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In a manner of speaking, Brett Rock ’84 has played a role in the popular television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Rock is product manager for Thin Film and Applied Vision at BOC Edwards of Wilmington, a division of the multinational BOC Group. The British company transports gases, such as liquid oxygen.
But part of its business has to do with the industrial use of vacuum technology, and that’s what BOC Edwards does. And one portion of that phase of the business serves law enforcement – particularly in the area of fingerprinting.
Police in many jurisdictions use their Identicoat 500, an industrial vacuum machine that lifts fingerprints off virtually any surface – such as plastic bags — more successfully than the traditional dusting with aluminum powder.
The CSI cast has used the Identicoat 500 twice. The first time, they just shoved a crumpled up plastic bag into the machine – not the proper procedure.
“We got a big laugh out of that,” says Rock. Before they used it the second time, the prop man for the show conferred with Rock to make sure they were doing it correctly. “I suggested they fold the material before putting it in the machine. They ended up cutting it. That’s OK but the danger in doing that is that you could accidentally cut through a finger print.”
The Identicoat process uses gold atoms and zinc in a vacuum to bring out fingerprints, which can then be photographed.
Rock majored in political science with the idea of going to law school. But four years in classrooms, and the need to earn some money (“I was tired of being broke.”), prompted him to go into the business world. He has been with BOC Edwards 14 years.