INDX – Hardened Nozzles Update

Dear customers,

You backed the INDX before anyone had one in their hands, and we deeply appreciate you putting your faith in our new product. This is why we take this matter very seriously.

The INDX nozzles (both Founders Edition and the CORE One+ Conversion kits from Prusa) were sold as hardened and abrasive-resistant. They are not, in the way that the description leads you to expect, and we need to set the record straight.

What we said and what is actually true

The nozzles were listed as hardened and suitable for abrasive filaments. We had this description on our website, and while we intended to produce hardened nozzles, the units shipped with the INDX are not truly hardened. We acknowledge this error and apologize for failing to communicate it clearly.

The nozzles shipped with your INDX are nitrocarburized steel, measured at roughly 30-32 HRC in bulk testing. For context, standard brass nozzles are around 0-10 HRC, steel around 20-25 HRC, and true hardened at about 55-60.

Which nozzles are affected

This affects every nozzle that shipped with the INDX Founders Edition and every nozzle that will ship with the initial batches of Prusa CORE One+ INDX Upgrade Kit.

If you have already received the INDX or will receive it in the upcoming days, chances are the box may still feature the “hardened” label. This is incorrect and we will ensure that the new boxes are correctly labeled.

What this means for your prints

The currently shipped nozzles are great for the vast majority of 3D prints and an incredibly wide range of filaments (PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, TPE, PVA, BVOH, HIPS, PC, Nylon, PP, PBT, unfilled PC Blend, and other non-abrasive materials). These materials will perform exactly as they should with the high-quality steel nozzle you received. Materials like Prusa Galaxy filaments and similar are also fine as they do not contain abrasive particles.

Special, abrasive filaments, like glass-fiber, carbon-fibre, glow-in-the-dark, metal-filled and similar will cause accelerated nozzle wear. We’ll publish exactly what kind of lifespan you can expect from this nozzle. A hardness profile at depth, and how many kilograms of abrasive filament the nozzle takes before it’s worn by a defined metric. It will follow in a separate post, and we’ll publish it in the coming weeks, whatever it shows.

Next steps and compensation

We understand that you’re anxious to learn more about compensations, corrective steps, and true hardened nozzles.

We want to be honest with you: right now, we don’t have a concrete solution ready. We won’t promise dates or pricing that we can’t back up. We will share more information once we run at least initial tests, and calculate production feasibility and capacity. We want the compensation to be fair for you and manageable for us. Offering you a % discount on hardened nozzles without knowing their production costs could be misleading (hardened nozzles will likely be more expensive than standard nozzles).

We also want to set realistic expectations: a truly hardened INDX nozzle is still a long way from serial production. Development, testing, validation, and production preparation are likely to take many months.

While returning the INDX and getting a refund is, of course, an option, we would much rather prepare an offer for you that would let you keep the INDX, use it in the meantime with all the filaments listed above, and once there is a development with the hardened nozzles, we would provide you with satisfying upgrade options.

So, right now, what we can promise is this: we will not go quiet. As soon as we know something – good or bad – you will hear it from us first. If you have questions in the meantime, reach out to us directly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and again – we’re sorry for the mistake and for the lacking communication before.