for the characterization of the microstructure of metals, which continues to be significant today in quality control and characterization of metallic properties. Not only does the metallographic examination of ancient metals present its own challenges in terms of sample size and interpretation of evidence, but it must be integrated with archaeological data and cultural research in order to obtain the most meaningful results. Issues of authentication and the establishment of fakes and forgeries of metallic artefacts often involve metallographic evidence of both metal and patina or corrosion interface, as an essential component of such a study. The present volume sets out the basic features of relevant metallic systems, enhanced with a series of examples of typical microstructural types, with illustrative case studies and examples throughout the text derived from studies undertaken by the two authors. This book provides a comprehensive presentation of metallography for archaeologists, archaeometallurgists, conservators, conservation scientists and metallurgists of modern materials.

ZINC SURFACES THE LEADING RESOURCE FOR ARCHITECTS, DESIGNERS, AND ARTISTS WORKING WITH ZINC Zinc Surfaces: A Guide to Alloys, Finishes, Fabrication and Maintenance in Architecture and Art combines the latest guidance and information about zinc surfaces into a single and comprehensive resource for architects and artists everywhere. The fifth book in the author’s authoritative Architectural Metals Series, Zinc Surfaces offers a highly visual, full-color guide to ensure architects and design professionals have the information they need to properly maintain and fabricate zinc surfaces. Numerous case studies illuminate and highlight the theoretical principles contained within. Full of concrete strategies and practical advice, Zinc Surfaces provides readers with complete information on topics including: The use of zinc in architecture The history of zinc’s use in design How to choose the right alloy for your purposes Surface and chemical finishes Corrosion resistance of various alloys This book is perfect for architecture professionals, metal fabricators and developers, architecture students and instructors, and designers and artists working with metals.

This chapter discusses the importance of using standards in conservation methodology and practice for cultural heritage (CH) metals. The past general trend in the field is the use of metal industry standards. The chapter surveys the relevant scientific publications, and concludes that conservation researchers use a variety of these standards adopted by different organisations. As a result, it can be difficult to compare scientific data for CH metal studies carried out by different laboratories. The chapter discusses the necessity to draft new standards for metals specific for CH by examining how three independent researchers had different findings when testing the same coating. The role of CEN/TC 346 ‘Conservation of Cultural Heritage’ is also discussed.

The basic principles of corrosion and electrochemistry are briefly summarised to indicate the capabilities of electrochemical techniques in diagnostic and conservation of heritage metals. The basic elements of each electrochemical measurement – cell, electrolyte, instrumentation – are schematically illustrated in the specific application to cultural heritage. The different measurement techniques are reviewed, divided into three groups: (1) potential measurements; (2) DC techniques; (3) AC techniques. The aims and fields of application are discussed, reporting several examples of specific applications in the field of cultural heritage.

The conservation of metallic archaeological and historic artefacts is a major challenge whether they are ancient bronzes or relics of our more recent industrial past. Based on the work of Working Party 21 Corrosion of Archaeological and Historical Artefacts within the European Federation of Corrosion (EFC), this important book summarises key recent research on analytical techniques, understanding corrosion processes and preventing the corrosion of cultural heritage metallic artefacts.After an introductory part on some of the key issues in this area, part two reviews the range of analytical techniques for measuring and analysing corrosion processes, including time resolved spectroelectrochemistry, voltammetry and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. Part three reviews different types of corrosion processes for a range of artefacts, whilst part four discusses on-site monitoring techniques. The final part of the book summaries a range of conservation techniques and strategies to conserve cultural heritage metallic artefacts.Corrosion and conservation of cultural heritage metallic artefacts is an important reference for all those involved in archaeology and conservation, including governments, museums as well as those undertaking research in archaeology and corrosion science. Summarises key research on analytical techniques for measuring and analysing corrosion processes Provides detailed understanding of corrosion processes and corrosion prevention Discusses on-site monitoring techniques

This book provides the scientific and technical background materials of non-destructive methods of microscopic analysis that are suitable for analysing works of art, museum pieces and archeaological artefacts. Written by experts in the field, this multi-author volume contains a number of case studies, illustrating the value of these methods. The book is suited to natural scientists and analysts looking to increase their knowledge of the various methods that are currently available for non-destructive analysis. It is also the perfect resource for museum curators, archaeologists and art-historians seeking to identify one or more suitable methods of analysis that could solve material-related problems.