Creality KliTek™ Next-gen Nozzle Changer 3D Printing Technology Coming

For any product team, there is always a difficult question: should a new product be launched as soon as the concept is exciting, or should the technology continue to mature until it can truly solve real user problems?

For Creality, the answer starts with makers, engineers, designers and power users. What do people actually want from the next generation of FDM 3D printers?

The goal is clear: faster multicolour printing, more stable multi-material printing, less purge waste and broader creative freedom. In other words, users want colour, speed and material flexibility without the usual compromise.

This is where KliTek™ comes in: Creality’s lightweight nozzle-changing technology designed to make multicolour and multi-material 3D printing faster, cleaner and more practical.

Why Single-Nozzle Multicolour Printing Has Limits Most consumer multicolour FDM printers still rely on one nozzle switching between several filaments. The printer loads one colour, unloads it, purges the remaining material, then loads the next colour.

This approach made colour 3D printing more accessible, but it also introduced well-known problems:

Longer print times caused by repeated filament changes Large purge towers and higher filament waste Possible colour contamination or colour bleeding Limited support for flexible or demanding materials More interruptions during complex multicolour prints For simple colour changes, this can work. For more advanced prints involving multiple colours, support materials or flexible filaments, the single-nozzle method can become slow and inefficient.

Single Nozzle, Dual Nozzle or Nozzle Changing?

The industry has already explored dual-nozzle systems, usually with one nozzle printing the model and the other handling support material. This can help produce cleaner surfaces and easier support removal.

However, dual-nozzle systems are not always ideal for complex colour work or prints that require several materials. As soon as a project demands more colours, different nozzle sizes or flexible materials, a more advanced approach is needed.

KliTek™ takes a different direction: instead of switching the entire toolhead or constantly purging filament through a single nozzle, it changes a compact nozzle assembly.

Less Is More: A Lightweight Nozzle-Changing Architecture Changing a large part of the toolhead can add weight and make calibration more difficult. More moving mass can also affect speed, precision and long-term stability.

That is why Creality focused on keeping the changing part as small and efficient as possible. KliTek™ is built around a modular nozzle assembly, including the key hotend components needed for fast switching and pre-heating.

This design brings several practical advantages:

The changed part is lighter than a full toolhead The filament path remains easier to inspect for troubleshooting Nozzle assemblies can be replaced more conveniently Pre-heating before switching helps improve workflow efficiency Calibration can be more manageable than full toolhead swapping The result is a highly modular nozzle assembly weighing around one-fifth of a full toolhead, enabling a nozzle change in about 5 seconds .

Why Nozzle Changing Matters for Multicolour Printing

In multicolour printing, speed is not just about how fast the printhead moves. It is also about how much time the printer spends changing material, purging filament and recovering from each switch.

With a nozzle-changing architecture, the printer can reduce the need for repeated purging through the same nozzle. This can help shorten print time, lower purge waste and reduce the risk of colour contamination between sections.

For users who regularly print multicolour models, decorations, toys, prototypes or display pieces, this makes the workflow more efficient and more predictable.

The TPU Challenge TPU is one of the most useful flexible materials in FDM 3D printing, but it is also one of the most difficult to print well.

TPU is hygroscopic, which means it can absorb moisture from the air. It should usually be dried before printing. Its flexibility and elasticity also make it more difficult to feed through the extruder and filament path.

Common TPU printing issues include:

Friction inside the filament path Filament compression and deformation Unstable extrusion Poor retraction control Stringing and inconsistent surface quality Because of these challenges, many consumer 3D printers have to print TPU slowly. Some systems are mostly limited to harder TPU 95A materials, while softer TPU can become unreliable or impractically slow.

Rethinking the Extruder: S-Drive™ Feed System Traditional Bowden extruders are usually not ideal for soft TPU. Even standard direct drive systems can struggle when the filament is too flexible.

Creality explored several approaches, including softer spring pressure, tighter filament path control and customised TPU guide structures. But these changes alone were not enough to solve the problem.

The breakthrough came from a different idea: what if the filament was not only pulled by the main extruder, but also assisted by a secondary extruder unit pushing from the rear?

This dual-power concept became the patent-pending S-Drive™ feed system . By synchronising pulling and pushing forces, the filament moves more predictably through the tube, reducing deformation and helping stabilise TPU extrusion.

With this system, KliTek™ can support stable printing of TPU as soft as 80A Shore hardness .

Faster Flexible Printing Solving TPU extrusion also unlocks a major improvement in flexible printing speed.

Many systems struggle with TPU 80A or 85A and may need to slow down to around 1 mm³/s . KliTek™ is designed to reach a stable flow of around 3 mm³/s for soft TPU, tripling that common benchmark.

The difference is even more obvious with TPU 95A. While many consumer 3D printers operate around 2–3 mm³/s , KliTek™ can achieve up to 15 mm³/s , making flexible material printing much more practical for real projects.

The benefits are not limited to flexible materials. Higher feed stability and improved flow efficiency can also support better performance with common materials such as PLA.

Best of Both Worlds: Speed and Precision Traditional FDM printing usually uses one nozzle diameter for the entire print. That means users often have to choose between fine detail and fast material deposition.

A multi-nozzle architecture changes that workflow. With KliTek™, different nozzle sizes can be used within a single print.

For example, a model could use a precise 0.4 mm nozzle for outer walls and fine details, while a higher-flow 0.8 mm nozzle handles infill more quickly. This keeps the visible surfaces sharp while reducing the time needed for larger internal structures.

For large models, the efficiency gain can be even more noticeable.

Creality KliTek™ — the Future of FDM 3D Printing The point is not only speed. It is finishing the model faster while keeping quality under control.

The point is not only multicolour. It is creating vibrant finished models with less manual work and less material waste.

The point is not only multi-material. It is unlocking new design possibilities, such as combining rigid and flexible sections in one print.

KliTek™ is Creality’s lightweight nozzle-changing system built for this next stage of FDM printing. It is designed to reduce the compromise between speed and precision, support stable 80A TPU printing and make multicolour and multi-material print-in-place production more achievable.

Meet KliTek™ — Creality’s next-generation nozzle changer . Learn more now!

Meet KliTek™ — Creality's Next-gen Nozzle Changer Coming

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Meet KliTek™ — Creality's Next-gen Nozzle Changer Coming

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