Journal Published Online: 12 May 2017
Volume 1, Issue 1

Model-Data Streaming for Additive Manufacturing Securing Intellectual Property

CODEN: SSMSCY

Abstract

With the increased usage and application of 3D printing or additive manufacturing (AM), the question arises of how content providers or creators can ensure their intellectual property on such model data. Similar to other digital media, such object information that is represented in a number of file formats is easy to copy and reproduce lossless. This research combined digital watermarking of physical 3D printed objects with direct streaming of machine code instructions (GCode) for 3D printing. As the user was no longer in possession of a digital model of the object that is to be printed, the replication of the object was made difficult. A digital model was the abstract representation of information of an object that was transformed into a variety of data formats during the production process. From the data available to the user, the reconstruction of the original model was difficult. For this system, a low-cost adaptor was attached to the 3D printer on which the streamed machine instructions were cached. This adaptor controls the 3D printer. This implementation was part of an online 3D printing service published by the authors.

Author Information

Baumann, F.
Universitätsstr. 38, Stuttgart, DE
Ludwig, T.
, Siegen, DE
Darwin Abele, N.
, Siegen, DE
Hoffmann, S.
, Siegen, DE
Roller, D.
, Stuttgart, DE
Pages: 11
Price: Free
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Details
Stock #: SSMS20160011
ISSN: 2520-6478
DOI: 10.1520/SSMS20160011