ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses two issues: what information is stored with a part and techniques for storing the information. One of the primary values of additive manufacturing is the ability to economically make small numbers of any particular part. To use a globally unique identifier (GUID) for part information storage, one must do three things: Generate the GUIDs, apply them permanently to a part, and create and maintain a database that contains the part information associated with each GUID. Marking of an ID number on the part reintroduces dependence on an external library of part information, but addresses all the challenges of comprehensive on-part data storage. The possibility of using radio frequency identification tags for data storage on parts was investigated but found to be inappropriate. Alphanumeric marking of a part is the most straight forward way of encoding a GUID on a part.
