'Nozzlegate' erupts as Prusa CORE One 3D printer kits arrive with soft steel nozzles — Bondtech admits machining flaws with no quick fix
Bondtech, 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 Prusa CORE One+ 3D printer kits, equipped with the INDX toolchanger system, have sparked controversy after Bondtech, the manufacturer, admitted to a labeling mistake regarding the soft steel nozzles. The nozzles, made of nitrocarburized steel, do not meet the industry standards for "hardened steel" as advertised. Instead of disclosing this detail earlier, Bondtech chose to ship nitrocarburized steel nozzles, which have a hardness between 30-32 on the Rockwell C scale.
While these mid-tier steel nozzles work well with most materials, they experience accelerated wear when printing abrasive filaments like glass-fiber, carbon-fiber, and metal-filled filaments. Bondtech has not yet provided a concrete solution or compensation for the issue, stating that manufacturing truly hardened nozzles could take months.
The Founders Edition buyers, who have already encountered difficulties with the kits, are particularly affected. A Reddit user, "Daddie0," created the website Nozzlegate.com to express his disappointment and discuss possible solutions. Despite the warranty covering the first 90 days, EU consumer protection laws, which mandate multi-year protection, were overlooked in Bondtech's listing.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
