Prusa Research is offering a special deal that might hint at the future for the company’s products.
Readers may recall that Prusa Research acquired Trilab back in 2021. That company produced commercial-grade delta 3D printers that operated at high temperatures. These devices could produce high-quality parts in engineering materials.
Prusa Research continued the work from this group, and now markets the Prusa Pro HT90, a 300 x 400 mm delta 3D printer that can print PCCF, PA, and even ULTEM. For a high-temperature 3D printer, it carries a reasonable price of US$9,990, far less than many other high-temperature devices.
But this month there was something unusual that you could find on the order page:
“Special May Promo – Free MK4S with every HT90 order”
This is very interesting: why would Prusa Research toss in at no charge what used to be the company’s flagship 3D printer?
I believe this is a signal from the company that the MK4S is no longer the core product for the company. The core product is now the CORE One, pun intended.
I think what’s really going on here is this: Prusa Research and other 3D printer manufacturers have been challenged by Bambu Lab’s low-cost CoreXY enclosed systems. Staggering numbers of these machines were sold, and all contending desktop 3D printer manufacturers have had to quickly develop competing models, including Prusa Research. Their entry into that market was the CORE One.
It seems that this style of device has rapidly become the de facto standard machine configuration, and manufacturers must follow customer expectations.
As a result, most companies have seen a decline in sales of their open gantry i3-style devices, and that very likely includes Prusa Research’s MK4S. The focus is most definitely on the CoreXY models these days, and Prusa Research verified that by releasing a new MMU design specifically for the CORE One.
Meanwhile, they are giving MK4S units away for free to HT90 buyers.
I think that tells us how Prusa Research feels about the M4KS design at this point.
Via Prusa Research
