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

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—...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of forensic sciences Vol. 64; no. 5; pp. 1500 - 1505
Main Authors Christofidis, George, Morrissey, Joanne, Birkett, Jason W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2019
Subjects
ballistics
Cartridges
Deposition
Disks
fingermarks
Fingerprints
fired cartridges
forensic science
Gold
Reliability analysis
Silver
vacuum metal deposition
Zinc
fired cartridges
forensic science
ballistics
fingermarks
vacuum metal deposition
fingerprints
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Summary: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.
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ISSN:0022-1198
1556-4029
DOI:10.1111/1556-4029.14052