WEEK 10: Stainless Steel

 This week I am doing trials with the material stainless steel. I am doing three tests for this material. I placed a latent print in the center of the stainless steel and started the cyanoacrylate fuming process. I allowed the material to sit in the chamber for six minutes for each trial. 

When placing my latent prints on the stainless steel, I noticed I could see the striation pattern from the stainless steel through the fingerprint. I was worried that this would affect the outcome of the fuming process. 

Trial 1: In this trial, the cyanoacrylate fuming process did not pick up the entire ridge detail. I was not able to match any of the minutiae points on this fingerprint. 

Trial 2: The second trial went a little bit better than the first. Unfortunately, the cyanoacrylate fuming still didn't attach to the ridge details of the latent print. However, I was able to match one of the minutiae points. 

Trial 3: This trial was the best overall. The cyanoacrylate fuming process picked up most of the ridge detail. I was able to match four out of six minutiae points. 

Stainless steel was not the worst material to work with. However, I believe it would be harder to get a reliable print from stainless steel using cyanoacrylate fuming if this type of print was collected from a crime scene.