If you’ve been a fan of CoreXY 3D printers and wish there was one made by Prusa, we have good news. Prusa has released a new fully enclosed printer called the Prusa CORE One. A considerable upgrade over the MK4S, it packs higher speeds and more volume into a smaller footprint.
Faster and roomier
Speed requires dexterity. Slinging a bed around limits how fast you can print (imagine picking up an Eiffel Tower model and shaking it by the base), which is why speedier printers only move the bed in the Z axis. The new Prusa prints 15-20% faster than the MK4S, and a centered bed design boosts the build volume by 30%.
Fancy features
One new feature is active temperature control. Some exotic filaments require a sealed box, while others are grumpier about an enclosed environment (looking at you PLA). So Prusa added active cooling to the chamber. The goal was to enable printing finicky materials with the door closed, but with two upcoming filter add-ons, it’s also an effective way to contain the hot plastic aroma.
Prusa isn’t abandoning open printers. They even say “an open-frame printer is an excellent choice” if you print PLA and PETG. And you can still buy the MK4S, as they “will continue manufacturing and supporting the MK4S with firmware updates and even additional accessories.” But the new capabilities require a new form. And this new form seems very well thought out.
It’s also pleasing to see that the whole thing can be taken apart with a screwdriver. And that the printer will “never force you to connect your printer to the network – not for the initial configuration, not for firmware updates, not for slicing. Never. And you will still get the full experience.” Are you listening, tech companies?
Since it’s pretty sleek and contained for an FFF printer, I can see this machine living comfortably in a mixed office/prototyping setting. But the reliability and repairability will also certainly be appreciated by the home hacker.
How open is open?
Some folks have pointed out an unwritten part of the announcement, that Prusa isn’t publishing hardware design files that would make the CORE One truly open-source. It’s worth noting the firmware and slicer are still open. And since the CORE One is available as a kit, they’re not exactly hiding the magic either. Still, missing files are missing files.
Josef Prusa wrote about his ongoing thoughts on open-source in a 2023 post that’s thorough and nuanced. But briefly, he expressed a wish to maintain an open-source philosophy while addressing the practical issues his company has faced (abuse of licenses, lack of credit, outright clones).
While I’d prefer everything I buy to be as open as possible, I also choose to understand where they’re coming from. Opening up the design of your early products is a different story than publishing files that represent years of energy and development. I think the level of repairability and documentation Prusa’s achieved here is still admirable. I’d be thrilled if all my tech devices were as fixable and moddable as this.
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