Voltera Blog
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Startups are the Most Vulnerable to Supply Chain Disruptions
As the world grapples with the ongoing medical crisis, the global supply chain is being forced into a major restructuring — and has never appeared...
Read PostStaying Up When You’re Locked Down
First and most importantly, as of this writing everyone at Voltera is safe and symptom-free. We took action on this crisis early and set almost...
Read PostThere's No Such Thing as a Printed Electronics Engineer
I know what you must be thinking — “Hey Alroy, I know plenty of electronics engineers, and PCB stands for printed circuit board. Is printed...
Read Post2018 Wrap Party
That’s it folks. 2018 is a wrap! We usually do a really bad job of celebrating our accomplishments. Who has time when you need to be heads down...
Read PostBuild Hardware So Fast You’ll Change Your Plans
Seeing is believing, especially for an engineer. At Voltera’s IDTechEx booth this year, Geoff Boyd of Coleridge Design Associates became a believer...
Read PostResistance, Resistivity & Sheet Resistance
You’ll often hear the terms resistance, resistivity, conductivity, sheet resistance, etc. thrown about. These are all related, and are different ways...
Read PostVoltera is among Canada’s fastest growing startups!
Please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle and remain seated at all times because Canadian Business and Macleans Magazine say this rocket...
Read Post💪 Go Flex(ible LED Cube)
Did you know we have an in-house mad scientist here at Voltera? Sherman Qiu (University of Waterloo, Mechatronics Engineering), has spent the summer...
Read PostYou Spin Me Right Round (Like A Drill Bit)
In the few months since we released the Voltera V-One Drill we’ve had many users tell us that it has greatly improved the double-sided circuit...
Read PostDrilling! You Asked. We Built.
We’re so incredibly, ridiculously, insanely, tremendously excited to announce the biggest update to the V-One platform to date. Let me introduce you...
Read PostVoltera Wins Best Product Award!
The IDTechEx Show we were at last week is a pretty big deal. It brings together the leading companies in Printed Electronics (PE), Additive...
Read PostAutodesk ❤ Voltera
EAGLE now has Voltera design blocks for even faster prototyping! They’ll be live in Version 8.3.4 but you can get them right now from their site...
Read PostA big move for Voltera
We were caught off guard late last year with the rate V-Ones were flying off the shelves and ultimately ran out of inventory back in January — a good...
Read Post938 Thank You’s to Close 2016
We’ve been so busy over the last few months that we haven’t had a chance to share all the excitement with you. Before that, we think it is time to...
Read PostCNC Milling vs Direct-Ink-Writing for PCBs — How Do They Stack Up?
CNC milling uses cutting bits —typically a v-tip cutter — to remove material, leaving behind the desired pattern from your design. In the context of electronics, it’s often also referred to as isolation routing.
Read PostWhat is Solder Paste?
Solder paste is a sticky, non-Newtonian fluid composed of flux and a metal alloy. It’s used in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCBs) to hold components in place, just like regular solder wire would.
Read PostThe Ultimate Guide to Choosing Materials for a New Electronics Product
You can’t choose your ink without considering your substrate, and vice versa. And you can’t pick either your ink or your substrate without first considering what printing technology you’re going to use. Here are 4 things to consider when choosing materials
Read PostIntroduction to Inkjet Technology.
Inkjet works by ejecting tiny droplets of your conductive ink from hundreds of tiny nozzles on a print head, in quick succession, to form any pattern on a substrate.
Read PostIntroduction to Gravure Printing Technology
Gravure printing technology is an analog process — meaning it doesn’t use a digital file, it uses a physical rendering of the pattern that you’re trying to print. On the surface of things, it’s a stamping technique.
Read PostIntroduction to Direct Ink Writing (DIW) Printing Technology.
Unlike inkjet or screen printing where a swath or complete pattern is printed all at once, direct-write (DIW) printing requires the nozzle to be moved relative to the substrate to draw and fill in the entire pattern feature-by-feature.
Read PostIntroduction to Screen Printing
Screen printing is one of the most low-tech printing technologies in use today and one of the most well-established manufacturing technologies — with applications ranging from graphics and art to printed electronics.
Read PostWhy Failure is a Good Thing
Failure. It’s a word that doesn’t give us warm, fuzzy feelings, but here at Voltera, we tend to see it a little differently. We’re first-hand pros at failing — and failing fast — because for us, that’s a key part of our secret sauce!
Read PostHow to Sell a PCB Printer to Your Boss
Investing in a new tool comes down to two things: time and money. If you can make a good case to the powers-that-be for the V-One, then you’ll have no problem getting them to open their wallets and sign on the dotted line.
Read PostVoltera Ranks in Canada’s Top Growing Companies Yet Again!
Well, folks — we’ve done it again. The Globe and Mail’s list of Canada’s Top Growing Companies has been released, and Voltera has made the ranks
Read PostElectronics Has a Moon-Landing Moment
With the advent of a truly flexible microprocessor, our collective dreams of incorporating electronics into everyday items, from your water bottle to
Read PostWhat is Printed Electronics? Inkjet
Last time, we talked about conductive ink, the lifeblood of all additive electronics projects. Today, we're going to talk about how to choose the...
Read PostWhat is Printed Electronics? Conductive Inks
Additive electronics offer whole new dimensions of possibility in electronics and hardware design. Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) represent a...
Read PostFully 3D-printed carbon nanotube field emission electron sources with in-plane gate electrode
Field emission has a long history; it has been studied by researchers since the 1880’s. Propelling many breakthroughs in our fundamental understanding...
Read PostPrinting Self-Heating Carbon Fiber Composites for UAV Wings on the Voltera V-One
Today we’re going to dive into how Mohamad K. Idris and his colleagues at York University developed self-heating carbon fiber composites to be...
Read PostHow to Build A Product in a Lockdown
When the COVID-19 lockdowns began, Matt & Rana were in the midst of a hardware development project: creating a cartridge filler for tubes of...
Read PostVoltera Again Recognized Among Canada's Fastest Growing Tech Companies
You’ve probably read a lot of posts this year that start with some variation of “in these uncertain times…” So as a kind of public service, Voltera...
Read PostAsk an Expert: Talking Applications with Rudy Ghosh from NovaCentrix
Rudy Ghosh, Technical Program Lead at NovaCentrix, works with external partners to find printed electronics solutions to their problems.
Read PostHacking the Voltera V-One to Print Water Droplets
The V-One was designed to print double-sided PCBs but we know many of our users are hacking it to do more. In fact, we often help them do this.
Read PostElectronic Building Blocks - Dev Kits
In our last post we broke every electronic device into the modules it is made up of. Those 8 building blocks are sensing, signal processing, storage...
Read PostRapid Prototyping of Microfluidics Using the V-One
Researchers around the world are constantly pushing the boundaries of science and the V-One is frequently becoming an invaluable tool in these...
Read PostThe Building Blocks of Electronics
What series of steps would you take to design a car? Don't worry, this isn't one of those interview questions that gauge your analytic thinking...
Read PostAsk an Expert: Talking Conductive Ink with Mike Mastropeitro from ACI
Over the last 7 years, we’ve been fortunate to build strong friendships with many of the leaders in the Additive Electronics space. With 20 years...
Read PostInterested in learning more?
We’re always interested in helping. We have an online forum which serves as a great platform for all V-One users.