'Nozzlegate' erupts as Prusa CORE One 3D printer kits arrive with soft steel nozzles — Bondtech admits machining flaws with no quick fix

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'Nozzlegate' erupts as Prusa CORE One 3D printer kits arrive with soft steel nozzles — Bondtech admits machining flaws with no quick fix Founders Edition buyer launches “Nozzle Gate” website in response 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 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.” 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. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. The news has hit the Founders Edition buyers quite hard, as many have already found difficulty with the kits they so eagerly purchased months ago. Some assembly problems can be expected with such a product, as they are being mounted on CORE One printers already in service. The INDX is a separate upgrade kit, and it requires stripping down a CORE One, removing the Nextruder and replacing it with the INDX carriage, then mounting a rack to hold the eight tool heads. One “founder” was so upset he vibe coded an entire website in protest: Nozzlegate.com. The website outlines what the perceived problems are with Bondtech, and what consumers can do about it. We contacted the website owner, who asked to go by his handle “Daddie0.” He told me that, like others who purchased Founder Edition kits, he’s disappointed in the quality of the product. He said his INDX was suffering from multiple mid-print crashes and layer shifts, and after two weeks of troubleshooting, it was finally fixed with a firmware update from Prusa. “Then nozzlegate hits. My EU right-given two-week return window ends a day after the news breaks.” Realizing that his window for a standard, hassle-free return had closed on a machine he felt was a lemon, he shifted strategies. He began digging into Bondtech’s official documentation to see what recourse he had for a defective product. What he found sparked a new battle. Disagreeing with Bondtech’s listed 90-day warranty policy, which he claims misleads consumers by failing to mention Sweden's mandatory multi-year consumer protections, he channeled his frustration into the NozzleGate website. We asked Prusa Research for a statement regarding the INDX nozzle debacle and were informed that they are as surprised as the rest of us and will issue a formal statement soon. The INDX kit is a collaboration between the two companies, with the first wave of Founders Edition kits a limited edition run going to early adopters. Tom’s Hardware received a Founders Edition INDX kit, which we installed on a Prusa CORE One we previously reviewed. Though the build took over the kitchen table for an entire weekend, our resulting INDX is printing non-abrasive filaments with excellent quality. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Denise Bertacchi is a Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering 3D printing. Denise has been crafting with PCs since she discovered Print Shop had clip art on her Apple IIe. She loves reviewing 3D printers because she can mix all her passions: printing, photography, and writing. - Lieutenant Barclay "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."Reply Translation: Sorry we lied but we didn't think we'd get caught. Please don't return your kits, just settle for limited capability until this all blows over and your return window is gone. - F1appassionato Reply...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. Nitrocarburizing produces a shallow case, often around 0.010" (0.25mm) or less. The Rockwell "C" Scale is not typically appropriate for testing such a shallow case, as penetration of the diamond indenter on steel with a core hardness of 30-32, will be in the range of 0.030" (0.75mm). The Rockwell "N" scale should be used, which is for superficial testing specifically of shallow case depths. You can then convert the recorded N value into an equivalent C value. If they have done testing on the N scale and then converted to the C scale, well then something went wrong with heat treating or the alloy composition of their steel wasn't suitable for nitrocarburizing (although that seems unlikely as nitrocarburizing is applicable on a very broad range of steels, including low grade steels). Honestly, this seems to be a non-issue IMHO. You shouldn't need a thru-hardened 55-60HRC steel nozzle, there is no mechanical load be placed on the surfaces, it is purely abrasive from the flow of molten filament. The nitrocarburizing heat treatment is sufficient and does that heat treament produces a nozzle that the wear surface has been hardened. I would have probably used something different. Electroless Nickel plating with PTFE. Electroless Nickel leaves a very hard and uniform surface in the range of 65 HRC after post-plating heat treatment. The PTFE (Teflon) further improves lubricity through the nozzle. If I also was facing a production problem like this, I would have subcontracted nozzles out until my own manufacturing process was ready and validated. I'm sure MicroSwiss would have handled it... MicroSwiss upon looking does to Electroless Nickel plating on their nozzles, although it seems they still insert a hardened steel end tip into some of the nozzles. - hwertz Surely he can return his unit if they claimed it'd have hardened nozzles and doesn't, even after the 2 week window.Reply - JC5000 *carbo-nitriding" or nitriding... not nitro carbonating or whatever you all are typingReply ... interestingly, i have patents to nitride Powder metal... which turns the porous structure into nitrides well below the surface... long story short steel nitrides ARE OXIDES... meaning it's already rusted... meaning it cant be rusted any more... meaning it's a nitride process for hardness on wrought steel BUT IT MAKES PM RUST PROOF... you all can have it in public domain. Cant hold patent rust proof steel - Daddie0 Reply Heyo! Daddie0 here!hwertz said:Surely he can return his unit if they claimed it'd have hardened nozzles and doesn't, even after the 2 week window. So yes founders can. And I tried telling them I already assembled the printer long before nozzlegate since I'm founder 0010. Thing is if you've already assembled your printer pre-NozzlGate they expect you to disassemble the printer which is in breach of your rights as a consumer since the upgrade is such an integral of the printer and takes 6-8 hours to complete (personally it took 10). I have transcripts from other consumers going through the refund process itself with varying degree of throwing the book at them and the silver lining here is that if you throw the book at them like detailed in the howto on nozzlegate.com you have them dead to rights. If not they will try to (from my point of view) "scam" you out of your consumer rights by accepting a lesser offer which would give up your rights as detailed below. As detailed on the nozzlegate website in such an event you have the right to not be significantly inconvenienced due to false marketing in such a case. And a return have to happen by law at the sellers cost. From the nozzlegate website: For a valid EU statutory termination, Article 16(3)(a) of Directive (EU) 2019/771 says the consumer returns the goods “at the seller's expense”. For a statutory termination under Swedish law because of the seller's breach, Chapter 8, Section 2 of Konsumentköplag (2022:260) says “ska det ske på näringsidkarens bekostnad”. Neither provision automatically requires seller-performed removal or payment for my time. If this is a voluntary refund offer, please confirm the complete cost terms. EU law: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/771/oj/engSwedish law: https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/konsumentkoplag-2022260_sfs-2022-260/ I did spend money on a consumer rights lawyer just so I wouldn't be misleading other consumers, and talked to ECC-Net But the TL;DR is: If you installed the upgrade pre-nozzlegate, Bondtech is responsible for reversing the upgrade, or paying you the consumer to do it in lost wages. And they have to accept liability. Or they have to send out a technician. In any case its cheaper to do a partial refund or exchanging the nozzles for consumers in this case For full detail on the full/partial-refund/nozzle exchange path itself can be found here: https://nozzlegate.com/cases/nozzlegate - Daddie0 Reply Exactly! And this is what's ticked me off so much too. Because all consumers across all regions currently have a 2 month window (under Swedish law) from the announcement to claim a partial or full refund. After that the window to do so is closed.Lieutenant Barclay said:"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." Translation: Sorry we lied but we didn't think we'd get caught. Please don't return your kits, just settle for limited capability until this all blows over and your return window is gone. Not to mention Bondtech deleting messages and banning people in their discord offering alternative solutions rather than airing "we might give a % discount in the future" - Daddie0 Reply So yes but no, Prusa did extended testing post nozzlegate and found after 100g of ultraglow it destroys the nozzle and 5kg after of CF starts showing wear. Since wear in this case is exponential due to it only being a coating is unfortunateF1appassionato said:Nitrocarburizing produces a shallow case, often around 0.010" (0.25mm) or less. The Rockwell "C" Scale is not typically appropriate for testing such a shallow case, as penetration of the diamond indenter on steel with a core hardness of 30-32, will be in the range of 0.030" (0.75mm). The Rockwell "N" scale should be used, which is for superficial testing specifically of shallow case depths. You can then convert the recorded N value into an equivalent C value. If they have done testing on the N scale and then converted to the C scale, well then something went wrong with heat treating or the alloy composition of their steel wasn't suitable for nitrocarburizing (although that seems unlikely as nitrocarburizing is applicable on a very broad range of steels, including low grade steels). Honestly, this seems to be a non-issue IMHO. You shouldn't need a thru-hardened 55-60HRC steel nozzle, there is no mechanical load be placed on the surfaces, it is purely abrasive from the flow of molten filament. The nitrocarburizing heat treatment is sufficient and does that heat treament produces a nozzle that the wear surface has been hardened. I would have probably used something different. Electroless Nickel plating with PTFE. Electroless Nickel leaves a very hard and uniform surface in the range of 65 HRC after post-plating heat treatment. The PTFE (Teflon) further improves lubricity through the nozzle. If I also was facing a production problem like this, I would have subcontracted nozzles out until my own manufacturing process was ready and validated. I'm sure MicroSwiss would have handled it... MicroSwiss upon looking does to Electroless Nickel plating on their nozzles, although it seems they still insert a hardened steel end tip into some of the nozzles. - wakuwaku Reply If you are really pissed off, target the long term and fix your laws. This will surely happen again to others, all the more so when incidents such as this become well known and everyone will figure out more ways to take advantage of us consumers.Daddie0 said:Exactly! And this is what's ticked me off so much too. Because all consumers across all regions currently have a 2 month window (under Swedish law) from the announcement to claim a partial or full refund. After that the window to do so is closed. Not to mention Bondtech deleting messages and banning people in their discord offering alternative solutions rather than airing "we might give a % discount in the future"