Patent ID: 8505810

Claim:
A method of identifying a molded product, comprising: producing a molded product in a product molding process that intentionally introduces at least one surface defect that is substantially driven by de-optimizing at least one of a processing condition and an elemental material property in the product molding process that produces the molded product, the at least one surface defect comprising at least one of undercut posts, flashes, weld lines, sinks, cracked ribs and flow marks; imaging, with a surface imaging device, at least a portion of the surface of the molded product that includes the at least one surface defect to detect and map the at least one surface defect; generating, with a processor, identification information for the molded product based on the at least one detected and mapped surface defect; and producing, with the processor, labeling on the molded product that includes the generated identification information.