{"id":15963,"date":"2020-07-09T08:46:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T07:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/?p=15963"},"modified":"2020-07-09T08:46:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T07:46:36","slug":"reverse-engineering-3d-printed-parts-security-vulnerabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/2020\/07\/reverse-engineering-3d-printed-parts-security-vulnerabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverse Engineering of 3D-Printed Composite Parts Reveal Security Vulnerabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the past 30 years, the use of glass and carbon-fibre<\/a> reinforced composites in aerospace<\/a> and other high-performance applications have soared along with the broad industrial adoption of composite materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key to the strength and versatility of these hybrid, layered materials in high-performance applications is the orientation of fibres in each layer. Recent innovations in additive manufacturing (3D printing<\/a>) have made it possible to finetune this factor, thanks to the ability to include within the CAD file discrete printer-head orientation instructions for each layer of the component being printed, thereby optimising strength, flexibility, and durability for specific uses of the part. These 3D-printing tool-paths (a series of coordinated locations a tool will follow) in CAD file instructions are therefore a valuable trade secret for the manufacturers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a team of researchers from NYU Tandon School of Engineering led by\u00a0Nikhil Gupta, a professor in the Department of\u00a0Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering\u00a0showed that these tool-paths are also easy to reproduce \u2014 and therefore steal \u2014 with machine learning (ML) tools applied to the microstructures of the part obtained by a CT scan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"