The largest domestic manufacturer of 3D printers, Prusa Research, has bought an 80 percent stake in the Czech company Trilab, which develops and manufactures 3D printers for companies. The companies stated this in a press release. They will not publish the price.
Prusa Research joined the Hradec Králové company Trilab, which was founded in 2016 by Vojtěch Tambor and Michal Boháč, as a strategic investor. Both founders and all other members of the Trilab team remain in the company and will continue to develop it under a separate brand Trilab – A Prusa Research Company.
As in the case of the acquisition of Futur3D in 2018, Prusa Research will now expand its technological reach with another type of 3D printer. This time, however, the result will not be a new machine under the Original Prusa brand.
“Trilab produces quality printers for the corporate sector and has a very good reputation in this area. Our printers are historically intended mainly for domestic users, they are open-source and this approach can be limiting in a large industry, “said Josef Průša, Executive Director of Prusa Research.
Trilab develops and manufactures printers based on so-called delta kinematics. For Prusa printers, the print pad moves from front to back and the print head moves vertically and horizontally along it. The movement of the print head on machines from Trilab, on the other hand, is controlled by three arms arranged in the shape of a triangle. Thanks to this solution, the extruder is lighter, which leads to higher print speeds while maintaining high accuracy and quality.
“The advanced materials that Průša develops under the Prusament brand are a perfect match for our printers and offer great development opportunities in the future. Even now, when we show our customers the prints from Prusament PC Blend created on our printers, they are enthusiastic, ”said Vojtěch Tambor, Technical Director of Trilabu. Both companies also intend to share development, business and marketing experience.
Prusa Research was founded in 2012 and in recent years is one of the fastest growing technology companies in the Czech Republic. In 2020, it reached revenues of 2.17 billion crowns.