3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
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Note that I don't own a multi-filament setup so I can't speak from personal experience, but this is after I'd done extensive research into it and determined it wasn't worth it for my personal use case.
What kind of parts will you be printing in multi-material? The kind of prints you are doing will greatly determine the best approach. Some smaller prints with many filament changes will result in purge blocks with more mass than the part itself.. ie more than double normal filament usage.
IMO the tool changers are the way to go and I think we will be seeing more of them in higher end machines. I personally wouldn't use multiple materials for the sake of colors, but different tool heads offers the ability to print with different materials at different temperatures, as well as different nozzle sizes or different setups altogether. For example you can have a 0.6 volcano nozzle for the bulk of your print, a standard 0.2 nozzle with the same filament for fine details, and a 0.4 nozzle with a water soluble filament for supports.
This is just speculation, but I'm betting that we'll see tool changers with more than just extruders on deck - imagine if you could add a Dremel head for post-print sanding, or a drill bit to clear out holes.
I have an MK4+MMU that I bought partially with the intent of building PLA-supported PETG and TPU parts. I haven't dug in too far yet but in the few prints I've done the PLA has severely degraded interlayer adhesion. Presumably this can be addressed by purging (much) more on changes from PLA, but if I had known this before I bought, I would have seriously considered a multi-head printer.
My understanding is that PLA and PETG will not adhere together, so I guess if there's any residual PLA when printing the PETG it will cause it to not adhere fully. Makes sense and is a perfect example of where a tool changer would be incredibly useful.
I'm assuming you're using PLA to support the PETG parts because of their inability to adhere to each other? Don't know if you've seen it, but if you have relatively large, flat overhangs that need support, you can color in the top layer of the supports with a permanent marker. This will cause the same inability to adhere and you can snap the part off easy. Not really practical for multiple areas of support or if you need something like tree supports, but if you've got angular parts or similar could save a lot of time
I'm curious to hear if you find a solution to this as you play with it more. I think some people are able to make it work with some setups, so I'm curious if something makes the Prusa different. If there isn't a way to make it work, I think this has to be crossed off my list of options.