Prusament Filament Pricing is Strange
I needed to buy more PC Blend for my project and saw a 2kg spool and thought: "Perfect! this is the amount I need" but when I looked at the price it's $55/kg however a single 900g spool is $51/kg. Why is it $4/kg more to buy in bulk?
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To add to this, the 2kg spool of PC-CF is $65/kg and the 800g spool is $81/kg. Then you have the 10 spool bundle which offers no discount. But a huge discount on the 2kg roll which is the exact opposite of PC Blend.
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prices in EUR are much close to each other in price/kg (almost the same)
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RE: Prusament Filament Pricing is Strange
Interesting, maybe it's a EUR to USD conversion error? Or there is some weird tariff rule that is skewing the prices.
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European prices seem more logical, at least for PC blend. 2Kg spools are 89.99€ each and 900g. spools 50.99€. More expensive than in the USA but they include VAT.
BTW. As you surely know, owners of Prusa printers get 5% of discount on Prusament PLA spools but I seem to recall that, time ago, this discount was for all types of Prusa filaments, not only PLA. Anybody remembers if this is true, or it's just me imagining things ?
RE: Prusament Filament Pricing is Strange
Normally you get a discount for buying more, but sometimes, for example if supply is short, companies will charge more for larger orders to discourage them though it's more commonpalce to see a "1 per customer" limit. Also if you are the only supplier, and a buyer is desperate (as indicated by their need to place a large order) you can also put up the price.
Anyhow I have no idea why the price is like this. Probably just a glitch in the data entry or stock system. Just posting to explain that big order = cheaper is not like some invariable law.
RE: Prusament Filament Pricing is Strange
By the way, assuming "black is black" and you don't therefore need to colour match, you can get polycarbonate cheaper from other brands if you are really short and can't wait or pay.
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By the way, assuming "black is black" and you don't therefore need to colour match, you can get polycarbonate cheaper from other brands if you are really short and can't wait or pay.
That is incorrect. PC from one brand to the next varies widely. Pure PC cannot be printed because it’s highly crystalline and will severely shrink and warp. Manufacturers blend PC with usually a styrene based polymer such as ABS or ASA, sometimes with a polyester like PET or, in the case of Prusament, PBT. This give wildly different heat deflection and impact properties. PC blended with ABS cannot be used with HIPS support interfaces easily because d-limonene which is a solvent for HIPS will also attack PC-ABS blends. Since Prusament is blended with PBT, it doesn’t have this issue.
RE: Prusament Filament Pricing is Strange
I guess the answer is that the 2KG spools came later and that the price was converted from EUR to USD at the prevailing spot price which is why there are pricing discrepancies?
RE: Prusament Filament Pricing is Strange
Where does it say PC Blend contains PBT? It's not on the data sheets or store.
Since Prusament is blended with PBT, it doesn’t have this issue.
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Where does it say PC Blend contains PBT? It's not on the data sheets or store.
Since Prusament is blended with PBT, it doesn’t have this issue.
No, Prusa doesn't explicitly publish this or mention it anywhere. I read somewhere (I'll find the source) that it contains no styrene so that immediately rules out ABS and ASA as the blended polymer. So the remaining 2 candidates are PET and PBT due to the density and HDT. They behave similarly. PBT seems to more likely candidate.
But regardless, PC filaments from different manufacturers are not interchangeable with each other which is my point.
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They mention it here on their older product page (before the NFC tags and US tarrifs were added): https://www.prusa3d.com/product/prusament-pc-blend-jet-black-970g-discontinued/ but have since removed it: "Styrene-free (non-toxic compared to ASA)" Also, ASA and ABS have a much lower density so adding it in quantities above 10% would not match the 1.22g/cm^3 in the TDS. Also, I do not smell styrene when I'm printing it.