Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing for Cultural-Heritage Replication and Conservation: Fidelity, Reversibility and Ageing

Additive manufacturing can reproduce missing geometry and create supports, replicas or reversible prostheses for cultural heritage, but dimensional fidelity is only the first qualification gate. Photopolymer resins can yellow, change gloss, emit volatile compounds or alter mechanical behaviour with ageing, and materials placed near an original object must be selected for compatibility and reversibility rather than convenience. Direct studies of liquid photopolymer resins for cultural heritage have measured colour, gloss, pH and VOC behaviour before and after accelerated ageing, while case studies of SLA prostheses show both geometric utility and sensitivity to UV yellowing. This review develops a qualification architecture that separates documentation accuracy, intervention reversibility, material ageing and compatibility with the original substrate. It treats accelerated ageing as comparative evidence rather than a direct service-life prediction and requires the intended display/storage environment to be declared. The central conclusion is that a successful heritage application is an intervention whose geometry, attachment, material ageing and removal can be justified together and documented for future conservators.

ER-290 · Version 0.3.