Prusament Pellets, the raw polymer granules Prusa Research uses to make its filament, are now sold to outside buyers in batches of 3.5 to 14 kilograms, Prusa said. Four materials launched in uncolored natural form: PLA and PETG at 4 kg for $44.99 each, plus ASA and PC Blend at 3.5 kg for $54.99 and $69.99. The larger 12 and 14 kg bags run from $134.99 to $199.99, and Prusa says its dollar prices include import duties.
Prusa names two uses for Prusament Pellets. The first is fused granular fabrication, where a pellet extruder feeds granules straight into the print head instead of melting filament. Prusa says that skips the cost of making filament and lets extruders lay down several kilograms an hour, and it calls furniture and sculptures suitable medium-sized prints. The second is research and teaching: labs can blend the base polymer with their own masterbatches to test colorants, UV stabilizers or additives such as carbon nanotubes and glass fibers, or feed it to a desktop extruder to make experimental 1.75 mm or 2.85 mm filament.
Prusament Pellets ship pre-dried, which Prusa says leaves them ready to print straight from the package in most cases. Raw pellets normally reach a manufacturer with high moisture content, the company says, so it dries each delivery before making Prusament and then seals a share of the dried stock in a plastic canister or bag. The 3.5 and 4 kg sizes come in 5-liter canisters and the bigger ones in aluminum-plastic bags. According to Prusa, these are the same pellets that go into its premium filament.
Per kilogram, the larger bags of Prusament Pellets and the simpler resins come out ahead. A 14 kg bag of PETG works out to about $9.64 a kilogram and a 14 kg bag of PLA to roughly $10.71, against about $16.67 for PC Blend in its 12 kg bag and $20 in the 3.5 kg canister. Those figures are our own arithmetic from Prusa's list prices.
The grades differ in more than polymer. A Prusa representative told a reader in the post's comments that the PLA, PETG and ASA are clear resins sold for scientific work with no additives, so labs can add their own, while PC Blend is a finished Prusament mixture with additives. The same representative said Prusa has no current plans for a desktop filament extruder, a question another reader raised. The representative also pointed readers to the safety data sheets for the specifics of each grade.
