Research and Development in Conservation

It is only in recent years that society has begun to appreciate that massive industrial objects such as blast furnaces, trains, steel ships and industrial plant represent a large part of our cultural heritage and should in some cases be preserved. Eura was an active partner in the CONSIST project – ‘A comparison of conservation materials and strategies for sustainable exploitation of immovable industrial cultural heritage made of iron and steel’. The project was supported by the European Community under the 6th Framework Programme, Priority 8.1, and was chiefly aimed at developing a new hybrid organic polymer coating that could be applied easily to large scale outdoor objects at risk of corrosion. The coating had to be applied at minimal cost, be reversible, transparent, and comply with the latest environmental regulations.

The research was co-ordinated by the Fraunhofer Institut Silicatforschung.

In addition Eura Conservation Ltd was a partner in the Effaceur Anti Graffiti trials. where the aim was to develop a coating system that would prevent or reduce graffiti whilst conserving the material  covered. Eura took part by coating the remaining part of I K Brunel’s Engine House – a sandstone and mortar construction in Bristol (UK). The trials are still undergoing scientific examination at the time of writing this in Feb 2013. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme managed by REA-Research Executive Agency (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement nº 262486.

More recently Eura Conservation Ltd has become a partner in the Heromat project – “Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects with Multifunctional Advanced Materials”.