Kitchener-based Voltera has won the 2015 James Dyson Award, which recognizes brilliant new products by university graduates.

The team from the University of Waterloo won the award for the Voltera V-One, which prints custom circuit boards using the same principals as those of a 3D printer. Voltera, which operates out of the Velocity Foundry, received US$45,000 (C$59,000) as the first place winner. The university also received an award of US$7,500. Voltera is the first Canadian company to win the award. 

“The Voltera V-One team is made up of four impressive young graduates,” said James Dyson in a statement. “Their solution makes prototyping electronics easier and more accessible – particularly to students and small businesses. But it also has the potential to inspire many more budding engineers. Something I am very passionate about indeed.”

Voltera was founded by Jesús Zozaya, Katarina Ilic, James Pickard and Alroy Almeida two years ago to develop a device that can print customized circuit boards. As well as working with Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s accelerator, the company spent some time at HAX, the rapid prototyping accelerator in southern China.

The official statement from Dyson, the manufacturer of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, said that printed circuit boards are the electronic paths on an insulated surface that help power appliances such as smartphones, biomedical devices, and other electronic technologies.

To research and develop new electronics, engineers, inventors, and students must be able to able to prototype these circuit boards cheaply and quickly. But circuit board designs usually have to be sent to a factory for printing several times as minor changes are made.

The Voltera V-One allows hardware developments to prototype rapidly and cheaply, thereby improving the production process.

The V-One lays down conductive and insulating inks to create a functional, 2-layer circuit board. It’s also a solder paste dispenser, allowing components to be added to the board and reflowed by a 550w heater.

“We’re at a critical point with Voltera,” said Zozaya in the statement. “Our parts are now being manufactured and we are about to begin a new wave of testing in our lab. The $45,000 we’ve been awarded as winners of the James Dyson Award will help us to ramp up production and enhance testing.”

Earlier this year, Voltera raised US$502,000 in a Kickstarter campaign.