Display cases, plinths and shelves can act like a trampoline for the exhibits. The reason for this is vibration loads that affect the preservation of the exhibit. A topic that the symposium “Everything vibrates – mechanical vibrations affect works of art” addressed. The conference took place at the end of June 2018 at the Kunsthalle Mannheim Advertorial Article Parallax Article
Display cases, plinths and shelves can act like a trampoline for the exhibits. The reason for this is vibration loads that affect the preservation of the exhibit. A topic that the symposium “Everything vibrates – mechanical vibrations affect works of art” addressed. The conference took place at the end of June 2018 at the Kunsthalle Mannheim
For two days, 120 conservators, museum outfitters, art shippers, art enthusiasts and vibration experts from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland and the USA exchanged views and discussed the impact of vibrations and shocks on works of art and cultural assets and how to prevent and protect them. Participants were also able to find out about “good vibrations” – vibration technology methods for detecting flaws in frescoes and analyzing the vibration behaviour of oil paintings. The background to the vibration symposium was the restoration of the painting “Fastnacht” by Max Beckmann at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. The work was accompanied by measurements of the vibration behavior, which proved the positive effects of the restoration.
As part of the specialist lectures, the company Bruynzeel from Panningen (Netherlands), among others, presented its current developments for the vibration optimization of depot shelves and painting pulling systems. Vibration measurements are carried out on existing systems for this purpose. The measurement data is used to document the state of the art and to adapt calculation models based on the finite element method to reality. Design studies are carried out on the calculation models, which are then converted into prototypes and finally into space-saving storage solutions in the depot.
The animation (the studies were carried out by Kerstin Kracht) shows the movement of a pull-out wall for a painting. This animation was created using the finite element calculation method. This calculation makes it possible to apply virtual sensors to the model and to “measure” the resulting vibrations during the process. This modeling is useful because design changes to the system can be carried out virtually and their effects calculated. This enables the targeted development of vibration-reduced painting extraction systems.
But why are the complex vibration optimizations in the museum depot necessary? After all, the depot is not normally subjected to continuous loads. This is a widely held opinion, but there is a catch. Paintings are not resistant to continuous vibration. During the fatigue tests of oil paintings on canvas, which took place at the TU Berlin in 2010, the greatest visible damage occurred in the first 3 minutes of the tests.
You can read the full conference report, as well as the detailed restoration history of the painting “Fastnacht” by Max Beckmann at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, in the current issue of RESTAURO, issue 7/2018.
