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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) SET-237 Task Group (TG) was formed in January 2016 to develop and recommend to NATO a reference standard methodology (or methodologies) for fabricating quantifiable surface standards for the evaluation of stand-off active and passive optical systems. The purpose of this task group, which was led by the DEVCOM-Chemical Biological Center, was to utilise different printing technologies to produce explosives test standards for the evaluation of effective standoff threat detection capabilities for force protection, IED detection and threat diagnostics. The TG also developed the procedures to characterize the samples (crystalline phase of material, morphology) and to estimate accuracy and precision information like surface coverage, particle size distribution, areal density, etc. of the prepared samples. Fraunhofer ICT was one of the organizations fabricating quantifiable surface standards using a Nanoplotter NP 2.1 from GeSim GmbH, Germany, a piezo-based drop on demand printer. In collaboration with DEVCOM-CBC, Fraunhofer ICT and ENEA, an ImageJ Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for calculating particle statistics was established. ENEA acted as an “independent laboratory” characterising the coupons produced by the other partners to develop standard protocols to be included in the certificate of analysis of the coupons produced with ink-jet printers. A NATO field trial was organised by ENEA at its test site in Frascati (Rome) in 2019 to assess the printed samples against multiple field instruments for the test standard’s ability to meet the NATO SET-237 mission requirements. The poster will present samples prepared with Inkjet printer as well as protocols for their evaluation together with a new plug-in for the software ImageJ to process micrographs of the samples. The results of the work done in this TG will be utilised to support the work within the NATO-SPS project DEXTER and the EU Horizon 2020 project RISEN.
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