3D printers have come to dominate Maker Faires around the world, but Tokyo has some unique and creative designs we’ve not seen anywhere else.
Rostock mini is a solder paste “printer” with pick and place functions. It applies solder paste to circuit boards instead of printing with melted plastic, and also places electronic components on the board. After solder paste is applied and components are placed, the complete circuit board goes into a reflow oven for melt the paste and connect the components to the circuit board. A production line by RepRap Community Tokyo
Check out the 3D printer village below the break.
Several printers used three arms and a vertical axis instead of the traditional X, Y, Z axis. This is the popatural-direction 3D printer by Yasusi Kanada.
The KitMill CIP100 is a computer controlled (CNC) mill that cuts traces into circuit boards. Milling boards at home reduces the time between board revisions.
A common problem with CNC PCB mills is maintaining a level surface across the board – often times one side will be over cut and the other under cut. The test boards looked great, using both larger through-hole and small surface mount parts (TQFP chips).
The printer everyone knows, the MakerBot: Replicator 2.
Compact and inexpensive 3D printers are ever more common.
Another small, compact 3D printer.
The link to the rostock mini is dead
Thanks, I updated with a new link
Better, thanks – but still nothing about solder paste, or placing electronic parts (done by hand?).
That must be part of a custom build…
The KitMill CIP100 for about $2000 looks really nice….
Hi Ian,
Do you have some link to the maker’s site for this paste dispensing Rostock?
++
Gaël
Hi Gael,
It’s a booth of Reprap Community Japan.
https://www.facebook.com/ReprapCommunityJapan/posts/645296122179612
http://etherpod.org/blog/?page_id=6968