Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/636678
28 The PCB Magazine • February 2016 house. It also allows them to start thinking a little bit about the future, where you can start thinking about printing things that you current- ly can't even make. What if you want to play around with an offset via? Or you want to have a spiral interconnect? 3D printing really opens up a whole new world of opportunities and we're actually in an era now where things have been upside down. The software is lagging behind the hardware, which is not supposed to happen. As things currently stand, if you look at the CAD systems out there, they don't actually have an answer for 3D design or 3D validation of de- sign. There's an interesting period here where the software needs to catch up. Matties: Are you partnering with any software de- velopers? Fried: We're certainly in touch with various soft- ware developers. We can't talk about any partic- ular partnerships at the moment, but certainly what we're shining the light on is that there's an opportunity here to start looking at embed- ded or structural electronics in a way that hasn't really been possible before. Matties: Do you see traditional circuit board facili- ties putting this in and offering it as a viable option for their local designers? Fried: Without a doubt. If we look at the re- sponses that we've had from potential users, we have everything from the R&D labs of the large organizations that you'd expect, the educational institutions, and designers who want to be able to offer that final mile of actually de- livering the PCB to their custom- ers. Actually, one of the first very early pre-orders that we got was from somebody who said, "What I want to do with this is set up a ser- vice center." This is for somebody who doesn't want to have to deal with stencils and the interruptions in order to get that prototyping work, because it's an annoyance. The shops don't want to deal with this; they just want the big order at the end of the day. If you can have a few print- ers around the shop dealing with those multiple changes in stencils, it takes all of that hassle out of the system and you can focus on dedicating your actual production to those bigger jobs. Matties: Well this is exciting—congratulations. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should share with the industry? Fried: We're planning to initiate our pre-sales of the system probably early 2016 in Q1 or Q2. There will be a limited number that we're able to produce initially. We're beginning to fill the order books as of January. People that are look- ing for earlier delivery rather than later delivery should be getting in touch. Matties: You are based in Israel. What about U.S. distribution? How are you handling that? Fried: We're beginning to speak to the usual distributors of inkjet 3D printing systems. There's a very established market that's able to not only distribute, but also give excellent maintenance and support for precisely this kind of system. Matties: I certainly appreciate your time today, this is great. Fried: My pleasure. It was kind of you to swing by. PCB printing pCbs...in your offiCe! nano Dimension Dragonfly 2020 3D printer.