How many Open-Source Prusa 3D printers are there? #OHM2019 #oshwa @ohsummit #opensource #opensourcehardware @opensourceorg @prusa3d @josefprusa

Started this post on the 15th of October about total open-source 3D printers, but after some news about LulzBot, decided to just make it about Prusa.

The Road to 100,000 Original Prusa 3D printers (video). That was June of 2019.

Prusa’s Manufacturing Capacity Is Incredible – Fabbaloo, November 2018.

…we were told they were producing an incredible 3,000 units per month. At that time the number was far larger than any other manufacturer we were aware of. To put this in perspective, MakerBot’s first 3D printer, the venerable CupCake, likely sold fewer than 2,000 units in total. Prusa now made that many machines in only a couple of weeks.

We were told Prusa now produces about 450 units per day.

If they’re running a seven-day-a-week operation, this is equivalent to 3,150 units per week, 13,500 units per month, or a staggering 164,250 units per year.

And from Forbes 30 under 30 European Technology List

In the last five years, Josef Prusa has grown his eponymous company from a bootstrapped enterprise to one of the largest 3D printer companies in the world. With Conan O’Brien and Wil Wheaton as fans, Prusa has shipped tens of thousands of printers to over 130 countries. In 2017, the company expects to do over €33M in revenue and Forbes Czech Republic estimated its valuation to be €236 million in 2016. Not only are his 3D printers one of the best-sellers around the world, they’re also “self-replicating”. Inside what Prusa calls “The Farm”, more than 300 printers are busy printing parts to construct new printers.

From the Prusa3d about page

Now, there are more than 300 people working in Prusa Research and we ship over 6000 printers worldwide directly from our HQ in Prague every month! We have become the no.1 fastest growing tech company in Central Europe (Deloitte 2018) with the growth rate of 17,118 % over the last four years!

In a May 31, 2019 post Prusa reported shipping 20,000 packages in one month. And in June of 2019 Prusa reported they have shipped over 130,000 printers.

So the number is probably at least up to 150,000 to 180,000 printers at this time October 2019 AND a new printer was released last week.

We will email a link to this article to Prusa and see if we can get an official number during open-source hardware month.


Open source hardware month @ Adafruit:


Ohm

October is open-source hardware month! Every single day in October we’ll be posting up some open-source stories from the last decade (and more!) about open-source hardware, open-source software, and beyond!

Have an open-source hardware (or software) success story? A person, company, or project to celebrate? An open-source challenge? Post up here in the comments or email opensource@adafruit.com, we’ll be looking for, and using the tag #OHM2019 online as well! Check out all the events going on here!