Is IDEX worth it? Do you want multi-material 3D printing?

Recencly, 3D printers with 2 independent moving heads are showing up. It's called "IDEX". But is the the latest innovation, or is it a waste of your money?

Find out more about the printers featured:
Kywoo3D Idex:

Be sure to like, subscribe, share and enjoy.

3D Printing Professor is made possible by YOU!

I'm social!

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

[Zodliness]

My first 3D printer was a pre-owned Ultimaker S3 and after watching numerous reviews on different 3D printer manufacturers, I concluded that the S3 was not only an excellent easy to use dual nozzle desktop-sized printer, boasting a two in one print head, but had the ability to change filaments whilst actively printing, thus utilising more than two different filaments simultaneously, such as support material into a complex print, making the S3 and S5 in my opinion fantastic printers for noobs and pro's alike. Thanks for sharing. 👍

[thegrafxguy]

i've thought about multi-filament printers but everything i've seen is just a ton of issues. i've got a friend that has a huge Modix printer with dual heads. he uses the 2nd head for dissolvable supports, but oh man did it take some serious calibrating and tweaking to get it to print nicely.

[ethansdadd]

Great point that IDEX has a built in backup extruder. I concur that the extruder is a big source of required maintenance.

[ttbstudios]

100% YOUR recommended video over YT's recommendation!

[omeganinjaboy]

While I have not watched this yet, thank you for making it, I have been wanting to see someone who is well versed in 3d printers talk about idex for a while.

[Hilmi]

I recently got the creator pro 2, small print area but the ability to use disolvable supports is great. I wish flashforge had better raft profiles that peeled off more easily though.

[janzugic]

i decided to listen to you tier list, and ordered a kywoo tycoon. printer itself is awesome. i just have problems with software. overall, im happy i listened to you!

[Jim_One-wlke]

Agreed 👍 2 color is good enough for me at the present moment. The redundancy factor is very important too👍. Thanks for making this video ❤

[glutenfreegamr]

Now to upgrade my og Creator Pro and Duplicator 4 printers to IDEX!

[jonathanmills]

I just purchased the Creator Pro 2. Great printer but I have one issue with it and it doesn't Z hop during multiple color / material prints during the final move when an extruder is returning to home prior to handing off to the other extruder. I believe it's an issue in Flashprint. A very annoying bug if you ask me.

[KellyBC]

I have the Artist D and I have been wondering these same things about whether or not IDEX is worth it. So far, I have used the copy and mirror modes much more than the dual filament modes. I think there is still a good bit of value in the IDEX printers, but I haven't unlocked it all yet.

[Lobesanft]

The restrictions in printing size depend on the capabilities of the printer itself. There are printers on the market who provide a parking position for at least one of the heads in order not to loose working space - as the RAISE 3D E2 does - in this printer we only have restrictions in size when actually using both heads. The problem with slicing correct gcode indeed is an issue - sometimes at least and only if You don´t have the appropriate slicer to do a good work. As e.g. the simplify 3D or for instance the idea maker in case of Raise 3D.
I own 3D printers for a longer time - my first and still running system is a MANKATI Fullscale xt plus (not available anymore) with dual extruder, meanwhile flanked with a creality Ender 5 plus for even bigger prints and a witbox 2 from BQ (not available anymore). But those are all printers for "home office" and private use - compared to my Raise 3D E2 oder a Stratasys for productivity purposes.

[TubeRadiosRule]

I just got an Artist-D a couple weeks ago and so far I like it - mostly. Tricky getting both nozzles to the same height, and the bed leveling can be a pain at times. I like the quick-change nozzle capability, for certain, though I'm trying to make sure I have a good supply of those proprietary nozzles...

[martylawson]

Two thoughts. Have you tried printing PETG with PLA supports? You can use a zero-gap for beautiful bottom layers since they don't stick to each other very well. Second, I've solved the head-crashing issue by having 3 printer profiles for my IDEX printer. The extra profiles selects the proper tool for duplicate or mirror mode and are setup with a smaller build plate that matches the safe printable area. So while I don't get a preview of both parts, I'm 100% sure the parts will fit and print without collisions.

[shakaworldD]

Thanks for another great video - I will have to check out the Flashforge printers I have a jdmaker pro in the box and a Kywoo 3d idex on the way as far as toochangers go although it is more of a business level machine and priced out of range for hobbyist the H5-Series from diabase machines is a 3d printer/cnc machine combo that is close to being a true toolchanger but does not have pick and place that I know of.

[nath]

mann i wish i had a two head printer, I might upgrade my prusa soon so it has the multi filament addon, really looking forward to that. I need to print more.

[kev]

Tenlog Hands 2 pro has been a good IDEX machine. Duplication mode PLA/PLA (easy) works perfectly. That, and the backup redundancy, justifies the IDEX already.
Tested dual material printing with polypropylene in PLA. These materials were reported to allow high performance fluid fittings, but I found it difficult. It could produce a basic part, but the tuning needed and with PP stringing, warping, made it impractical. A lot more parameters to optimize with IDEX than with single nozzle.

[ameliabuns]

I should tell you that tool changing usually increases print times a little.

But I love my custom tool change (Doot changer)

Tool changers don't just allow dual material. But they can do things like milling post processing and also have tools that have for example resin etc in them so you gain more z strengh.

You could also make a carbon fiber laying tool to add continious fibers for incredible strength while having dual extrusion too

I also love my 0.6mm tool. Imagine switching to a 0.6-1mm nozzle by just pressing a button, it's such a blessing.

Also pva is misleading. It's super awesome but it costs 4x much as PLA and bvoh is even more expensive. They're like insanely expensive, like 80-130$ a kg. It makes it nearly worthless

[Outofthedust]

Well, I know what i have to do now!
This is awesome.

[IraQNid]

So I've spent the day looking at the newest innovations in all kinds of 3D printers. Maybe you can answer this for me because I haven't figured out how to search for this on YouTube. Are there 3D printers that are a hybrid design of self-adapting nozzles that are spread out over the entire build plate and solid ink sticks that are melted for deposit as well as on the fly color and multiple material blending? By self-adapting nozzles I'm thinking of a design that can change the amount of material that is melted for deposit. So instead of changing from a smaller diameter nozzle to a larger one the tool head does it without needing to replace the actual nozzle each time.

So what I see as the benefit is the move away from filament to be replaced with a type of solid ink style of material delivery. Having an array of print heads spread out over the entire build surface should make all builds much faster. Blending colors and materials on the fly gets rid of daisy chaining Palette 2, 3, etc. It also gets rid of the wasteful purge or transition towers. Or perhaps an adaptation of the HP Jet Fusion 580 Color 3D printer where this grid of nozzles are placed on a bar that moves bi-directionally to deposit each layer of the print in whatever color or material is loaded.

But rather than a moving bar making these passes back and forth there is a single nozzle array that can deposit all the materials and colors without moving side-to-side or front-to-back. Just moving upwards as the print grows in height. Or possibly lowering the print bed as well as increasing the height of the printer array.