Q5D
Assembly Line
How a wiring robot came to solve the electrical function integration challenge
Q5D launched its first 5-axis CNC additive manufacturing robot cell, the CY1000 in 2023. Designed to automate the difficult task of adding electrical connections to increasingly complex products, the self-contained CY1000 robot eliminates the need for expensive, bulky, and heavy wiring harnesses. Freelance technical writer and journalist, Robert Huntley caught up with Chris Elsworthy, Chief Technology Officer at Q5D’s Bristol, UK headquarters to talk about the company’s vision and some of the challenges it overcame to bring the robot to market.
Our software is in three parts. We have the embedded software that the FPGA runs, which is all the real-time maths and stuff. The Pi is running the machine’s firmware, taking all the G-Code instructions, and passing them to the FPGA. And then, on top of that, we had the GUI, which is the interface between the human and what instructions get sent to the Raspberry Pi. We chose Raspberry Pi because of the value of it. Our original boards had microcontrollers, USB and HDMI connectors, and everything you could ever need to plug into a wider world, but it cost us thousands of pounds to develop that. Whereas the Raspberry Pi is £90, you get all that built-in, it’s all tested, and there’s a wealth of information on the net about how to use it, so it was a much easier way for us to optimize and develop.
Lockheed Martin leads 3 million USD investment round in Q5D to make tooling to automate wiring harness manufacture
Q5D Technology, a company specializing in hardware and software tools for automating wiring harness manufacture, announced today the successful closure of a $3 million investment round, led by Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture investment arm of Lockheed Martin Corporate, a global aerospace and defense company.
Lockheed Martin’s investment arrives at a pivotal moment for Q5D as it transitions from project-based revenue to machine sales, following the successful launch of its first hardware product last year.
Q5D Hardware and demonstration of automated wiring and polymer protection
Wiring and Electronics 3D Printing Startup Pulls In $2.7M Seed Investment
UK robotics company Q5D Technologies Limited closed a $2.7 million seed round to accelerate the automated manufacture of wiring harness for a wide range of products, from fighter jets to fridges. An alumni of the global venture capital firm SOSV’s hardtech startup program HAX, Q5D, makes tools that add electrical conductors to products robotically.
Led by Chrysalix Venture Capital, a global venture capital fund with a long history of commercializing step-change innovation for resource-intensive industries, the round also had participation from UK early-stage venture capital firm Rainbow Seed Fund and returning investor SOSV, which operates early-stage startup development programs.