Anglia Ruskin Research Online (ARRO)
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

A Preliminary Study on Vacuum Metal Deposition as a Standalone Method for Enhancement of Fingermarks on Ballistic Brass Materials

journal contribution
posted on 2023-07-26, 14:36 authored by George Christofidis, Joanne Morrissey, Jason W. Birkett
In order to assess the efficacy of vacuum metal deposition (VMD) as a technique to develop fingermarks on ballistic metallic surfaces, a preliminary study using six donors (three male & three female) was conducted. Using a sequential metal deposition process, two metal combinations were studied—gold/zinc and silver/zinc. Results indicate the potential of this technique, by developing identifiable fingermarks on brass metal disks aged from a few days up to more than a month old. As the development of fingermarks on fired (brass) cartridge cases is an area of interest, a further study was conducted where a total of 20 fingermarks were deposited on cases. After firing, second level fingermark characteristics were successfully observed on cartridge cases highlighting its potential as a fingermark enhancement method for ballistic brass materials. Further work is required to fully evaluate the VMD process and its reliability as a fingermark enhancing method on ballistic surfaces.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

64

Issue number

5

Page range

1500-1505

Publication title

Journal of Forensic Sciences

ISSN

1556-4029

Publisher

Wiley

Language

  • other

Legacy posted date

2019-04-10

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

Faculty of Science & Engineering

Note

A copy of this paper is available at http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/10306/

Usage metrics

    ARU Outputs

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC