Prusa Research Brings Material Production In-House with Prusament Filament

Josef Prusa has announced the release of Prusament, a new brand of filament that is developed in-house at Prusa Research's new filament factory.

Few desktop 3D printers have conquered the hearts of the consumer 3D printing sector quite like the Original Prusa i3 MK3, the latest and most advanced hardware to come from by the Czech-based 3D printer manufacturer Prusa Research. Recently awarded as All3DP’s Best 3D Printer of Fall 2018, this sleek, bright orange FDM machine is known for its versatility and reliability.

Now, Prusa Research has just revealed Prusament, a new line of filament produced in-house by Prusa Research. Having spent the last year building a filament factory, Josef Prusa and his team are now the first and only 3D printer manufacturer that is developing its own range of materials.

The new line of filament aims to overcome the inconsistencies that plague even the most successful 3D printing material producers. With Prusament, the expert production team is aiming to provide a consistent diameter and eliminate lumps. In fact, Prusa Research is guaranteeing a precision of ±20 µm or better on every spool.

“This is very important, because even the industry standard of ±50 µm may result in up to 11.4 % variation in volume, which means the diameter can be anywhere between 1.70 mm and 1.80 mm. In layman’s terms: it can lead to major problems regarding the printed object quality. That’s why our system will not allow any spool to be packed and shipped even if there’s only a single spot that is not within the 20 µm tolerance,” Josef Prusa explains.

Prusament Puts Quality Assurance in the Consumer’s Hands

One aspect that Prusa Research takes great pride in with its 3D printer line is that every single machine is carefully inspected before being shipped off. The company is taking the same approach with Prusament, and is also giving the power of quality assurance directly to the customer.

Prusa and co. are so confident in the quality of their filament that each spool will come with a scannable QR code, each of which contains an individual report of manufacturing specifications with a graph and data analysis. This allows the customer to check out the exact specifications of the spool they have, including technical details like the weight, length, basic diameter, maximum deviation, standard deviation and ovality of the spool. The QR code also displays a graph of the diameter that covers the entirety of the spool.

According to Josef Prusa, his new filament production facility is focused on factors like color consistency and perfect filament winding to avoid tangling. The team also built an in-house lab to ensure that mechanical properties of the filament are as stable as possible.

At the moment, Prusa Research is only launching PLA filament, but also plan to release PETG and ASA in the near future. Prusament will be on Amazon within the next month, helping the global customer base avoid those pesky international shipping fees from Prague.

Prusament PLA is currently available on the Prusa website 24.99 USD/EUR (exculding VAT), and comes in four colors: Silver, Galaxy Black, Lipstick Red, and Azure Blue.