Researchers at Marwadi University and Parul University in India, working with a collaborator at King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia, have built and tested a blockchain-based system for securing sensor data generated during VAT photopolymerization 3D printing.

VPP cures photopolymer resin layer by layer using ultraviolet light, a process that releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can degrade workplace air quality. The team paired IoT sensors monitoring VOC levels, resin temperature and ambient conditions with a private Hyperledger Fabric network, using smart contracts to check readings against safety thresholds before committing them to an immutable ledger. 

When a reading exceeded a limit, the contract generated an alert and paused data recording until the anomaly was resolved.

The researchers positioned the system as a response to a gap in existing work, arguing that prior blockchain applications in additive manufacturing focused on supply chains, intellectual property and digital twins, and remained largely conceptual or simulation-based rather than experimentally validated for real-time environmental monitoring.

To gauge blockchain’s contribution to data integrity, the team ran 20 simulated tampering attempts against both the Hyperledger Fabric system and a conventional MySQL database on identical hardware, with tampering that included backdating timestamps and altering VOC values. 

Alongside the data-integrity work, the study also examined how printing parameters affected emissions. Exposure duration showed the strongest correlation with VOC output, followed by light intensity, while layer thickness had little effect. 

The authors framed the platform as a step toward regulatory compliance and predictive maintenance in VPP manufacturing, while noting it was tested on a single machine. The work was published in Scientific Reports.