Desktop printed circuit factory gets Kickstarted

29 October 2014 News

Squink promises to enable the creation of printed circuit boards (PCB) in minutes, from home, at the cost of a cup of coffee, and put an end to soldering headaches for relatively basic circuits.

The project is the brainchild of five young engineers from different disciplines, who came together at New York University’s Polytechnic School of Engineering. Going under the name ‘BotFactory’, their goal was to figure out a way to give electronic engineers and hobbyists the same flexibility afforded to software developers and industrial designers for prototyping their ideas.

Squink (a prototype of which is pictured) will fit on a desk and print conductive ink onto flexible or rigid substrates, and will even pick and place the necessary components using conductive glue. As it uses standard Gerber 274x files to print and assemble a circuit, it will allow circuit designers to easily adapt their current design process while making use of the ability to test and tune small parts of a circuit before integrating them into a larger system.

BotFactory has not yet committed to a date when customers will actually be able to buy their very own Squink, and is currently seeking capital to add to its Kickstarter funds and contributions from ‘angel’ investors.

For more information visit www.botfactory.co

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