Restoration of Earthenware & Porcelain Cultural Assets using 3D Printing

Abstract

Cultural assets restoration is being considered highly as a practical way to extend the lifespan of damaged cultural assets and re-highlight their value. However, restoration process has been mostly dependent on the manual work involving the experience and skill of a person performing restoration, thereby requiring much time and effort. In recent, it became possible to apply a method allowing restoration to be performed more accurately and easily according to the material characteristics and shape of cultural assets. Namely, it is to use a method of printing out the 3D shape data computed in computer as real object by using 3D printer for the restoration that has been performed manually. The missing part of a cultural asset is computed into computer data first and is printed out by using 3D printer to undergo a simple shaping process. The result of 3D printer application showed that repetitive output and shape and figure revision of digital data were possible, and it was possible to improve the degree of completedness of restoration through test output using