 Posted: Fri 5:59, 15 Nov 2013 Post subject: TEDDINGTON |
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| High-tech test can spot fashion fakes and textile counterfeiting
TEDDINGTON, England,[url=http://www.govtvault.com/]cheap gucci belt[/url], Aug. 8 () -- British scientists say they've developed a high-tech test to identify fashion fakes and textile counterfeiting plaguing the country's fashion industry.Britain's fashion industry is worth around $57 million to the economy, but counterfeit clothing and footwear is estimated to cost designer brands and retailers around $5.4 billion each year.Scientists from the National Physical Laboratory say a technique called terahertz time-domain spectroscopy could be used to help spot fakes and combat textile counterfeiting.This technique directs a beam of terahertz radiation -- a band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and infrared light -- on a sample of fabric and detects the properties of the radiation after it has passed through the fabric.Each type of fabric has a distinct transmission profile -- different rates of beam scattering and absorption -- associated with it,[url=http://www.govtvault.com/]gucci bags outlet[/url], essentially giving it a signature, a laboratory release said.The technique can distinguish between fabrics that look and feel similar but have different compositions, and can spot the difference between plain wool and the more expensive merino wool, as well as between natural and synthetic silk, researchers said."Counterfeit clothes can look and feel almost exactly like the real thing and so customs officials need technological assistance to spot them," researcher John Molloy said. "Terahertz spectroscopy is a fast, safe and reliable test that could help safeguard one of the United Kingdom's most valuable industries." |
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