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                            Events
 Identifying an Unknown Paint System Using the RCMP PDQ Program Event Dates
              April 8, 2020, 1:00 pm
 – 2:00 pm
Event Duration
              1 hour
Location
              Online

Register

Using a typical OEM paint system, the PDQ Maintenance Team will walk through the best practices to efficiently use the database and spectral libraries to identify the most likely source of an unknown paint system. Details gathered from this process include manufacturing plant, year range, and models.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Paint Data Query (PDQ) program is an international OEM automotive paint database used to help identify possible suspect vehicles involved in hit and run incidents based on paint evidence left at the scene of a crime. Paint systems on an automobile typically have three or four layers: a clear coat over a topcoat over one or more undercoats. Each paint layer contains pigments, fillers, and binders. Automotive manufacturing plants often use unique combinations of paint layers, which allow forensic scientists to determine the most likely manufacturing plant, make/model, and year range for the vehicle from which the paint chip originated.

The analytical method used to identify automotive paint relies on the selective absorption of infrared light by the components in the paint. Each paint layer is separated and placed between two diamonds for infrared analysis. Each component has a characteristic fingerprint known as an infrared spectrum. Analysts can identify the automotive manufacturer by comparing the infrared spectrum of each paint layer in a paint system (topcoat and primers) to the spectra in the paint database.

The PDQ Program is comprised of two components: the database that contains the complete color, chemical composition, layer sequence, and sourcing information of more than 23,000 known paint systems and the PDQ Spectral Libraries (currently produced in BioRad’s KnowItAll format) that contain the FTIR spectra of the samples in PDQ.

In this webinar, subject matter experts will review how to use the PDQ Program to identify an unknown paint system from a late model vehicle in under 60 minutes. Using the chemical composition from the FTIR spectra of a clear coat and primer layers of a paint chip, a PDQ team member will perform a live Layer System Query search. In this search, the chemical components of each layer are entered as a minimum parameter to produce a PDQ Hit List, which is a list of known samples from the database that are similar in layer sequence and chemistry to the unknown paint system. Using the spectral image preview function in PDQ, manufacturing plants will be eliminated from the Hit List based on spectral differences in one or more layers, narrowing down the Hit List to a small number of manufacturing plants that will be explored further by doing spectral searches and overlays in BioRad’s KnowItAll software. Once one or more manufacturing plants are identified, a year range will be determined to identify makes/models that would be the most likely source of the unknown paint chip.
View Full Event Page
  
  
          Details
Event Type
              Webinar
    Event Option(s)
          Online,
                        On demand

Sponsor(s) / Host(s)

National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice;Forensic Technology Center of Excellence
    Contact
          NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence

  Link
              If you have questions about this course, contact the FTCoE

  Registration Dates
              March 9, 2020 - April 8, 2020

  Registration Status
              Open

  Eligibility
              Free and open to all
    
  
Read more about
    
            Best practices
        Forensic sciences
        Crime Scene
        Royal Canadian Mounted Police
        Hit and Run
        Paint analysis
        Evidence analysis
        Evidence analysis and processing
        Forensic Technology Center of Excellence
        Pattern evidence
  
Date Created: March 9, 2020
    
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