this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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Some good discussion from /c/3dprinting@lemmy.world about how it really isn’t as dependable/tracable as the article says:
https://lemmy.world/post/33199760
TLDR is 3D printing typically uses brass nozzles which wear down over time which will change marks left over time, your bed leveling can change over time, and the “fingerprints” the article talks about can be avoided by just printing in different positions/rotations on the bed.
Show me 20 people with 3D printers and I'll show you 20 people with a bunch of spare nozzles on hand.
Show me 20 people with 3d printers and I’ll show you 20 other people with 3d printers that match the fingerprints of the first 20.
This isn’t like paper printers where companies were forced by the government to encode the serial numbers of the printer into every piece of paper that comes out. There’s no way you could hide identifying information in molten plastic like that.