frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Are there examples of 3D printing data onto physical surfaces?

11•catapart•19h ago
I had a thought about encoding a very small amount of data onto some kind of "disk" using 3D printing as the mechanism for filament-based storage. The assumption was that using common 3D printer measurement tools (like for bed-leveling) would provide a way to read back whatever data was encoded onto the surface.

Since that seems like a pretty well-known concept, crudely applied to a domain I haven't seen it in before - but is already large and growing fast - I'm assuming that others have thought of this? I was hoping maybe someone had implemented something like it? And then, obviously, if that proof of concept exists, I'd wonder about some kind of advanced version that used specialized equipment for the reading (and possibly the writing/printing).

In any case, I'm just curious. I was thinking about long term (century +) archival storage, or encryption keys only stored as the print with no digital copies. Stuff that wouldn't need tons of storage, but would be crucial to maintain statically. It probably wouldn't be useful for that, which is why I assume I'm not finding much in my searches for it. But I was just wondering if anyone knew about it, in case there is stuff it's good for.

Comments

arjie•9h ago
Seems like low data density. I recall some people talking about laser-engraving. IMHO engraving on a solid chemically-inert surface is more likely to be useful.
lukan•8h ago
Like a CD/DVD?
giantg2•4h ago
That, or a data crystal.
lukan•4h ago
The difference is, that one was (and still is) a widely established product and the other is in prototype stage since decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_optical_data_storage

giantg2•4h ago
Yeah, but standard DVDs and CDs degrade in less than the stated 100 years.
8note•9h ago
why not print onto paper and put it in a safety deposit box?

your X/Y resolution isnt going to be fantastic woth filament, but your Z is gonna really suck.

you could instead print(emboss?) like a barcode on some paper, and encase that in resin. the big benefit being that you can read it non-destructively. keep it out of the sun so whatever ink doesnt fade and you're set

ungreased0675•9h ago
You could print an old-school punch card, bring it full circle.
biot•8h ago
Depending on how you define 3D printing: braille.
humdaanm•8h ago
To satisfy the "disk" condition, would a vinyl record suit your needs?
loandbehold•8h ago
I read somewhere about people using 3D printers to make vinyl records.
j_leboulanger•8h ago
Wasn’t that an april fool joke ?
boje•8h ago
Wouldn't that be just QR codes (and equivalents)? I suppose 3D printers can be used to etch/print them onto a durable material and then have it read back using the measuring tools you mention, but at that point I think you would be better off just 3D-printing out something like a a vinyl disc maker/reader and using that.
thenthenthen•8h ago
Some sort of wire recorder? The teeth of the 3d printer ‘driver’ (sorry lost on the terminology here) already make an imprint on the filament, maybe it could be made intentional
krisoft•8h ago
How much data do you want to preserve?

I know it sounds “boring” but it is hard to beat a good acid-free archival paper printed with a good quality ink. Stored in the right circumstances (not too humid, dark place, not on fire) it should last half a millennia easily. It is also pretty much guaranteed that whatever happens we will have the technology to read it again.

Exotics like laser engraved metal plates or ceramics might be better if you have a lot of data and can’t guarantee your storage will be fire and flood free. If you don’t have a lot of data you can also think of engraving it into stone or press it into a clay tablet and fire it. These mediums are known to be very stable even in adverse circumstances.

Animats•8h ago
There are M-Disks. These are CD/DVD/BluRay disks which use a drive with a higher power laser and work by ablating a metal layer, rather than a photosensitive dye as in the lower-powered disks. Regular drives will read both kinds.

For a small amount of data (crypto keys?), consider deep laser engraving on stainless steel. That's very durable. Or even engrave text into stainless steel with a small CNC mill.

You can engrave QR codes, bar codes, etc. But there's a lot to be said for engraving plain text.

giantg2•4h ago
Just get a set of alpha numeric punches and blank dog tags for crypto keys. Much cheaper than engraving.
simonjgreen•7h ago
First example I thought of is the titanium punch sheets and wordlists for crypto wallet recovery phrases https://shop.ledger.com/products/cryptotag-zeus and https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/bip-003...

There is also Microsoft Project Silica which I recall seeing in person at their EBC playing back a movie from it https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-sil...

Then there is m-disc which uses the DVD+R and BD-R/BDXL standards but writing to a sort of glass rather than to the traditional medium. These are cool as they play back n regular players too. https://www.mdisc.com/

barnabee•6h ago
3D printing (additive manufacturing) usually involves layers that tend to be a weak point.

If you want something truly long lasting you might find substractive manufacturing techniques like CNC milling better. Indeed there are solutions from companies like Cryptotag for punching cryptographic seed data into plates / blocks of titanium. Something like this could be automated with a CNC router to store a bunch more data.

giantg2•4h ago
Best choice will be thick metal medium, such as stainless steel.

Probably use a 177x177 QR code with Q or H error correction engraved (deeply). I would probably compress the data and encode it as Hex so it can be stored in alphanumeric mode on the QR. You might need a series of QRs for larger data.

1970-01-01•5m ago
This was solved with M-DISC. The data is literally glassy carbon pits. http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artsep16/mol-mdisc-revie...

Tell HN: Ralph Giles has died (Xiph.org| Rust@Mozilla | Ghostscript)

500•ffworld•1d ago•27 comments

Ask HN: Are there examples of 3D printing data onto physical surfaces?

11•catapart•19h ago•20 comments

Ask HN: What's You Opinon on XMTP

2•julienreszka•3h ago•1 comments

Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)

332•david927•5d ago•1143 comments

Ask HN: Are you using an agent orchestrator to write code?

36•gusmally•1d ago•55 comments

Ask HN: Stripe is asking for bank statements to check financial health

2•kinj28•6h ago•1 comments

Ask HN: What would you recommend a vibe coder learn about how all this works?

28•alexdobrenko•1d ago•35 comments

Built and shipped an iOS app from my phone while traveling Japan

5•lordokami•13h ago•5 comments

Ask HN: Did YouTube change how it handles uBlock?

20•tefloon69•1d ago•11 comments

Ask HN: How do you audit LLM code in programming languages you don't know?

9•syx•1d ago•10 comments

Ask HN: My OpenClaw doesn't respond. Anybody met with the same problem?

4•Fendy1•12h ago•5 comments

Ask HN: Exceptionally well-written research papers in CS/ML/AI?

2•b3rkus•12h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: AI Depression

46•pavello•1d ago•26 comments

Ask HN: Anyone else finding the new Gemini Deep Think troublingly sycophantic?

4•neom•14h ago•2 comments

We just released Khaos SDK and khaos-examples (BSL 1.1)

3•exordex•15h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: We're building a saving app for European savers and need GTM advice

4•AlePra00•1d ago•11 comments

Ask HN: Do sociotechnical pressures select for beneficial or harmful AI systems?

5•jerlendds•1d ago•3 comments

Ask HN: Why are electronics still so unrecyclable?

72•alexandrehtrb•3d ago•138 comments

Ask HN: Better hardware means OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. are doomed in the future?

4•kart23•1d ago•7 comments

Ask HN: What happens when capability decouples from credentials?

8•falsework•1d ago•7 comments

Ask HN: Tools to code using voice?

7•emerongi•2d ago•6 comments

Ask HN: Why is my Claude experience so bad? What am I doing wrong?

6•moomoo11•1d ago•5 comments

Moss: A Linux-compatible Rust async kernel, 3 months on

4•hexagonal-sun•1d ago•1 comments

Ask HN: If your OpenClaw could do 1 thing it currently can't, what would it be?

5•stosssik•1d ago•3 comments

Ask HN: How do founders demo real product without exposing sensitive data?

4•legitimate_key•1d ago•9 comments

Ask HN: How do you "step through" your own anxiety?

7•schneak•1d ago•20 comments

SMTP server from scratch in Go – FSM, raw TCP, and buffer-oriented I/O

5•Jyotishmoy•1d ago•2 comments

Ask HN: GPT-5.3-Codex being silently routed to GPT-5.2?

5•tardis_thad•1d ago•3 comments

Ask HN: Has anyone achieved recursive self-improvement with agentic tools?

9•nycdatasci•2d ago•14 comments

Ask HN: What's the current state of ChatGPT Apps?

5•arthurlee•1d ago•3 comments