A Prusa Research release is on track! Plus, Prusa details progress on MMU3-equipped Core One printers and teases prospective spool enclosures for the MMU3.
Prusa Research shared a blog post today with updates on the company’s upcoming Core One 3D printer, the assembled version of which is set to ship next week.
There’s just one tweak to the printer’s hardware: it’s gained a “SwingArm” instead of the cable chains we typically see on CoreXY machines. Explained as a measure to keep cables tidy and relieved of strain while making them more accessible than a typical cable chain would allow, it’s a minor but purposeful tweak from the prototype Core One we saw at Formnext.
Prusa also let prospective customers know that, following drop testing, it has decided to ship the 3D printer with the LCD screen detached to avoid damage. “When you unpack your assembled printer, you simply need to attach the cable to the LCD panel and tighten two screws. Other than that, the printer is truly ‘plug and print’,” the company says.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the update (other than the happy news a Prusa release is on schedule) is the sneak peek at potential spool-mounting solutions for the MMU3 – particularly an enclosure. Prusa touts that the MMU3 is the “most material-efficient single-extruder solution” – which we largely agree with – but in the rapidly growing material changer market its lack of an enclosure has been notable.
Prusa cautions that it’s “still in the process of evaluating” a variety of MMU3 spool mounting solutions and is very clear (in all caps) that the enclosure is not a prototype of an upcoming product but “just an exploration of one of the possible development paths”. That said, the prospective solution builds on the already top-mounted material changer and appears to make the system self-contained.
“The whole spool holder and MMU3 unit can slide out for easy maintenance, and we’ve integrated the buffer right below the spools,” Prusa explains.