Earlier this year we wrote about the unusual AtomForm Palette 300 and its 12-nozzle swapping system. Now a newly granted patent gives us a much better look at how part of that system works.
When MOVA launched the Palette 300 in March, the standout feature was its “OmniElement” automatic nozzle swapping system. Instead of repeatedly pulling filament through a single hotend and purging the previous color, the Palette 300 keeps multiple nozzle assemblies available for use.
The machine can manage up to 12 nozzles, potentially carrying different colors, materials or nozzle diameters. MOVA said the approach could reduce filament waste by up to 90% compared with conventional purge based multicolor printing.
We know all that. What we didn’t know was exactly how those nozzle assemblies were stored and presented to the swapping mechanism.
Chinese utility model CN224644278U, assigned to AtomForm Technology (Shenzhen), fills in some of those blanks. The patent was granted on August 18, 2026.
Inside The OmniElement System
The patent describes a large annular storage structure with multiple nozzle assemblies positioned radially around its circumference.
In other words, it’s a nozzle carousel.
Each removable nozzle assembly slides into an opening around the outside of the ring. Rather than having the printer’s tool changing mechanism travel to many different parking locations, the entire carousel rotates until the required nozzle arrives at a fixed pickup position.
The patent explains that the nozzle locations can be evenly spaced around the ring. The controller then only has to rotate the carousel by known increments to place any nozzle at the exchange point. The actual pickup mechanism can perform essentially the same motion every time, regardless of which nozzle is requested.
There are also some interesting details about how the nozzles stay in place.
The nozzle assemblies can include projecting pins that enter one slot and then rotate into a second locking slot. Magnets positioned near the final locking location can provide additional holding force, preventing the nozzle assembly from working loose as the carousel moves.
The carousel itself uses a bearing supported rotating structure and gear drive. The patent also describes removing material from the ring between nozzle positions to reduce its mass and rotational inertia.
That could be important because the machine might rotate this assembly hundreds or thousands of times during a complex multicolor print.
More Than A Patent Concept
Normally when we encounter a patent like this, the interesting question is whether the manufacturer will ever build it. In this case, they already have!
The Palette 300 announced earlier this year clearly uses the same general concept, so CN224644278U appears to protect one of the mechanisms of OmniElement rather than hint at a future machine.
It also helps explain how AtomForm managed to fit 12 exchangeable nozzles into a desktop format without creating an enormous tool parking area.
There are still plenty of difficult problems elsewhere in the system. Replacing a nozzle mechanically is relatively easy compared with ensuring that every swapped nozzle returns to exactly the correct XYZ position. AtomForm claims the Palette 300 automatically compensates for nozzle variations to achieve positioning accuracy of up to 0.02mm.
But the patent shows that some serious thought went into the other half of the problem: storing 12 hotends compactly and repeatedly presenting the correct one to the printer.
Now we know what’s going on behind that carousel.
Via Espacenet
