Inside the New Elemento TC5: The 5-Tool Giant Taking on Massive 3D Prints
Five independent print heads, a 1.1-meter-wide build area, and support for both 1.75- and 2.85-mm filament put Fabbrix’s latest Elemento firmly at the industrial end of the toolchanger spectrum.
Italian 3D printer manufacturer Fabbrix just introduced the Elemento TC5, a large-format industrial FDM system with five independent toolheads.
The TC5 builds on Fabbrix’s existing Elemento TC platform, moving from dual extrusion to toolchanger and also includes revised motion hardware, updated firmware, and a slightly taller build volume.
The launch arrives as toolchanging is becoming a bigger theme across FDM printing. Prusa’s INDX can use up to eight tools, while Bambu Lab’s H2C uses its six-position Vortek hotend-changing system. Fabbrix, however, is applying the concept of a toolchanger at a very different scale (the TC5 weighs around 580 kg and offers a 1,100 x 600 x 640-mm build volume) and for a different purpose.
Five Independent Tools
The TC5’s five toolheads can be configured with different nozzle and filament setups. Rather than positioning the extra heads primarily around multicolor printing or printing on the same part, Fabbrix says each head can stay set up with a different nozzle size or material, letting operators switch between jobs or material combinations without repeatedly changing hardware. On a large-format industrial printer, where prints can run for many hours and use large spools, that flexibility is aimed at keeping the machine productive and minimizing manual reconfiguration.
For example, an automotive supplier might use one TC5 head with a large 1.2-mm nozzle for fast PET-CF jigs, another with a smaller nozzle for finer functional parts, and a third loaded with TPU for soft fixtures or protective components. Instead of stopping production to swap nozzles, reload material, and recalibrate between jobs, the operator can keep several proven setups ready and switch between them as the production queue changes.
Fabbrix lists support for 1.75-mm and 2.85-mm filament, nozzle diameters including 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 mm, and hotend temperatures up to 350 °C. The machine can handle filament spools weighing as much as 10 kg.
The machine retains Fabbrix’s open-material approach. The Elemento platform is specified for polymers including PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, nylon, polypropylene, PC, PPS, TPU, soluble materials, and carbon- or glass-fiber-filled filaments.
Updated Motion System
Beyond the toolchanger, Fabbrix has revised several parts of the machine.
The TC5 offers 640 mm of Z travel, up from 620 mm on the earlier TC. Fabbrix also says it has lightened the X-axis and added an “anti-wobble” system intended to improve stability on tall prints. Maximum movement speed is listed at 300 mm/s, with acceleration of up to 10,000 mm/s². Integrated encoders monitor the linear axes.
The Z axis uses three independently driven motors with automatic bed-tilt compensation, while the flexible magnetic build plate can reach 120 °C. Fabbrix also offers an optional Cold Plate and filament drying equipment.
Other updates include redesigned firmware and UI, revised cable management, and optional support for non-planar printing.
Toolchanging at a Different Scale
The TC5 sits in an increasingly varied toolchanger market.
The TC5 is technically an upgrade of an established TC platform rather than a clean-sheet machine, but the additional tools and several mechanical and software refinements really push this machine in another direction: toward large-format machines where toolchanging is less about adding more colors and more about keeping production moving.
Fabbrix has not published pricing for the Elemento TC5, which is sold on a quote basis, but says the machine is available now.
License: The text of "Inside the New Elemento TC5: The 5-Tool Giant Taking on Massive 3D Prints" by All3DP Pro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.