Tagged build material for three-dimensional printing

1. A method, comprising:

providing a three-dimensional printer that includes a controller and a tag sensor;

coupling a container of a build material to the three-dimensional printer, the container including a tag that stores at least one property of the build material and a private key to prevent use of an unauthorized build material with the three-dimensional printer;

transmitting a message from the controller to the tag;

signing the message at the tag with the private key to provide a signed message and returning the signed message to the controller;

transmitting the signed message from the controller to a resource for authentication;

when the signed message cannot be authenticated by the resource, preventing fabrication with the build material on the three-dimensional printer; and

when the signed message is authenticated:

determining an operational parameter with the controller for configuring the three-dimensional printer for a fabrication process using the build material based upon at least one property of the build material from the tag; and

fabricating an object with the three-dimensional printer based upon the operational parameter.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource includes a third-party key management system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource is a remote resource managed by a third party.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag includes at least one of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, an optically-identifiable tag, a magnetically-identifiable tag, and a mechanical feature of the container.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag further comprises data including at least one of a material identification number, a build material type, a build material diameter, an extruder temperature requirement, a build material melting temperature, a build material color, a build material color lot number, a cost per unit of build material, a build material density, a build material tensile strength, a build material viscosity, a build material recycle code, and a build material expiration date.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational parameter includes at least one of an extruder temperature, a feed rate, a build platform temperature, a build volume temperature, an infill requirement, a rafting requirement, a support structure requirement, and a cooling requirement.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the container includes at least one of a cartridge and a spool.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the build material includes at least one of a filament, a number of pellets, and a liquid.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the build material includes at least one of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), high-density polyethylene (HDPL), and polylactic acid (PLA).

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, and the RFID tag is at least one of a passive RFID tag and an active RFID tag.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag includes an optically-identifiable tag, and the optically-identifiable tag is at least one of bar code and quick read (QR) code.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag includes a magnetically-identifiable tag, and the magnetically-identifiable tag is a magnetic swipe strip.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag includes a mechanical feature of the container, and the mechanical feature includes a plurality of recesses or protrusions encoding information about the build material.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag sensor includes at least one of a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, an optical scanner, a magnetic reader, and a contact point sensor.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the operational parameter is based upon a build material identification number contained in data included in the tag.