Digital fabrication has the potential to innovate manufacturing and logistics in the near future. An attempt to increase the value of real fabricated objects by embedding information and including copyright protection is often proposed. We present a new technique for embedding information using metal fused materials (Copper powder-infused PLA) to form a fine structure inside the 3D printed objects. Then, information can be detected nondestructively by thermography. Our experiment proved that a binary code array of metal-infused material can be successfully printed and embedded inside a sample of fabricated 3D based objects (ABS). In the thermal image, the implanted structure areas were clearly observed with temperature conditions different from the surroundings. We also studied the factors that influence the quality of readouts, such as how deeply infused-metal is embedded from the surface, the colors of the filament substances, and the clearance of the image binary code compared to previous methods. The best condition was embedding metal-infused material 1 mm deep from the surface. Moreover, the color of the printing filament had no effect on the quality of the read-out information. These results mean that we can increase the value added to various kinds of objects fabricated with 3D printers more conveniently.
Piyarat Silapasuphakornwong, Chaiwuth Sithiwichankit, Kazutake Uehira, "Information Embedding in 3D Printed Objects Using Metal-Infused PLA and Reading with Thermography" in Proc. IS&T Printing for Fabrication: Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies (NIP34), 2018, pp 202 - 207, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2018.34.202