| Abstract: | SUMMARIES. The Centre of Preservation and Conservation at the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig has developed completely automatic paper-splitting equipment. In 1994, the first parts of the equipment, the lining and splitting units, were put into operation. Now, the last part of the splitting equipment, the lining-detachment unit, has begun working. With the paper-splitting equipment, the Centre of Preservation and Conservation has facilities for paper splitting with a capacity of about 2,000 leaves per day. Mechanization will reduce both the costs and risks of this process and may confer upon paper splitting a new status among paper restoration treatments. This industrialization of restoration and conservation processes is necessary to save books on a large scale, such as entire libraries or archives. This paper gives results of physical and chemical analyses of mould-damaged test papers treated by paper splitting and conventional leafcasting and resizing which illustrate that splitting is a very effective method of stabilization. The papers were not only restored from a mechanical point of view, but were also chemically improved by the insertion of an alkaline buffer. Accelerated ageing tests showed the high ageing resistance of paper restored by splitting.
CONCLUSION. As the test shows, paper splitting is an excellent method of stabilizing paper with an extreme amount of damage. Faper restored by splitting is additionally conserved by the insertion of the alkaline buffer contained rn the core material and the adhesive and shows high ageing resistance. In addition to this, paper splitting preserves the surface characteristics of the original and can be repeated. By automation of the labour-intensive and time-consuming manual splitting process, it has been possible to increase the splitting capacity of our department by a factor of ten. It is possible to treat 2,000 pages per day with the paper-splitting machine. The cost of splitting can be drastically reduced, therefore, which may put an entirely new face on this process in the context of paper restoration. Paper splitting is the first step of the paper restoration process (including wet treatment, leafcasting and paper splitting) at the Deutsche Biicherei Leipzig to be completely mechanized and as such, it has been somewhat isolated. The high capacity of the paper-splitting machine demands similar speed in the preparatory stages, wet treatment and leafcasting; the next step, therefore, must be the mechanization and automation of these processes. Paper splitting has already reached a stage of development which allows us to speak of industrialized restoration and which the other stages in paper restoration will reach in the future. This industrialization is necessary to save books on a large scale, such as entire libraries or archives. By privatizing the Centre of Preservation and Conservation at the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig at the end of 1997, we will be able to offer paper splitting and other mass treatments of paper conservation and restoration, including mass deacidification, to all interested public or private institutions, as the ZBF Zentrum Fur Bücherhaltung GmbH. |
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