Most of the multi color printers out there are AMS/MMU or similar, and there are many DIY options, like Armored Turtle or ECF.
They are an evolutionary dead end. Slow, wasteful, expensive to run.
The Prusa XL, or the Snapmaker U1 are the future direction.
Also a good CoreXY machine like vorons/sovols/ratrigs/VZ, etc can be upgraded with the Bondtech INDX tool changer.
We are talking 5x lower print times, 5x lower material costs.
There is going to be a glut of used Bambus and other multi material unit printers, when print farms unload them, since the tool changers will massively boost their bottom line.
Comments?
Yes a new design is partly required, we agree. But there is zero need for them to do everything they can to enforce vendor lock-in other than them insisting on that bullshit.
Please list the design choices that were unnecessary, why they were unnecessary, and how you would design it differently to avoid “vendor lock in.”
By open sourcing electrical specs, hardware specs, design specs, communication specs…so that anyone can make 1:1 drop-in compatible equipment for any single piece of the system.
Name one bontech nozzle, hotend, or extruder you cannot buy a clone of. Also it’s not even released.
There’s not a 3D printer manufacturer who does what you’re asking, which is to hand over years and 100s of thousands of dollars of research and development over to other manufacturers to duplicate. Because you’re not making these nozzles at home, you’re not building an induction heater at home. Go ahead and try and claim Prusa still does. Even Prusa’s latest overpriced beta release printer, that is based on 10 year old tech, still isn’t 100% open source.