Prusa Research Confirms “Non-FDM Toolheads” Are Coming to the XL
A Fab25 keynote from Josef Průša confirmed the plans. Development isn't just internal – the company is encouraging enthusiasts to pitch in.
Prusa Research made a big announcement rather subtly yesterday as founder and CEO Josef Průša confirmed plans to release non-FDM toolheads for the Prusa XL during his keynote address at Fab25 in Prague: “The XL will stay with us for quite some time, we have some additional non-FDM toolheads coming, and that will be truly, truly amazing.”
All3DP was onsite at the event, which featured the first official word we’ve heard of Prusa working on non-FDM toolchangers since its release more than two years ago. For our first look at the XL, we asked the company about toolheads “other than the Nextruder,” but the response was non-committal, saying only that there were “ideas and prototypes for various tool heads, such as for imprinting objects like RFID tags or metal nuts.”
When asked yesterday if a heat-set insert press was among the “non-FDM toolheads” in development, CMO Rudolf Krcmar declined to comment.
Though, there are some pretty clear suggestions of what might be coming. Průša took to Reddit back in March to share a “preview” of some non-FDM toolheads and asked the community, “Should I put these non-FDM tools for XL Toolchanger into production?” Previewed toolheads included a liquid applicator for improved support separation and a drag knife. Another post followed showcasing a pen plotter used to “embed” some inks in first layers “permanently”, and suggested RFID could be another route.
Though Krcmar wouldn’t share a target release date for the new toolheads, he did say internal targets are “quite soon”, but when pressed, laughed and said “sometime between now and five years in the future” – echoing Průša’s response to release window questions during a post-keynote Q&A.
Prusa isn’t just developing new toolheads in-house. A comment from Průša on his Reddit post said the company is working with ZHAW University in Zurich, and at Fab25, Krcmar told All3DP it has approached a number of prominent community members with promising ideas to collaborate. YouTuber Jón Schone, a.k.a. Proper Printing, is among them and gave a talk about his experimental toolheads yesterday afternoon at Fab25. His ideas all remain extrusion-based, with some possibilities including silicone, adhesives, resins, and more.
“What I find most interesting is combining materials,” Schone told All3DP, “like depositing a polymer layer, followed by an adhesive layer, and another polymer layer to increase adhesion by making a sandwich.”
Schone also spoke to material combinations that could alter part weight, like replacing infill with foam or concrete – an interesting method we’ve seen used to create heavy bases for some 3D printed tools like the Rock Solid Milling Machine. Automating the process entirely would be all the more impressive.
Krcmar says collaborators receive additional support from the company in case their experiments lead to damaged hardware. Those with particularly promising ideas, like Schone, are working closely with Prusa Research’s team, which might include direct support from the company’s firmware developers should he need it.
The company is open to more collaborators, too. If you’d like to pitch a design for a toolhead, Krcmar encourages more enthusiasts to reach out with ideas.
You can watch Josef Průša’s Fab25 keynote speech in full, along with those of Suchit Jain, Joel Telling, and Falk Tauber, on YouTube.
Fab25 in Prague wrapped up today, and we’ll have more interesting stories from the event’s speakers trickling out. Subscribe to All3DP’s newsletter and be the first to hear more.
Update – July 12, 2025: Added details of earlier teasers on social media.
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