【3D Printing】Prusa proudly introduces the CORE One upgrade system, INDX!
PRUSA Founder - Josef Průša:
I hinted at this a few weeks ago, and now, I’m thrilled to finally give the Bondtech INDX system the attention it deserves!
INDX is a revolutionary tool-changing system concept. It's not an upgrade to a filament switching unit, nor a slightly different tool changer, but a completely new architecture.
Imagine your CORE One printer loaded with eight different spools, with tool changes taking mere seconds and virtually zero waste.
This is a monumental leap forward and a fantastic example of two European companies – Prusa Research and Swedish extrusion leader Bondtech – collaborating to advance the entire industry.
Bondtech’s patented design is both minimalist and incredibly ingenious.
The Journey of Multi-Material
We have extensive experience in the field of multi-filament 3D printing. As early as September 2016, I introduced our first Multi-Material Upgrade Kit (MMU) in a blog post.
Today, the MMU3, now in its third generation, is a simple and affordable way to add full five-filament printing capabilities to single-nozzle machines.
Following that, we created the first-generation Prusa XL, equipped with an advanced tool-changing system.
The XL is ideal for high-end, high-reliability printing, supporting the replacement of the entire tool head.
This allows you to use flexible and rigid materials in the same print, or even switch to completely different tools, such as a silicone printing tool head or the pick-and-place tool head we showcased at Formnext.
There are many solutions on the market, but each has some shortcomings.
Filament switching systems like MMU or AMS require repeated loading and unloading of consumables, which is slow and wasteful as the previous color needs to be purged from the nozzle.
Although the MMU's form factor is not as compact and streamlined as the AMS, we have successfully minimized the waste generated by the MMU—all waste is collected into a compact block.
Printers with two switchable nozzles are a special case: they appear efficient and fast on paper (e.g., "only 8 seconds per nozzle switch"), but this is limited to using two consumables.
If you increase the number of filaments, you face the same drawbacks and limitations as filament switching systems.
Waste is significant, and each filament change can take over 40 seconds.
This is where we identified a gap.
What if you want true tool-head switching with virtually zero waste and high speed, but also the scalability and low cost of a filament changer?
INDX fills this gap perfectly.
A New Architecture: Smart Head, Passive Tools
The INDX, designed by Bondtech, can be described as a lightweight tool changer.
However, instead of replacing an entire bulky and expensive print head (including the extruder motor, gears, heater, thermistor, sensors, and all other parts), the INDX’s design is extremely streamlined and elegant. You
can think of it like an electric shaver: a body with replaceable (and inexpensive) passive blades.
The smart head is the only moving part on the gantry.
It contains all the expensive components: inductive heating (IN) and sensing electronics, as well as the dynamic extruder (DX) drive system with a self-adjusting tension mechanism.
Then there are the passive tools at the front: they are simple in construction and, most importantly, affordable.
They contain no wires, heaters, thermistors, or electronics. They are essentially just a filament path and a special nozzle.
This architecture is key—it's easy to scale. This means that if you initially have four tools, adding a fifth, sixth, or even eighth material will be very cost-effective.
Revolutionary Inductive Heating
The "IN" in INDX stands for inductive heating, or more precisely, induction heating.
Thanks to this ingenious design, the INDX does not require a hotend.
Here's how it works: the smart head has built-in induction coils.
When it senses a passive tool, the coils are energized.
This generates a high-frequency magnetic field, instantaneously heating the nozzle.
And the nozzle itself has "almost no mass."
Nearly all the heating energy is used to melt the plastic, not to heat a large block of aluminum.
The INDX nozzle is so fast precisely because it combines direct heating with low thermal mass.
The nozzle heats from cold to printing temperature in just a few seconds.
At the same time, it cools down very quickly, which is crucial for multi-material printing: it effectively prevents material ooze when the tool is parked, without the need for a long and slow reheating process.
So, how do you control the temperature of a wireless, passive piece of metal?
The smart print head reads the nozzle's temperature without any contact or wires—essentially a non-contact thermal measurement.
Self-Adjusting Extruder for Any Material
"DX" stands for Dynamic eXtruder.
Anyone who has printed with PLA and TPU knows that there isn't a universal gear tension that works for all materials; you either need to adjust it manually or settle for suboptimal tension.
The "DX" extruder eliminates this compromise. It's a self-adjusting extruder that requires no user intervention.
The clever part is this: it uses a responsive cam mechanism, not just a spring.
When the extruder experiences high back pressure (e.g., during high-flow printing), the filament's pulling force acts on the drive gear, and the cam mechanism mechanically translates this pulling force into a stronger grip.
When printing soft TPU with low flow, it uses a gentler grip. It dynamically provides the optimal pre-tension needed for printing any material, and can be set for any flow rate as needed.
The mechatronic design is incredibly clever: the lightweight stepper motor that drives the filament also drives the cam mechanism, which fully opens the drive gear, releasing the filament and unlocking the passive tool during filament changes.
One motor, three functions.
Easy, Fast, and Flexible Printing
Bringing all these parts together creates a seamless experience.
Simply place eight spools on the CORE One and load them into their dedicated passive tools.
No buffers, no rewinding filament into external boxes, no cutting filament, no purging, no preheating, and no complex mechanics.
The entire process—parking the current tool, moving, selecting a new tool, heating it to operating temperature, and resuming printing—can be completed in as little as 12 seconds, depending on the filament used.
The CORE One + equipped with the INDX system is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2026. Follow us for more updates!
I hinted at this a few weeks ago, and now, I’m thrilled to finally give the Bondtech INDX system the attention it deserves!
INDX is a revolutionary tool-changing system concept. It's not an upgrade to a filament switching unit, nor a slightly different tool changer, but a completely new architecture.
Imagine your CORE One printer loaded with eight different spools, with tool changes taking mere seconds and virtually zero waste.
This is a monumental leap forward and a fantastic example of two European companies – Prusa Research and Swedish extrusion leader Bondtech – collaborating to advance the entire industry.
Bondtech’s patented design is both minimalist and incredibly ingenious.
The Journey of Multi-Material
We have extensive experience in the field of multi-filament 3D printing. As early as September 2016, I introduced our first Multi-Material Upgrade Kit (MMU) in a blog post.
Today, the MMU3, now in its third generation, is a simple and affordable way to add full five-filament printing capabilities to single-nozzle machines.
Following that, we created the first-generation Prusa XL, equipped with an advanced tool-changing system.
The XL is ideal for high-end, high-reliability printing, supporting the replacement of the entire tool head.
This allows you to use flexible and rigid materials in the same print, or even switch to completely different tools, such as a silicone printing tool head or the pick-and-place tool head we showcased at Formnext.
There are many solutions on the market, but each has some shortcomings.
Filament switching systems like MMU or AMS require repeated loading and unloading of consumables, which is slow and wasteful as the previous color needs to be purged from the nozzle.
Although the MMU's form factor is not as compact and streamlined as the AMS, we have successfully minimized the waste generated by the MMU—all waste is collected into a compact block.
Printers with two switchable nozzles are a special case: they appear efficient and fast on paper (e.g., "only 8 seconds per nozzle switch"), but this is limited to using two consumables.
If you increase the number of filaments, you face the same drawbacks and limitations as filament switching systems.
Waste is significant, and each filament change can take over 40 seconds.
This is where we identified a gap.
What if you want true tool-head switching with virtually zero waste and high speed, but also the scalability and low cost of a filament changer?
INDX fills this gap perfectly.
A New Architecture: Smart Head, Passive Tools
The INDX, designed by Bondtech, can be described as a lightweight tool changer.
However, instead of replacing an entire bulky and expensive print head (including the extruder motor, gears, heater, thermistor, sensors, and all other parts), the INDX’s design is extremely streamlined and elegant. You
can think of it like an electric shaver: a body with replaceable (and inexpensive) passive blades.
The smart head is the only moving part on the gantry.
It contains all the expensive components: inductive heating (IN) and sensing electronics, as well as the dynamic extruder (DX) drive system with a self-adjusting tension mechanism.
Then there are the passive tools at the front: they are simple in construction and, most importantly, affordable.
They contain no wires, heaters, thermistors, or electronics. They are essentially just a filament path and a special nozzle.
This architecture is key—it's easy to scale. This means that if you initially have four tools, adding a fifth, sixth, or even eighth material will be very cost-effective.
Revolutionary Inductive Heating
The "IN" in INDX stands for inductive heating, or more precisely, induction heating.
Thanks to this ingenious design, the INDX does not require a hotend.
Here's how it works: the smart head has built-in induction coils.
When it senses a passive tool, the coils are energized.
This generates a high-frequency magnetic field, instantaneously heating the nozzle.
And the nozzle itself has "almost no mass."
Nearly all the heating energy is used to melt the plastic, not to heat a large block of aluminum.
The INDX nozzle is so fast precisely because it combines direct heating with low thermal mass.
The nozzle heats from cold to printing temperature in just a few seconds.
At the same time, it cools down very quickly, which is crucial for multi-material printing: it effectively prevents material ooze when the tool is parked, without the need for a long and slow reheating process.
So, how do you control the temperature of a wireless, passive piece of metal?
The smart print head reads the nozzle's temperature without any contact or wires—essentially a non-contact thermal measurement.
Self-Adjusting Extruder for Any Material
"DX" stands for Dynamic eXtruder.
Anyone who has printed with PLA and TPU knows that there isn't a universal gear tension that works for all materials; you either need to adjust it manually or settle for suboptimal tension.
The "DX" extruder eliminates this compromise. It's a self-adjusting extruder that requires no user intervention.
The clever part is this: it uses a responsive cam mechanism, not just a spring.
When the extruder experiences high back pressure (e.g., during high-flow printing), the filament's pulling force acts on the drive gear, and the cam mechanism mechanically translates this pulling force into a stronger grip.
When printing soft TPU with low flow, it uses a gentler grip. It dynamically provides the optimal pre-tension needed for printing any material, and can be set for any flow rate as needed.
The mechatronic design is incredibly clever: the lightweight stepper motor that drives the filament also drives the cam mechanism, which fully opens the drive gear, releasing the filament and unlocking the passive tool during filament changes.
One motor, three functions.
Easy, Fast, and Flexible Printing
Bringing all these parts together creates a seamless experience.
Simply place eight spools on the CORE One and load them into their dedicated passive tools.
No buffers, no rewinding filament into external boxes, no cutting filament, no purging, no preheating, and no complex mechanics.
The entire process—parking the current tool, moving, selecting a new tool, heating it to operating temperature, and resuming printing—can be completed in as little as 12 seconds, depending on the filament used.
The CORE One + equipped with the INDX system is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2026. Follow us for more updates!
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The CORE One + equipped with the INDX system is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2026. Follow us for more updates!
Contact us now to learn more about Original Prusa detailed information.
The CORE One + equipped with the INDX system is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2026. Follow us for more updates!
Contact us now to learn more about Original Prusa detailed information.
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