About the choice of tension for canvas paintings

An open-source biaxial tensile tester with automated pre-tensioning for mechanical studies of canvas paintings

“…Such low strains and loads occupy only a small part of the plot when testing to the ultimate load and are easily blurred in the initial reorganization of the sample when the test is started. Tensions ranging between 1 and 3 N/cm are generally considered to be typical and not harmful for most paintings on canvas [3,21,22]. Under such test conditions, strains are typically less than 5%, with very little lateral dimensional change in the clamped specimen.…”

“…Stepper motor drivers are powered by a 36 V power supply, while the other components are powered by a 5 V supply. Load cells and their amplifiers are powered with a separate 5 V power supply unit 22 , providing very low ripple/noise (2 mV RMS).…”

“…21 Minimum gage length is typically 10.6 mm for the 10 mm sample clamps and 25.8 for the 25 mm clamps. 22 PS2125 produced by Oxford Electrical Products ltd, Oxon UK. direction.…”