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3D Printers Have 'Fingerprints', a Discovery That Could Help Trace 3D-Printed Guns: Study (sciencedaily.com)
Like fingerprints, no 3D printer is exactly the same. That's the takeaway from a new University at Buffalo-led study that describes what's believed to be the first accurate method for tracing a 3D-printed object to the machine it came from. From the study: The advancement, which the research team calls "PrinTracker," could ultimately help law enforcement and intelligence agencies track the origin of 3D-printed guns, counterfeit products and other goods. "3D printing has many wonderful uses, but it's also a counterfeiter's dream. Even more concerning, it has the potential to make firearms more readily available to people who are not allowed to possess them," says the study's lead author Wenyao Xu, PhD, associate professor of computer science and engineering in UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
[...] To understand the method, it's helpful to know how 3D printers work. Like a common inkjet printer, 3D printers move back-and-forth while "printing" an object. Instead of ink, a nozzle discharges a filament, such as plastic, in layers until a three-dimensional object forms. Each layer of a 3D-printed object contains tiny wrinkles -- usually measured in submillimeters -- called in-fill patterns. These patterns are supposed to be uniform. However, the printer's model type, filament, nozzle size and other factors cause slight imperfections in the patterns. The result is an object that does not match its design plan.
[...] To understand the method, it's helpful to know how 3D printers work. Like a common inkjet printer, 3D printers move back-and-forth while "printing" an object. Instead of ink, a nozzle discharges a filament, such as plastic, in layers until a three-dimensional object forms. Each layer of a 3D-printed object contains tiny wrinkles -- usually measured in submillimeters -- called in-fill patterns. These patterns are supposed to be uniform. However, the printer's model type, filament, nozzle size and other factors cause slight imperfections in the patterns. The result is an object that does not match its design plan.
Clean the inside of the nozzle with a metal brush after each print. The micro-scratches it creates should throw it off enough that you can't ID it.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Even more concerning, it has the potential to make firearms more readily available to people who are not allowed to possess them
So does the plumbing section at Home Depot. Faster and cheaper than 3D printing as well. 3D printed guns are really only proof of concept to demonstrate how stupid gun control laws are. Anyone actually needing one can make a zip gun that has an order of magnitude lower probability of blowing up from a scrap pile.
Have gnu, will travel.
10 normal 0.4mm brass nozzles cost 0,76€ ordered directly from China. So for less than 10cents per printed thing one can use a new nozzle every time. Altering the print speed, hotend temperature as well as the acceleration and jerk settings slightly should help to blur other device specific imperfections. However I don't think the 3D printed weapons are really an issue, at least when it comes to normal FDM plastic printers. People could have built much more reliable weapons with parts purchased at a hardware store for decades.
Hardware stores "have the potential to make firearms more readily available to people who are not allowed to possess them."
It should be easy to identify the blood on what's left of the gun after being shot.
set up your speakers
next to your 3D printer
and
play a different song
for every print you make.
I read somewhere
that the best 3D printed GUNS
where printed while playing
Chopin - Piano Sonata No. 3
Volume needs to be loud enough
to cause tiny ripples on a glass of water
also,
yes you need a glass of water
to verify the presence of ripples on the water surface.
Stuff like this can be baked in to the firmware pretty deep down as a feature.
Any reasonably complex printed part would have this ID redundantly printed in to every layer.
Kinda similar to anti-money photocopying / editing in various packages like photocopiers, printers, Photoshop, etc.
BUT. And this is a BIG but!
You can melt down 3D prints to smooth them out. It's quite a simple process, subtle application of heat to get rid of the jagged terraces between layers. I've seen it done plenty of times. It works very well.
Applied more generally over the entire structure could get rid of significant ID fingerprints without damaging the structure overall. If you build things up in lots of separate parts, you can almost guarantee a high degree of certainty that you melt out any fingerprints since it is easier to smooth out these micro-wrinkles and also MUCH quicker as well.
Or, you know, anonymous purchases / stolen printers and some storage locker in butt-fuck nowhere.
It will stop the petty small-time criminals, but not the smarter ones. Never has. Never will. Not unless you go full-stalker tier and everyone is forced to have monitoring chips embedded in them at all times.
These tactics will always only ever be a temporary measure at best. (same goes for the anti-money duplication stuff, always ends up being defeated)
Someone who claims that a 3D printer "footprint" is conclusive evidence linking anything to anyone, has no concept of modern manufacturing, utilizing CNC machines.
Aside from that, unlike a test-firing of a metal firearm, a 3D printer can be adjusted by law enforcement to print in a particular fashion.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Reality Winter was convicted because the classified documents that she printed out and gave to a reporter had microdots that identified the office printer at the NSA.
And this method becomes irrelevant.... The smoothing will wipe away the majority of the traces being used and slightly re-size the object.
I hear it's also good for detecting the presence of dinosaurs.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
They were able to detect unique replicator patterns to say whether it was romulans, klingons or humans.
Each layer of a 3D-printed object contains tiny wrinkles -- usually measured in submillimeters
So what is the si prefix for submiili? Saying submillimeter makes sense for imprecise statements like "submillimeter accuracy", but I don't believe it's something you would use as a unit of measure.
They are not as unique as once thought and imperfect records taken to record fingerprints can/has/will lead to false 'matches'... so keep that in mind.
Seriously. Type writers use to be able to be traced. I am sure the material that is used in the 3d printers is also fingerprints. Including other distinctions. Again, why does this surprise anyone.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
They described a lot of different aspect that give a particular 3D printer some sort of unique fingerprint.. so what's to stop someone from doing the deed, then discarding one of the parts and replacing it, like I dunno.. the nozzel?
This research into method to identify the source printer of a particular 3D printed object seems pretty unintelligent. Did they even consider how easy it would be to mess with your device to make it's 'fingerprint' change?
I'd go as far to say, as a 3D printer gets used, it's signature or fingerprint will drift over time just from regular wear and tear, without any active measures to alter that signature.
If it's this trivial to alter the signature, then this research is pretty much garbage. Only congrats I'm offering is one for duping people out of $$$ to conduct this study. Good job!
A solution looking for a problem. How many people have been shot with a printed gun?
Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
and I’m willing to bet they used proprietary software that managed the infill for them, this is something aftermarket slicers allow you to change, not just the amount but even the type.
Even if you use proprietary that doesn't allow you to alter the infill, all you need to do to mess with their results is to rotate the object a small amount, it will alter how the infill pattern is laid down. If each file has a 1degree rotation the software would likely be unable to identify what printer did what because how the slicer would alter the infill regardless of the machine and how it handles the stepping.
This works fine in a lab where you can control all of the variables, like the slicing software, firmware, plastics and environment, but in the real world, it's completely impractical. People update software, change settings, nozzles wear, belts stretch, plastic absorbs water and requires different temps, different plastics need different temps... It's just too many variables.
3D printed guns are much like the ever feared, at least in Kommiefornia, .50 cal sniper rifle. Both have not been used in crimes yet get inordinate amounts of press.
This
bizarre form
of poetry needs
to be auto-magically
concatenated
into normal paragraphs.
The scare tactics are really about companies fear that 3D printers will prevent them from charging $90 for a plastic replacement door handle for your 2001 Corolla, or $45 for a small plastic piece that broke off your blender. If 3D printers are outlawed, only outlaws will not submit to the high margin repair market.
In addition to the suggestions made beliw for adding variance to each iteration, how about just doing a little finish sanding of each printed part?
Build your sten at home with regular tools since it will be more reliable and won't have a fingerprint either.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Been in the copier/printer/fax/computer business almost 40 years. Printers print a row of light yellow dots, even on b&w copies along the edges to ID each print. It's not as bad with "fake" stuff these days because most printers have tech to know if it is a "non copy" document. Unless you copy them over 150% or less than 74% of the original size, they come out blank or black, or just won't copy at all.
What is all this uproar over 3D printed plastic toys. A 3D printed plastic gun is a complete and total joke, they last for what, 3 or 4 shots, then it breaks. Plus, 3D printers are expensive.
On the other hand, I can can go to Home Depot, and for a few hundred dollars, I can buy all the tools and material I need to build a REAL usable gun, that lasts more that 3-4 shots, and actually has some accuracy. Literally all you need is a cheap drill press, drill bits, files, some steel, piece of pipe, springs, piece of wood and you've got a usable gun. It's not hard, it's not rocket science, and I'd say it's a lot easier than fiddling with an stupid plastic 3D printer. Literally, about the only use I've found for these plastic 3D printers is to print trinkets and bobbles. The plastic is too soft for anything useful.
But give me a piece of steel, and I can build you something useful.
This response reminds me of the experimental program for illegal gun possession that was tried some decades ago -- Project Exile. You get caught with an illegal gun, you bought yourself a mandatory 5 year felony sentence -- regardless of how "innocent" you were of other crimes.
It seems to address all the right behavior for all the right reasons. I looked it up on Wiki and it seems that Rochester NY is the sole jurisdiction where it is still in practiced.
I remember reading in the distant past that it was not being enforced at the federal level for some unknown reason as I recall.
Too bad that the program didn't fly, makes perfect sense to address illegal firearms possession. Anyone know why it faded out?
could ultimately help law enforcement and intelligence agencies track the origin of ... counterfeit products and other goods
Where can I get one of these (presumably) affordable 3D printers capable of printing high-enough quality to be able to pass any attempt at counterfeiting as an original product!??!
Same deal if they mandate some sort of microtag to be laced into the filament. People will just simply make their own.
I don't think our gov't overlords get it yet....they are about to lose almost complete control of manufacturing once this gets cheap/good enough in the near future. Once it is cheap enough and good enough to be on par with what you now buy in a store.
A nice metal printer that fits in your office and can produce actual gun parts will only set you back about $150,000. A nylon re-enforced polymer printer is about the same. That was something that was millions of dollars just a decade ago. They are rapidly approaching parity with the old school manufacturing methods in terms of speed/cost, especially since it only takes 1 person to run a few dozen of these machines and maybe 1-2 more to keep them serviced. You could print out all the parts for a modern handgun, including the tungsten rails (yes they can do that now) and the barrels with rifling, with those two printers taking up the space of maybe a decent sized bedroom. Obviously there is a little more to it than that. They aren't good enough to print everything together assembled, and the parts will require some finishing, but parts wise companies are starting to look at these for more than just prototypes.
Using those two machines at $200 a gun, printing 5 guns a day, a very reasonable amount for the ones I've seen, you are talking about ROI on those machines of less than 1 year. That is off the shelf now. Just imagine what they'll be able to do in another 10 years.
... in the Rosenberg case?