2025/09/10 by Oliver Child, Child, Oliver, Ollie Hanton +6
Computer Science · Engineering · #Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Interactive and Immersive Displays
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.08459
openalex publication_date 2025/09/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Consumer-level multi-material 3D printing with conductive thermoplastics enables fabrication of interactive elements for bespoke tangible devices. However, large feature sizes, high resistance materials, and limitations of printable control circuitry mean that deployable devices cannot be printed without post-print assembly steps. To address these challenges, we present Printegrated Circuits, a technique that uses traditional electronics as material to 3D print self-contained interactive objects. Embedded PCBs are placed into recesses during a pause in the print, and through a process we term Prinjection, conductive filament is injected into their plated-through holes. This automatically creates reliable electrical and mechanical contact, eliminating the need for manual wiring or bespoke connectors. We describe the custom machine code generation that supports our approach, and characterise its electrical and mechanical properties. With our 6 demonstrations, we highlight how the Printegrated Circuits process fits into existing design and prototyping workflows as well as informs future research agendas.