3DPrintopia 2025: filament, folding printers, and fun at the East Coast's largest 3D printing event
Prusa CEO declares 'open hardware desktop 3D printing' is dead, cites rise of China's government subsidies
Companies like Bambu Lab, Creality, Snapmaker, and Anycubic all include proprietary RFID tags in their house-brand filaments. These tags inform the printer which material is being loaded and hold information such as material type, color, and, in advanced systems, even weight and proper print settings. Unfortunately, each company uses an exclusive tagging system that can only be read by their own machines. It's offered not only as a convenience but as a subtle way to encourage customers to stay within the brand’s ecosystem.
The system developed by Prusa Research seeks to change that by immediately partnering with other filament companies. 3D Fuel, Numakers, Filament PM, Fillamentum, Polar Filament, and of course Printed Solid are already on board. The tags are embedded on donut-shaped stickers, which can be purchased separately, programmed with a free app, and added to any user’s collection of spools. The tags are reprogrammable and could be easily combined with refillable spools for a more economical solution to spool management.
Prusa Research is not seeking to profit from the system, and blank tags will be made available soon. Pricing should start at $5.99 US for a 10-pack. Readers will be made available to connect Prusa machines, and any printer that can talk to Prusa Slicer, to the new Open Print Tag system.
Prusa hopes that other manufacturers consider adopting a compatible system to throw open the gates to closed filament gardens.
The company also kicked off its Black Friday sales event today, which you can read about here .
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Denise Bertacchi Social Links Navigation Freelance Reviewer Denise Bertacchi is a Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering 3D printing. Denise has been crafting with PCs since she discovered Print Shop had clip art on her Apple IIe. She loves reviewing 3D printers because she can mix all her passions: printing, photography, and writing.
edzieba I can't think of a good reason to use this filament-contained-liquid system – with its proprietary print head and spools of single-use plastic waste produced – over the existing technique of using the same on-head mixing nozzle with liquid feed. This can be either via external pump (for large quantities) or for smaller quantities via direct-drive or pneumatic-drive syringes. Plus, direct liquid systems let you use whatever silicone mix you desire (different durometers, surface tension modifiers, pigments, etc). Prusa Research is not seeking to profit from the system, and blank tags will be made available soon. Pricing should start at $5.99 US for a 10-pack. At 60c per tag that's a very fat margin Prusa are making on basic NFC tags (around the 10c mark in bulk depending on form factor). Reply
BloodLust2222 I'm not sure why people buy Prusa printers. For the prices they charge they must be like Apple and have a very loyal sheep base to part with their hard earned money. I can buy a nice print farm which will give the same quality, If not better for what they want for one printer. Reply
sygreenblum BloodLust2222 said: I'm not sure why people buy Prusa printers. For the prices they charge they must be like Apple and have a very loyal sheep base to part with their hard earned money. I can buy a nice print farm which will give the same quality, If not better for what they want for one printer. At one time they had the best/easiest printer. Nowadays it's a different story but they still have their loyalists. Reply
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Reference reading
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/prusa-launches-two-new-3d-printers-open-source-filament-tags-and-printable-silicone-at-private-event#main
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