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E-RIHS.pl formed in December 2015 is a Polish node of European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science E-RIHS. The goal of E-RIHS.pl is to study historic objects through physicochemical methods. It brings together 22 laboratories from 14 research institutions from Toruń, Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław, Poznań, and Gdańsk with unique research infrastructure and expertise. Through an annual project qualification process, E-RIHS.pl provides conservators, art historians, museologists, and archaeologists with free access to 41 methodologies developed specifically for the examination of CH artefacts. It entered a Polish Roadmap for Research Infrastructures in January 2020.
Our goals are:
- development, coordination, and implementation of an integrated system supporting access of art curators, restorers and other museum specialists to modern methods of physical and chemical tests and exchange of information on the results of these tests and analyses,
- promotion of national and pan-European scientific co-operation on physical-chemical examination of Heritage Objects
- preparation and conduction on common research project from Heritage Science area
- fostering exchange of experience and results of research and enhancement of cooperation of the Infrastructure members by organising conferences, workshops, and symposia. Specifically, a permanent forum of such an activity is the annual conference “Analytical Chemistry in Cultural Heritage Protection” („Analiza Chemiczna w Ochronie Zabytków”)
- cooperation with other research infrastructures, institutions, consortia, and networks active in this field in Poland and Europe.
At present, the infrastructure comprises:
- Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń as a coordinator
- Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków
- AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków – Historical Layers Research Centre
- Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology in Warszawa
- Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry of Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków
- The Szewalski Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Science in Gdańsk
- LANBOZ – The Laboratory of Analysis and Non-destructive Investigation of Heritage Objects, National Museum in Kraków
- National Centre for Nuclear Research
- Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (affiliated to the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry PAS)
- Warsaw University of Technology
- Kraków University of Economics
- Jagiellonian University in Kraków
- University of Warsaw – Biological and Chemical Research Centre
Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Archemoetric Research - University of Wrocław
Our offer:
The primary mode of operation of the infrastructure is the offer of free examinations to curators and restorers, thus enabling their access to high-class research procedures. The offer is organized into three platforms:
- MOLAB_PL: examination, carried out by a mobile research team, takes place in-situ (e.g., at a museum) – the offer includes 12 research procedures;
- FIXLAB_PL: testing takes place in a specialized laboratory offering a given procedure and utilises a non-mobile testing facility – 23 testing procedures are offered.
- DIGILAB_PL: a digital platform designed for support of heritage preservation and conservation
The offer is addressed to all institutions active in the area of cultural heritage research and protection and includes examination (in the presence of the object’s curator) by qualified research staff of infrastructure partners, as well as analysis and interpretation of results prepared in close cooperation with the curator so that the results obtained are most useful to them. In comprises:
MOLAB_PL
- Digital image correlation (DIC) method for field displacement and strain measurements
- Acoustic emission
- X-ray fluorescence XRF (Artax 800, hand-held)
- Digital Speckle Pattern Interferometry
- Complementary laser spectroscopy techniques for material analysis (micro-Raman, LIF, LIBS)
- Terrestrial Laser Scanning
- Microfedometry
- Multispectral imaging
- Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)
- High-resolution laser imaging prospection of small-and medium-scale sites with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
- Reflective infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
- UV – VIS – spectrophotometry
- Laser cleaning system with monitoring by spectroscopic techniques
- Polynomial Texture Maps of (PTM)
- High-resolution IR reflectometry in 900 -1700 nm band
FIXLAB_PL
- Examination of corrosion processes in metal objects
- Gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in the application for the study of metabolic activity of fungi causing the destruction of historic objects and the study of volatile indicators of the degradation progress in historic objects
- Gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in the application for examination of binders and identification of organic compounds used in art works
- Decontamination with an electron beam
- Electronic Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR)
- Identification of the origin of skins and parchments
- Identification of microbiological hazards
- X-ray macrofluorescence – (MAXRF)
- Stereoscopic microscopy VIS
- UV microscopy
- Neutron Activation Analysis INAA
- Radiation consolidation of CH artifacts
- X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD)
- Digital X-ray radiography
- Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersion spectrometry SEM-EDS
- Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry LA-ICP-MS
- Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry ICP-MS
- FTIR spectroscopy
- Raman spectroscopy
- X-ray tomography
- High-performance liquid chromatography with LC-MS/MS mass spectrometry
- Automated 3D documentation system
DIGILAB_PL
- HERIe – a digital decision-supporting platform for quantitative assessment of risks to heritage assets
- Pilot digitisation of unusual or particularly valuable objects
- Preliminary analysis of the specificity of the institution’s resources in terms of their digitisation
Contact, infrastructure office:
prof. dr Piotr Targowski, e-mail: ptarg@umk.pl
dr inż. Magdalena Kowalska, e-mail: mkow@umk.pl
Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Grudziądzka 5 Street, 87-100 Torun Poland
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