The laboratory supports our Conservation and restoration and Examination and authentication units, but also performs regular work for external clients, be they private individuals, galleries, insurance companies, public collections or the monument preservation agencies in the Swiss cantons.
Most of these analyses are performed in our own laboratory, but some work is carried out externally in cooperation with other institutions. Depending on the task in hand, the following procedures and equipment are in use:
micro X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), Fourier transformation infrared microspectroscopy (FTIR), direct temperature mass spectrometry (DTMS), gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS), Raman spectroscopy, preparation and interpretation of paint cross ections under an optical microscope, polarised light microscopy (PLM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) under variable pressure (VP-SEM) combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for elemental analysis, computer tomography (CT), dendrochronology and carbon-14 dating.