Recovery of Spray Paint Traces from Clothing by Beating

Abstract

Manual recovery of spray paints from textiles using a microscope, the routine method in many laboratories, is often laborious. Beating the clothing with a plastic rod, the routine method used for recovery of glass traces within the authors' laboratory, is proposed as an alternative. The efficiency of the method was evaluated by spray tests with fluorescent paint. In these tests, paint particles in the acquired debris samples, as well as those remaining on the textiles, were investigated. The results show that beating is an efficient way to recover and concentrate paint particles. A good efficiency for jeans fabric and rough knitwear is reported. The results appeared to be less satisfactory for smooth woven fabric. Application of the method in casework was effective for graffiti paints as well as for flaked car paint.

A fresh scientific look at transfer and persistence: From a materials science and tribology perspective

“…To date, most of the TPPR experimental work reported has focused on textile fibers [5][6][7][10][11][12][13][14] and glass [8,9,[15][16][17]. Other authors have since investigated traditional trace evidence types like hair [18][19][20], paint [21][22][23][24][25], botanical and biological material [26][27][28][29][30][31][32],…”

“…To date, most of the TPPR experimental work reported has focused on textile fibers [5–7,10–14] and glass [8,9,15–17]. Other authors have since investigated traditional trace evidence types like hair [18–20], paint [21–25], botanical and biological material [26–32], explosive [33–35] and gunshot residues (GSR) [36–41], and soil [42–46], as well as other less commonly encountered traces including glitter [47], fragrances [48–50], lipsticks [51], petrol [52], and polyurethane foam [53]. While valuable, such research tends to be very material‐dependent, introducing specific parameters and interpretations that may have actually impeded the recognition of underlying foundational factors that could apply to most material types.…”