The Alpha Dot system is a theft deterrent and property identification
system, which uses pinhead sized, polymer fibre microdots, each
individually printed with a PIN that is unique to the customer, and are
widely used to mark cars, motorcycles and vehicle components. Alpha Dots
are supplied in lipstick sized dispensers, each containing many hundreds
of microdots suspended in a water based adhesive lacquer, specially
formulated by Alpha Scientific. In application the microdots are
'painted' on and fixed in place by the adhesive, which dries to a
virtually indestructible finish in about 30 minutes.
When developing the microdot system, Alpha Scientific sought an accurate
method of dispensing the adhesive during production, finally choosing a
Watson-Marlow Bredel 500 Series peristaltic pump for this critical duty.
Each Alpha dot dispenser is filled with a 4ml shot of adhesive through a
pair of handheld filler nozzles fed by the pump.
A high level of dosing accuracy is essential as too little adhesive could
impair the efficiency of the system, while too much would represent a
waste of this costly material. The 505Di unit chosen for this application
achieves a dosing accuracy of +/-0.5% and its reliability has contributed
towards a doubling of production of the security marking system.