Idea: INDX for single-material multiple-detail-level printing
I know there's been talks of using INDX with multiple nozzle sizes to, for example, have infill printed quickly with a larger nozzle, and external surfaces with a smaller nozzle, but has anyone considered the possibility of using multiple nozzle sizes with the same filament, based on the level of detail needed with specific regions of the printed object? I suppose it could effectively also be set up as if it were a multi-color print, and just using the same filament type on multiple nozzles, but I hope this is a feature that could get some attention and hopefully have a streamlined implementation at some point! It could save a ton of time on large prints that have a few areas that need finer detail, where otherwise the entire print would have to be printed with a smaller nozzle, taking much longer.
(as a very much over-engineering aside, this also has me contemplating the concept of a nozzle-changer that uses the same filament without using multiple spools as input, but that's likely not very practical or necessary, even if fun to contemplate.)
RE:
Already doable with an XL.
However, doing it for speed is daft, for strength makes sense.
Cheerio,
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I'm definitely thinking about this. 0.2mm prints for me take roughly 5 times longer than 0.4mm prints, and I only need 0.2mm for tiny parts of the print - like text, railings etc.
The impact of 0.25mm nozzles will be a little less - but I guess print time would still be 4x slower.
Up to now I have either taken the hit for the extra time on small models, or split the model into multiple parts based on where the high detail sections are.
So am looking forward to proper multi nozzle support - with the flexibility for different layer sizes for the different nozzles, and variable layer heights too.
I agree that multiple identical filaments for the different nozzle sizes will be an annoyance. In the past when doing things like parallel printing on multiple printers, for the less used colours I respooled some of the filament onto separate spools - but that is a lot of work and organisation.
I even went to the extent with Bambulab filament of splitting off the RFID tags too - as BL spools have two (one on each side) - although you then have to be careful about which slot in the AMS to put the spool in - because there are only RFID readers on one side - so they need to match up.
Ultimately the ideal solution will be to be able to share filaments across nozzles - using something like an AMS/MMU connected to INDX - but as the INDX toolheads are not designed for filament swapping then this is going to be difficult - so in practice I think we are going to have to live with multiple identical spools / respooling if necessary.
When/if Bambulab start allowing multiple nozzle prints on the H2C then multiple identical spools won't be an issue - but only having a maximum of 6 inductive nozzles will then start to limit flexibility.
For me the perfect solution is going to be an INDX printer with about 24 nozzles - 12 x 0.4mm for the 12 colours I normally use, about 8x 0.25mm (or ideally 0.2), and then a few 0.6's / 0.8s plus a few extra 0.4s for different material types - but I appreciate that space the hold the nozzles and PTFEs is going to start to become an issue, plus the spools - especially all of the duplicates.
RE: Idea: INDX for single-material multiple-detail-level printing
Can we please get a single nozzle with an adjustable aperture size -- motorized of course? 😜
RE: Idea: INDX for single-material multiple-detail-level printing
Can we please get a single nozzle with an adjustable aperture size -- motorized of course? 😜
Yeah, right... and CYMK filament system, since you're asking... 🤣
RE: Idea: INDX for single-material multiple-detail-level printing
Just for laughs I threw this design at the Voron: A letter stamp in TPU95 (0.2 mm) on PETG (0.4 mm), all defaults.
Yes, there could be interesting applications...
RE: Idea: INDX for single-material multiple-detail-level printing
And The Oscar goes to....