|
|
| 
|
|
The Fraunhofer-Institute of Silicate Research
|
|
|
|
|
The Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate research
For centuries the saints painted on the church windows, have looked down forbiddingly upon the devout church parish. But in recent times their looks seem to have become even blacker, in the literal sense too. Environmental influences are to be blamed – they’ve led to corrosion and a build-up of deposits caused by micro organisms. Restorers had to be called in. But they’re confronted with a problem – they don’t know in what way the glass has been damaged. It’s difficult to just cut out part of the antique glass to examine it thoroughly.
High-Tech in monastery
Scientists from the field, "Preservation of cultural works" of the Fraunhofer institute of Würzburg are currently dealing with this problem. Behind the high walls of the monastery, they’re busy developing tiny glass detectives, that are just a couple of square centimeters high, that could detect the cause of the damage. What they’re working on is a glass that is chemically built in the same manner as an antique glass. But unlike the antique glass, this one reacts much faster to environmental influences. While the environment gnaws away for decades at antique glass before any damage shows, it takes just a few months for the scars to be visible on the tiny glass sensors. The miniscule glass pieces are simply placed near an antique slab of glass. The scientists can examine the glass sensors a couple of months later and quickly conclude if the environment has been wearing out the glass. They can then decide upon how best to protect the antique glass from further damage.
It all began with glass and ceramic
Similar sensors are now being developed for photographs, paintings and other works of art. Representatives of renowned churches and museums from all over Europe, among them the Louvre and the cathedral in Cologne, turn to the branch office Bronnbach of the Fraunhofer institute for help from the small, motivated expert group of the "Preservation of cultural works" course. But you just have to take a look at the history of the Fraunhofer institute to understand all this interest for antique glass. The Fraunhofer institute was after all founded by the glass and ceramic industry. In addition to the field of "preservation of cultural works", research and development still continues today for the glass and ceramic industry. The Fraunhofer institute also offers its expertise to the fields of optics, medical technology, transport technology, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. The institute has specialized in the area of non-metallic inorganic raw materials (glass and ceramic) as well as hybrid, inorganic-organic polymers (ORMOCERe)
Intelligent raw material for the environment
Research is not just carried out to benefit threatened cultural works and the industry. Even the environment stands to profit from the knowledge-thirsty drive of the scientists and researchers of Würzburg. For example, the scientists develop intelligent materials, that admittedly can’t solve crossword puzzles, but react to subtle changes in the environment.
Clever and slender enough
It began with vehicles made of lightweight materials: they use much less energy because of the reduced weight. But the lightweight material has a tendency to bend and swing easily and also creates quite a racket. To avoid that, researchers searched for intelligent materials, that could register such sudden changes and pass on the information to a regulator. The regulator in turn sends back signals to the lightweight material, so that the material can change its form and temper the swings in movement. The piezoelectric high performance fibers developed at the Fraunhofer institute are clever and slim enough to detect changed environmental conditions and react to them, without disturbing the structure of the lightweight material. The piezoelectric high performance fibers are helping make the vision of a light vehicle with low energy consumption, a reality. That’s not going to just bring in money, but will also benefit the environment, and finally also the brooding saints on the old church windows.
|
|
| 
| 
|
|
Claudine Loissel from France is doing her PhD at the Fraunhofer Institute in Würzburg:
'I work in the protection of cultural artefacts group, specialising in glass painting.' (German)
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Further Information
|
|
|
|
|
|
