The
DatatraceDNA® System Provides Tracking and
Authentication of Valuable Components like
Weapons, Aircraft Parts & materials such
as Composites & Glass.
Industrial
metals, such as weapons and aircraft
parts, present special problems when
it comes to marking them for
tracking and authentication
purposes. External markings such as
serial numbers are easily ground
off, thereby erasing the origin of
the part. Moreover, markers cannot
be easily incorporated within the
matrix of the metal itself, since
they may alter the required]
properties of the metal or metal
alloy used. How then does one impart
metal materials with a unique
identifier?
One
solution to this problem lies in a
new technology known as Gas Dynamic
Metal Deposition or GDMD, in which
CSIRO has a world-leading position
(Kaye and Thyer, 2006). In this
technique, particles are embedded
into the surface of metals by
imparting them and their carrier
media with specific combinations of
kinetic and thermal energies. In
effect, particles are accelerated to
extraordinarily high velocity while
extremely hot and are then made to
collide with a metal or metal alloy
surface. The process of the
resulting collision embeds,
impregnates, and welds the particles
into the surface of the metal or
metal alloy. In effect, the particle
becomes part of the metal.
GDMD
techniques can only be applied using
extremely robust particles The
DatatraceDNA® markers were found to
be robust to the temperatures and
pressures created by high velocity
molecular explosives. But would they
be resistant to the extreme sheer
stresses created by high-speed
collisions? Most luminescent
particles are friable, meaning that
their properties are quickly
degraded by stresses.
Studies
therefore examined whether DatatraceDNA®
codes could be embedded into various
metals using the GDMD technique. These
studies were conducted at CSIRO's facility
in Clayton in Melbourne, Australia. We can
now report that many DatatraceDNA® markers
can, indeed be embedded into metals using
GDMD. Of particular note is the fact that
integrating, impregnating, and welding
these markers in this way has no
significant deleterious effects to the
metal or metal alloy’s crystalline
structure, or to the metal or metal
alloy’s thermal history.
The key,
necessary properties of the metal
therefore appear to be unaffected by
the marking process. Thus, GDMD
attachment may be applied after the
metal has been manufactured in a
particular industrial process. For
example, marking of this type may be
applied to metal weapon and aircraft
parts after their manufacture.
This allows
parts to be marked individually, in
batches, or in any other format that may
be desired. The GDMD technique is
remarkably quick. A typical part of 100 cm
x 100 cm can be indelibly marked with a
code over its entire area within,
literally, less than one second. This
ability to impart an identity to all spots
on all of the surfaces of a metal part
means that it becomes effectively
impossible for someone to erase this
identity by grinding it away.
The identifying
code is everywhere and its removal would
require thoroughly grinding every single
square millimeter of the surface. If any
spot, even a microscopic one, is missed,
the code remains there and can provide an
identity. As with the other techniques
described in this work, GDMD application
may be performed in such a way that the
DatatraceDNA® markers are completely
imperceptible and invisible.
The pictures
show metal, glass and brake pad samples
marked using GDMD.
