Most of the multi color printers out there are AMS/MMU or similar, and there are many DIY options, like Armored Turtle or ECF.
They are an evolutionary dead end. Slow, wasteful, expensive to run.
The Prusa XL, or the Snapmaker U1 are the future direction.
Also a good CoreXY machine like vorons/sovols/ratrigs/VZ, etc can be upgraded with the Bondtech INDX tool changer.
We are talking 5x lower print times, 5x lower material costs.
There is going to be a glut of used Bambus and other multi material unit printers, when print farms unload them, since the tool changers will massively boost their bottom line.
Comments?
Did my very first 3d print yesturday on my new Anycubic Kobra S1, and I’m very happy with going with the kombo. For the future or if you print a lot of multi-material I definetely agree, but being able to swap between 4 different spools without manual intervention is great, and considering it has a built in dryer the package deal felt like a no brainer. Just a decent seperate filament dryer seems to cost 100-200€.
For me the ability to do occasional multi-material prints is just a bonus!