Aim: To test the VMD technique for its ability to develop fingermarks from spent cartridges and bullet casings. Natural and sebaceous marks to be deposited onto bullet/cartridge by a single donor and the bullet/cartridge fired after a set time period (< 5mins, 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 28 days). Gold/Zinc (AuZn), Silver (Ag), […]

10th May 2017 – James Price During recent training with the New Zealand Police, one of their Forensic Scientist successfully developed a great print on a polystyrene cup using a gold/zinc + silver VMD process in their new VMD1260.

6th April 2017 – Ian Harris I recently used one of our VMD360 Latent Fingerprint Development systems to carry out an experiment in order to develop a mark on a sample of leather from a luggage label holder. I placed a natural mark on the leather and the next day developed the mark using Stirling […]

  We often ask customers to list a range of problematic substrates that they struggle to develop good fingermarks on. Wood always seems to be high on the list. Here’s an example of good ridge detail developed using a Silver/Zinc VMD process

  Here’s a quick update on our research project looking at the effectiveness of different VMD processes in developing fingerprints on the new BoE polymer £5. So far the Gold/Zinc vs Silver/Zinc results are pretty even. Stay tuned for the copper process results..!

  Narcotics and money bundles are usually wrapped up in flexible plastic food wrap such as Clingfilm or Saran wrap. This can be particularly difficult to recover prints from, however, once again we have seen much success when processing with VMD. Here are some examples of a few substrates usually used for the packaging and […]

VMD Fingermark development on waterproof jacket:   The great thing about having our own on-site laboratory, is the ability to rapidly process specific items which enables us to advise customers which processes would be best for their casework. Above is an example of a test we recently carried out on a waterproof jacket. In this case, […]

  Polymer banknotes usually have very complicated backgrounds made up of different textures, colours and patterns. Even if you successfully develop fingermarks, visualising the prints can still be very difficult. Here’s one solution using a copper VMD process followed by Gel lifting and scanning.    

    When processing exhibits with VMD, occasionally you might find that you develop an outline of a print which contains limited ridge detail.  This is when a 2nd or in this case a 3rd metal evaporation is worth a try to fill in the missing gaps! Here’s a great example of an initial Gold/Zinc […]