X-Ray Digital Radiography and Computed Tomography applied to Cultural Heritage, Medicine and Industrial applications

Linear Scanner for NDT Digital Radiography   Intensified System for Paintings Inspection     Application: DR of an ancient painting (XVIII century)    Application: High Resolution on Dosimeter DR     Application: two Painted "Tablets", Gentile da Fabriano (1385-1427) Computed Tomography Neutron Tomography Iort Project Autoradiography

Digital radiography is one of the physical inspection techniques used in the field of cultural heritage. The second sample was an ancient painting (XVIII century), made on a poplar wood table. The painting was made of a 26×32 cm2 poplar wood table. The technique of the radiographic mosaic was adopted also in this case. The energy of the x-ray tube was increased slightly to take into account the thickness of the table (8 mm) and the compactness of the material. 



Figure right: reconstructed mosaic radiography of the complete painting. The parameters of the system were: 40 kVp voltage, 0.15 mA current, 400 ms accumulation time, single frame.


Figure below: The radiograph puts in evidence hidden features of the painting, such as repainted wood inserts (1) or the presence of putty (2) and holes caused by woodworms (3).

CONCLUSIONS:
The resolution and the image contrast reached by the scanning system were superior to that of the common film systems used at the Institute. The x-ray scanner developed at Department of Physics demonstrated to be a very useful and vanguard tool for direct digital radiography of paintings. 

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