We’ve been hearing a lot about 3D printing for the recent few years. But where does 3D printing fit in with regular rigid circuit board development? Sunstone Circuits recently completed a project that focused on that very question. Sunstone Product Manager Nolan Johnson explains why 3D printing is a viable option when it comes to jigs and parts of the support infrastructure that are needed when prototyping today’s emerging technologies.

Barry Matties: Nolan, today we’re talking about some new modern technology that you’re demonstrating here. Why don’t you start by sharing us about it.

Nolan Johnson: Sure. We’re here at the IDTechEx printed circuits board electronics products show where there are a lot of arising technologies around graphene, printed electronics, energy, IoT, wearable devices, and that sort of thing.

Matties: Where does the regular rigid printed circuit board work fit into that type of natural environment?

Johnson: Well, the story which we’re sharing now is this: We did a project beginning with some open-source designs for a smartwatch, a Bluetooth connection to an Android application, and we started with some off-the-shelf elements. We breadboarded with each other the design, affirmed that it would work, and then we began using our expertise to design a custom single board to keep the Arduino and all the support electronics. We made a single pcb board for the smartwatch, and attached that to an OLED display. Then choosing our sister business, 3D Fixtures we fast prototyped a series of watch cases and a jig. The jig has some authority circuitry underneath that is a basic circuit board. With this, we can take the board once it’s back from production and assembly, snap it into the jig, program it, make it a functional watch, and put it into the case.

We counted the hours to do this from start to finish involving fast prototyping the jig, simultaneously with having the boards manufactured. Everything came collectively on the workbench on the same day and to go from the start to a prototype that we could possibly show off here at the show, took 59 hours. Where the rigid PCB and 3D printing really fit, as we see it, is in the help infrastructure for the PCB manufacturing.

Matties: Tell us how the customers are getting to win by doing this.

Johnson: It happens more and more with Arduinos and other microprocessors that are so available going onto designs that are getting smaller in size and smaller all the time. One example is a polished man we were talking to who has an Arduino-based hummingbird farmer that readjusts, heats and cools the hummingbird feeder to keep the nectar just exactly right for his hummingbirds. These microprocessors are presenting up in all sorts of programs. At what point do you program that, boot weight that into your client equipment and get that running?

You’re going to require some jigs to perform that even if you’re just a small mom-and-pop shop doing that sort of thing, and that’s exactly where 3D Fixtures profits its consumers. You can custom design what you need for doing that part of your work. Receive it created in one, two, or three days in quantities of four, five, or six very cost effectively, and get started. It beats the heck out of trying to do metalwork at a machine shop to match that sort of a thing.

Matties: Is the concept that they purchase the printer?

Johnson: No, we perform the printing for them. All we really need to do it is the technical design. We can actually help with the design, but basically we need the CAD file (STL or STEP), and we run it though the printer. It’s just the same particular business model as we’ve been running at iFastPCB with PCB Express for years and years.