GoKawiilBondtech, the creator and manufacturer of the INDX toolchanger system used to create the highly anticipated Prusa CORE One+ INDX , admitted to a significant labeling mistake. The nozzles provided with the INDX kit do not meet industry standards for “hardened steel” as advertised.
The issue is not the nozzles themselves, which are made of nitrocarburized steel and are superior to the standard brass nozzles that come with a stock Prusa CORE One+. The problem is how they were labeled and the resulting customer expectations. If Bondtech said from the beginning (or before customers locked in their pre-orders) that the INDX shipped with ordinary steel nozzles, no one would have blinked.
Information on the nozzle quality began to surface after a Reddit user posted a support email from Bondtech founder, Martin Bondeus. The email stated that “during production, we encountered manufacturing challenges that prevented us from machining that material reliably – the cutting tools simply did not withstand the process. Rather than releasing a product with inconsistent quality, we decided to supply the nitrocarburized version for the time being.”
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These nozzles are not of poor quality, but they fall short of the standards set for hardened steel. According to a statement by Bondtech, the Founders Edition, and the initial batches of Prusa CORE One+ INDX Upgrade Kit, shipped with nitrocarburized steel, which is steel treated to obtain a hard shell. They’ve batch tested the nozzles and found them to be around 30-32 on the Hardness Rockwell C scale (HRC). For comparison, true hardened steel lands at 55-60 while an everyday brass nozzle comes in under 10 HRC.
For most users, and most materials, these mid-tier steel nozzles work exceptionally well and will last for an extremely long time. But once you start to feed your INDX abrasive filaments like glass-fiber, carbon-fiber, glow in the dark and metal filled filaments, things get dicey. The treated steel nozzles will last longer than brass, but Bondtech said they will experience “accelerated wear” when printing abrasives.
Bondtech has stated on its website that a “concrete solution” to the problem is not ready and that manufacturing truly hardened INDX nozzles could take months. They are also not offering any form of compensation before knowing the cost of the replacements. They are requesting that customers hold off on returning the kits and simply enjoy using non-abrasive materials until a solution is found.
The INDX takes a bespoke induction heated nozzle that has no off the shelf replacement at this time.
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