Approaches to maintaining provenance throughout the additive manufacturing process

The development of 3D printers has resulted in significant Intellectual Property Right issues. This work presents a model for signing printable 3D objects. The paper initially reviews the security principles of signing of objects in both digital or physical form, and the metrics for assessing signatures. 3D designs are not just a file, but actual physical objects and should be treated identically, to digital documents that have associated intellectual property rights and copyright protection. In this paper we propose a signing methodology intended to resolve issues with the adaptation of rapid prototyping and 3D printing by users both in engineering and the humanities. The proposed digital signing methodology is based on physical signing principles that follow archival principles to maintain accurate records. The new model allows the transition of provenance between digital and physical form.