ZINK Zero Ink

Zink Imaging, based in Billerica, is counting on a renewed interest in instant-print photos.

In 2015, one of the last vestiges of the once-great Polaroid Corp. was “teetering on the brink of insolvency,” recalls Chaim Piekarski.

That vestige, Billerica-based Zink Imaging, had raised nearly $150 million to commercialize a new version of instant color photo printing, developed in Polaroid’s research labs. What made this new process different was that it didn’t rely on traditional film or ink cartridges. Its name, Zink, referred to “zero ink.” It was a moment when 400 million Instagram users were uploading 40 million photos every day, but consumers hadn’t…