Print method using a three dimensional (3D) printer to provide scanning protection for printed 3D objects

3D-print scanning-protection fabrication method.

A print method for printing three dimensional (3D) objects that are difficult to copy by use of a 3D scanner and 3D printer. The printer includes a print head with an extrusion nozzle with a heated portion and a print bed with a surface for receiving material extruded from the extrusion nozzle. The printer includes a print material supply spool loaded with an anti-scanning filament. The method includes operating the print head to draw the anti-scanning filament into the heated portion for heating and to extrude the heated filament from the extrusion nozzle to form a 3D object. The printed 3D object includes one or more scan protected exterior surfaces on at least one element of the 3D object. The scan protected exterior surfaces are either light absorbing or reflect light in unconventional directions. The anti-scanning filament is a plastic mixed with an anti-scanning additive such as a retroreflective material.

BACKGROUND(1) 1. Field of the Description(2) The present invention relates, in general, to fabrication of three dimensional (3D) objects, and, more particularly, to a filament-based 3D printer and corresponding printing materials (e.g., filaments) specially configured and operable to print 3D objects that are configured to provide protection against 3D scanning (e.g., to prevent full or effective scanning of the objects printed with a 3D printer).(3) 2. Relevant Background(4) 3D printing is an additive technology in which objects (or “printed 3D objects”) are created from a digital file. The digital file may be generated from software such as a computer aided design (CAD) program or another 3D modeling program or with a 3D scanner to copy an existing object that provides input to a 3D modeling program. To prepare the digital file for printing, software, provided on a printer-interfacing computer or running on the 3D printer itself, slices the 3D model into hundreds to thousands of horizontal layers. Typically, only the outer wall or “shell” is printed to be solid such that a shell thickness may be defined as part of modifying the 3D model for use in printing, and, during printing, the shell is printed as a solid element while the interior portions of the 3D object are printed in a honeycomb or other infill design (e.g., to reduce the amount of material that has to be printed to provide the printed 3D object).(5) When the prepared digital file of the 3D object is uploaded into