There’s now another party involved in the INDX hardened nozzle situation: E3D.
The situation occurred when it was discovered that the INDX nozzles that are to be shipped with Prusa CORE One systems weren’t exactly hardened as operators expected.
Hardened nozzles are required for use with abrasive filaments, such as carbon/glass fibre, glow-in-the-dark, etc. Normal brass nozzles very quickly erode, creating a larger nozzle than expected — and extrusion becomes unpredictable afterwards. Hardened nozzles are made from much harder materials than brass, usually hardened tool steel, but sometimes exotic materials like tungsten.
The original marketing material for the INDX system from Prusa Research listed the nozzles as “hardened”. But later it turned out that they were only surface hardened: made from a softer material, but with a coating of a harder material. This would work — for a while — and then it would erode just like the softer nozzles.
This caused a bit of an uproar in the community, and seems to have set back the introduction of INDX technology slightly. Bondtech, the company behind INDX, scrambled to figure out a solution.
Now we know a bit more about their plans. An Instagram post from E3D shows they are partnering with Bondtech.
The post said:
“Some of you may have heard through the grapevine already, but we wanted to officially let you all know that our team is working hard on producing an abrasive-resistant E3D variant for the INDX system.
We can’t confirm a release date just yet, but we will be sharing updates as we go, so watch this space.”
That would be official, then.
This is very good news for those waiting for INDX systems. E3D is a highly reputable company that is expert in making hot ends, nozzles, and extruders — including hardened versions. Their ObXidian line, for example, achieves significant resistance by using a chromium nitride coating combined with a non-stick layer.
It’s that kind of technology they could be considering for solving the INDX hardness crisis.
We obviously don’t know when they’ll come out with a solution, but evidently it will be faster than if Bondtech was solving the problem on their own.
Via Instagram
