The fact that a dentist a few years ago discovered tungsten illegally included in some gold he was using for tooth repair, has led (indirectly) to a new Canadian-built ultrasonic system for detecting flaws and foreign materials in gold and other metals.
It seems that back in 1979, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce treasury department, having learned of the dentist’s plight (he was one of the bank’s clients) began using what it then described as useful but “cumbersome” equipment to detect such flaws in the gold it traded.
That worked reasonably well, the bank says, and among other things it detected a number of bad pieces, including a Mexican gold coin. Now, though, the bank is going to be the first to buy and use a new piece of much more sophisticated detection equipment which has resulted from an interesting technology transfer from government to industry.
The new equipment, known as an automated ultrasonic flaw imaging system (aufis), emerged from research initiated in 1980 by the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (canmet) , and was later developed to the point of commercialization by a Woodbridge, Ont., company, Techno Scientific Inc.
The cibc will be the first to get the new system, and says use of it will be “like coming out of the Dark Ages” because of its ability to help protect the bank and bank customers from precious metals fraud.
We think this is a fine example of government-to-industry technology transfer, and look for more of the same.
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