The OWFabricator / PCB brings the entire PCB workcell — fabrication, assembly, and inspection — into a single enclosed appliance on your desk. A design becomes a tested, assembled board in the room: clean, onshore, in hours. The whole line, in one box.
The end-to-end SMT workcell is a mature, automated process — it runs in production every day: print → inspect → place → reflow → inspect → test. The OWFabricator brings that same proven flow onto one stage, with the board fixtured once and tool-change in place. You get the factory's reliability at the scale of a single board.
Each factory module becomes a head. scope = miniaturize a clean module. substitute = replace a wet module with a dry additive one — the green move. The additive primitives already exist in ofpga-fab (shared with the nano variant); the assembly + test heads are this variant's new controllers.
| Factory module | OWFabricator head | Move | ofpga-fab |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lamination press | print dielectric layers | substitute | dielectric* |
| Etch line (acid tanks) | print copper where it goes | substitute | aerosol_jet · super_inkjet |
| CNC / laser drill | drill / laser head | scope | drill |
| Plating baths | ECAM / electroless plate | substitute | electroplate |
| Soldermask (curtain+UV) | print + UV-cure dielectric | substitute | dielectric* |
| Stencil printer | jet-dispense paste (stencil-free) | scope | paste_jet* |
| 3D SPI | shared camera, inline | scope | metrology |
| High-speed mounter (50K CPH) | single placement head + feeders | scope | pick_place* |
| Multi-zone reflow oven | laser / localized reflow | substitute | laser_reflow* |
| Inline 3D AOI | shared camera, post-reflow | scope | metrology |
| Flying-probe / ICT | Z-probe + SMU on the stage | scope | probe_test* |
* new controller this variant adds. The rest exist today, shared with nanofab v1.5.
The board is placed once; trace → plated via → mask → paste → place → reflow → test happen without it moving. This single property kills the cross-machine alignment error that defines the multi-tool bench.
The same vision + height-map head serves fiducial alignment, solder-paste inspection, placement centering, and post-reflow AOI — four factory machines collapsed into one sensor.
Gerber + BOM + placement → ProcessGraph partial-order scheduler (shared with v1.5) plans and runs the whole job, watches with the camera, and recovers — the "it just works" layer the point tools lack.
Ink, paste, dielectric, and component-tape cartridges; integrated fume + particulate capture; touchscreen. The Bambu playbook, at workcell scope.
The assembly half is dry, precise motion + vision + heat — already proven, and open desktop pick-and-place already exists. The OWFabricator brings printer, placer, reflow, and camera onto one stage. Integration of proven parts.
Traces are printed and vias plated with ECAM — material added only where it belongs, instead of acid tanks and plating baths. That's what lets the OWFabricator make real multi-layer boards while staying compact and clean.
Green is not bolted on — it is the consequence of the substitution that makes the desktop volume possible at all.
| Factory step | Environmental cost | The move | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Etch tanks | etchant, copper sludge, rinse water | additive print | no etchant · ~90% less waste |
| Plating baths | chemistry, water, energy | ECAM, selective | minimal point-of-use chemistry |
| Reflow oven | continuous high heat | laser / localized reflow | a fraction of the energy |
| Lamination press | prepreg waste, heat/pressure | printed dielectric | additive, room temperature |
| Global shipping | freight, two ocean crossings | point-of-use | nothing ships |
aerosol_jet/super_inkjet) + drill on the same stage. Single-layer boards, fabbed and assembled end-to-end, in one box.Every capability the OWFabricator brings together is already real — proven in production and shipping today. Its contribution is the refinement: one stage, one workflow, clean and onshore.
The automated SMT workcell runs in production every day. The process is mature and trusted — the OWFabricator brings it to your bench.
Additive trace printing, ECAM plating, jet dispensing, open pick-and-place — each ships commercially. The OWFabricator composes them into one machine.
One enclosed appliance, one Gerber-to-done workflow, the board fixtured once — the Bambu-grade integration that makes a complete workcell something anyone can run.
A design becomes a tested, assembled board in the room — in hours, clean, and domestic. That puts real fabrication where it could never reach before.
Iterate a board in an afternoon instead of a shipping cycle — research and teaching at the speed of the idea.
Design, build, and test in-house, every rev same-day. The hardware loop finally moves like the software loop.
Domestic, point-of-use manufacturing — for makerspaces, classrooms, defense, and anywhere the supply chain should be a bench, not a border.