At the end of 2017, we installed a microfadeometer system at the National Technical Museum in Prague to evaluate the rate of colour loss (fading) of real samples. The instrument will be used to directly assess valuable materials, such as cultural heritage objects, and develop strategies to support their preservation.
System parameters
Illumination: powerful Xe light source with fibre output, lens array to suppress colour aberrations and focus the illumination beam into a 300-500 µm diameter footprint
Signal collection: collection arm containing a lens array to bind the reflected light to the optical fibre
Detection: Flame-S-VIS-NIR-ES fibre spectrometer with CCD detector (integration time 1 ms to 65 s, 350-1000 nm, detection collection lens for increased sensitivity)
Measurements: real-time observation of the change in diffuse reflectance, determination of the DeltaE parameter in the CIE L*a*b* colour space
