It's not often you get to 5pm on the third day of a four-day trade show week and still have to elbow your way onto a stand. But that was the case when I stopped by Prusa Research at Formnext to get a closer look at its latest hardware.
Visitors, of which I had to battle several to get a decent view, could see the Prusa CORE One 3D printer printing seamlessly with eight different material spools as part of a collaboration with extrusion systems company Bondtech.
The Bondtech INDX is 8-material multi-tool upgrade for the Prusa CORE One, built on the INDX Smart Toolhead with an aluminium body and a self-adjusting dual-extrusion feeder that automatically adapts to materials of different hardness.
It's actually a very sleek looking setup. The enclosed filament spools are stacked onto the machine, four on each side. In a press release, Josef Prusa, CEO of Prusa Research said the partnerz wanted to make sure the INDX felt native on the CORE One, and despite the bulk of materials it's now carrying, it has successfully managed to keep the Prusa CORE One’s compact form.
At a huge show like this, where the big industrial players have announced huge new machines, it says a lot that a multi-materials upgrade for a desktop filament extrusion printer has the ability to draw this much attention. With similar scenes on the Bambu Lab stand following another multi-material development, it's further proof that what visitors are increasingly seeking at events like this are additions and incremental improvements to existing solutions rather than something entirely new.
Here's a quick look at the Prusa CORE One with Bondtech INDX printing live on the Formnext show floor.
