I’ve been very curious about the progress of the upcoming Phrozen Arco 3D printer.
The Arco is a bit of a surprise, as Phrozen had previously dealt solely in resin 3D printers. Their success in that market somehow led to a change in strategy to offer FFF equipment as well, and the first unit is the Arco.
But it isn’t just a typical FFF machine. Launching a standard machine at this point is corporate madness, as there is so much competition it’s nearly impossible to start from scratch. Years ago that could be done, but not today.
That meant Phrozen had to make a machine that was able to compete in today’s advanced desktop 3D printer market. It seems they have, as the Arco has a number of very attractive features:
- Large 300 x 300 x 300 mm build volume
- High speed (600mm/s) printing
- Klipper firmware
- 120C print surface
- Fully enclosed
- Multicolor “Chroma Kit” option
That last feature is what triggered my curiosity about the Arco. The Chroma Kit is functionally similar to Bambu Lab’s AMS accessory, which makes that company’s machines multicolor capable. The bundle is similar to Bambu Lab’s extremely popular P1S model, which is priced higher than the Arco.
Could it be that Phrozen is attempting to compete directly with Bambu Lab with the Arco? It may be that they’ve observed the astonishing take-up rate of the Bambu Lab models and want to get in on the action.
If they can match the reliability and quality, which has yet to be seen in the wild, then they just might be able to do so. There’s clearly a huge demand for this style of device, and that could drive a massive amount of revenue for Phrozen.
Phrozen would still have more things to do, mainly in the cloud, software and 3D model areas, to catch up to Bambu Lab, but everybody’s got to start somewhere.
Phrozen launched the Arco via a Kickstarter some weeks ago, and out of curiosity I checked to see the level of success of the campaign.
As of this writing, Phrozen has generated a non-trivial US$1.7M in orders for the Arco, with almost 1700 units sold. That’s significant.
However, Bambu Lab’s initial 2022 Kickstarter raised approximately US$7M, so Phrozen has a way to go yet. It may be that Bambu Lab absorbed a big portion of the market at that point, leaving fewer for Phrozen today.
Will Phrozen be able to catch up with Bambu Lab? Will another party launch yet another similar device? This is an interesting story that hasn’t quite ended yet.
Via Kickstarter
