• Question: Would a metal detector detect a 3D print?

    Asked by MrTomTheNewABomb to Ted, S. S., Laura, Kevin, Ellen, Andrea on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Andrea Pacheco

      Andrea Pacheco answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      Today you can 3D print in different materials even metal. I f you are printing resin, foam or clay it will not be detected. If it is gold or silver (as used in jewellery 3D printers) it will.

    • Photo: Laura Farina

      Laura Farina answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      Only if you printed with a metallic material!

    • Photo: Kevin OBrien

      Kevin OBrien answered on 5 Mar 2019: last edited 5 Mar 2019 4:01 pm

      There are some really interesting application of metal additive manufacture (3D printing in metal), including making complex turbines for jet aircraft and printing structures from memory metal (nitinol).
      One of the guys I went to college with was working on 3D printing super light weight titanium parts, using a lattice structure.

      But to answer your question, metal detectors can’t detect plastic prints.

    • Photo: Ted Burke

      Ted Burke answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      No, unless it’s made of metal or something else that conducts electricity. It is possible to 3-D print metal pieces, but most 3-D printers just make plastic parts. There are other imaging technologies that can be used to scan for suspicious devices. By combining the data from these scanning technologies with artificial intelligence to sift through the data, security systems will become better and better at detecting different types of objects and materials.

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