A robot moves when printing ends. The printer assembled its electronics, too.

The print finishes, and the little robot starts moving. Print & Place, developed by Oliver Child, Patrick Baudisch and Mike Fraser, turns an ordinary 3D printer's nozzle into an assembly tool. Child's November 2 demonstration also features an illuminated caterpillar and a fridge magnet.

Desktop printers usually build plastic shapes that need their electronics fitted separately. This method exploits the adhesion of cooling plastic to pick up components and position them inside the growing object. Printing, placement, connection and enclosure can happen in sequence without adding a robot arm.

The University of Bristol and Hasso Plattner Institute project recently attracted coverage from Hackaday. For makers building custom gadgets, the attraction is bringing the housing and electronics assembly into one machine, rather than stopping at a printed shell.

It is not a push-button factory for arbitrary electronics. Someone still loads the component tray. Hackaday notes failed pickups, misplaced parts and inconsistent electrical contacts in the experiments, with no feedback loop to detect and correct those problems automatically. A moving prototype makes the idea tangible; dependable everyday fabrication is the next challenge.

Source times: Oliver Child's original demonstration video, November 2, 2026, 19:22:17 Beijing / November 2, 06:22:17 EST; Hackaday, November 11, 2026, 11:00:32 Beijing / November 10, 22:00:32 EST.