Rhine Group wins Dutch Rail Tender Copper Theft Prevention
Rhine Group BV announces that it’s SelectaDNA business-unit has been awarded a major contract by ProRail BV of the Netherlands to combat trackside metal theft.
As in many countries, in the Netherlands copper theft has been a problem that so far has been difficult to combat. In addition to substantial direct damage in material and repair cost, incidents of copper theft cause disruption of Railway services and inconvenience to passengers.
Under the Agreement SelectaDNA will provide forensic marking technology, consulting and services to ProRail aimed at substantially reducing the number of copper thefts in The Netherlands.
SelectaDNA has proven to be a successful crime deterrent strategy and is being used by an increasing number of cities, companies and private home owners in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and The Netherlands. Since November 2009 SDNA is also active in Germany, where the first projects just started in Bremen and Bremerhaven.
The technology SelectaDNA will use to mark trackside metals with a unique DNA-like signature is highly resistant to sunlight, withstands temperatures up to 1.000°C and can be identified and analyzed on location. The marking is immediately visible under ultraviolet (UV) light and contains metal microdots with an engraved coding that can be read with a small USB-Microscope. Finally the unique chemical composition of the marking can be identified with a portable DNA-Reader. This technology provides Police with robust and immediate forensic evidence to prove where stolen metal has come from, thus enabling them to prosecute criminals. The detection and analysis technology can also be made available to scrapmetal cycling depots so they can check for markings on metal being offered to them.
Donald van der Laan, General Manager of Rhine Group said: “When we started to look at the challenge of copper theft in 2008 it became obvious to us that solutions that were available at the time had several serious flaws. Most importantly, if the presence of marking on a piece of metal can only be determined with UV light scrap dealers could be misguided into believing that material that does not light-up under UV is “safe” even if it was offered to them by dubious sources. So we set out with our partners to develop smart marking technologies that overcome these flaws and therefore provide a broader toolset to Police and a much more serious deterrent to criminals”.
The increased risk of stealing, transporting and handling marked copper and other metals is expected to deter thieves and have a significant impact on the number of incidents.
Branche Guide
Home
Infrasite News
Infrasite Competence
Infrasite Articles
Infrasite Products
Infrasite Innovation
Infrasite Events 
InfraTenders.net
