Squink - Desktop PCB Printer / Dispensing / Assembly Machine

Squink - Desktop PCB Printer / Dispensing / Assembly Machine Description:

BotFactory Squink is a Desktop Electronics Printer, capable of creating PCBs in less than an hour for the fraction of the cost - only $2999 for the base unit! There are three toolheads, a heatbed and an onboard computer to handle trace printing, solder dispensing, pick-and-place and heat-curing. 

Trace Printing

Using Squink’s inkjet printhead and our low resistivity conductive ink, fabricate circuit traces in just a few minutes on a variety of stiff and flexible substrates.

Instead of waiting for weeks or shelling out thousands for factory-made PCBs, load Gerber or image files (JPEG, BMP, PNG) into the printer's web interface and have circuits printed in a variety of substrates in minutes! Think of the possibilities with printing flexible lighting on clear films, or teaching your students the fine art of digital design - all of this is possible with Squink!

Solder Dispensing

Using the Extruder toolhead, lay down solder paste or conductive glue on printed or pre-fab boards in minutes. Squink takes your shaky hands out of the equation so you can get perfect circuits every time. Use our own 2-part epoxies, stick to solder paste or experiment with your own pastes, glues or off-the-shelf products to make durable flexible circuits. Use our powerful software to customize the extrusion profile to optimize solder ‘dot’ size and volume. 

Our pasting algorithm calculates the amount of paste needed for each component by analyzing the shape of the pads.

Pick-and-Place

With Squink’s Pick-and-Place toolhead, there is no end to what you can create. Custom-shaped LED arrays? Flexible Arduinos? Hyper-light Drones? If you can think it, you can make it. Before Squink, assembling these sorts of complex and compact electronic designs required infinite patience, careful hands and a magnifying glass. Now the solution is simple - design and drag-and-drop your “Centroid and Rotation” file into our web-based software, place your components in the tray and let Squink pick-and-place every part in the right spot. With a little imagination and a Squink at your workbench, placing a SMT components doesn't seem like such a chore anymore! 

Our Pick and Place features on-board computer vision. It corrects offsets and rotation errors before placing every component. Squink gets your circuits built reliably!

Software

Squink places the knowledge built over decades by the PCB industry in your hands. It provides our users with a smooth and reliable process for electronic circuit manufacturing from their desk. In order to provide the right user experience Squink relies on an on-board computer featuring an ARM Cortex-A8 procesor with two real time controllers, SIMD and GPU acceleration.

There is no manual for Squink, as every step of the process is explained using pictures and animations. All you need to do is connect to Squink via Ethernet or WiFi and use your browser to interface with the machine - no need to install additional software. Even better: Squink gets smarter every week with updates accessible at the click of a button. 

Build smart devices with a smart device