Prusa's $56.99 ESD Filament Undercuts Rivals on Electronics Factory Floors

Prusa has launched Prusament PETG ESD at $56.99 per spool, making it the cheapest electrostatic-dissipative 3D printing filament on the market — and the only one reinforced with carbon fiber. Released on Tuesday, the new material undercuts 3DXTech's ESD-PETG, priced at $105, by nearly half, and comes in below Polymaker's Fiberon PETG-ESD at $65.98.

The filament combines carbon fiber and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) inside a PETG matrix to dissipate electrostatic energy. That matters because static discharge destroys sensitive silicon. Anyone who has built a PC knows the drill: touch grounded metal, avoid shuffling across carpet, handle boards by the edges. On a production line handling bare ICs and bare PCBs, the stakes scale up fast.

Who is it actually for?

Not hobbyists, according to Prusa. A regular PLA or PETG enclosure around a Raspberry Pi or ESP32 works fine; hobbyists have printed electronics cases from ordinary filament for years without problems. Prusa is aiming the material squarely at electronics manufacturing: PCB fixtures and soldering holders, IC trays for handling and transport, and rigs for testing multiple boards at once, as the company shows on the PETG ESD product page.

The pitch is economic as much as technical. Printed ESD fixtures replace CNC-machined ESD trays and holders, cutting manufacturing cost and lead time. A shop can print a custom fixture on-site in hours instead of waiting weeks for a machined part. And the price point matters for the small end of the market: indie hardware developers and smaller-scale manufacturers can now put proper ESD tooling on their line without paying boutique filament prices.

What does the carbon fiber add?

Prusa is the first vendor to pair carbon fiber with carbon nanotubes for ESD properties, and the fiber does more than conduct. It improves dimensional accuracy and minimizes warping — the failure mode that ruins tall, thin fixture walls on the print bed. Rival products carry CNTs alone.

The datasheet is not out yet, so the numbers are provisional. Prusa claims the filament offers increased stiffness and reduced toughness, mirroring the property profile of its non-ESD Prusament PETG Carbon Fiber. But the carbon fiber loading may differ between the two, since PETG Carbon Fiber is engineered for strength rather than static control. Independent testing hasn't happened either. Until then, buyers are working from Prusa's own description.

One detail is confirmed on the record: Prusa runs the material in its own production line. The company, known for printing its own printer components on its own machines, says it uses PETG ESD to avoid overcoating the edges when powder coating its print sheets. Dogfooding, in other words — the filament already has a job in Prague.

How it stacks up

• Prusament PETG ESD — $56.99, carbon fiber plus CNTs, ESD-rated
• Polymaker Fiberon PETG-ESD — $65.98, no carbon fiber reinforcement
• 3DXTech ESD-PETG — $105, no carbon fiber reinforcement
• Prusament PETG Carbon Fiber — non-ESD, priced above $56.99

3DXTech and Polymaker were first to the ESD filament category, but Prusa's entry changes the value equation: it is simultaneously the cheapest and the only reinforced option. Depending on where the strength numbers land once published or independently tested, PETG ESD could even displace Prusa's own PETG Carbon Fiber in applications that need stiffness plus static protection rather than maximum strength.

For now, the open question is the missing datasheet. Stiffness claims without numbers are a promise, not a spec. If the published figures match PETG Carbon Fiber's profile, the $56.99 spool becomes hard to beat for small-batch electronics tooling; if the loading is lighter, buyers will weigh accuracy gains against strength losses on a case-by-case basis.