From the Four-Color Pen to QuarTeks™

From the Four-Color Pen to QuarTeks™

We got inspired by the four-color ballpoint pen that uses a simple mechanical mechanism to change colors — so color changes are performed inside the toolhead, free from swapping tools and focusing on affordability.

QuarTeks™ applies the philosophy of a 4-color ballpoint pen to 3D printing: four filament channels built all the way inside the hotend, where an internal mechanism on the toolhead selects the target channel for printing and changes colors. Many parts are shared — the same motion, extrusion system, and the same hotend all in the same toolhead.

 

SPARKX i8: Hotend In-Built with Four Filament Channels

How Does QuarTeks™ Switch Colors

A color change takes just 4 steps:

1. One color ends printing.

2. The internal mechanism on the toolhead shifts to the target channel.

3. The target filament feeds through an ultra-short shared filament path (＜1 mm).

4. The system confirms the current color is extruding correctly and resumes printing.

The entire process happens completely inside the toolhead — free from long-distance reloading and nozzle or toolhead calibration issues. Channel/color switching completes in less than 1 second.

500%+ Faster Multicolor Prints

QuarTeks™: Four filament channels are built all the way inside the hotend, keeping all four filaments ready for the fastest color changes ever. With channels sharing only a minimal less-than 1 mm tip at the nozzle, purging and priming are impossibly minimal. SPARKX i8 seamlessly switches between colors in less than 1 second — delivering unprecedented 500% faster multicolor prints at the highest filament efficiency.

 

Print Time and Filament Usage: SPARKX i8 vs Single Nozzle 3D Printer

0 Waste. BTW, The Prime Tower's Gone

QuarTeks™ shrinks the four-filament shared path in a core that is less than 1 mm, virtually eliminating the need to purge during every color change. Colors to flush are minimal, and they can be directed to wipe onto the infill. To prevent these color transitions from affecting the print, an optimized algorithm ensures all transitions are completely wiped clean before reaching the outer walls — it's called the purity zone.

Many prints can now be printed without a prime tower or purges.

Prime Tower aka. Wipe Tower

A Hard-Earned Breakthrough

Building all filament channels inside a hotend isn't without potential risk — prolonged idle filament exposed to sustained heat might cause the filament to degrade. Plus, there are also other issues like heating and cooling that demand extra attention. Here's the hardware breakdown.

• Clog-Free Extrusion: Extrusion motors and adjacent parts are cooled with a dedicated fan, paired with a skeletal toolhead architecture that dissipates heat efficiently to prevent premature softening of filament and possible clogging.

• Cooling on SPARKX i8: Hotend cooling airflow increased by 50%, backed by a 100% larger heatsink surface area compared to the previous-generation SPARKX i7.

• 70W High-Flow Hotend: A 70W quick-swap hotend with a Hyper PLA volumetric flow rate of 25 mm³/s.

• Smart Auto-Cleaning: Channel statuses are actively monitored; filament channels that have been idle for an extended period are purged onto the infill in minimal quantities to keep filament pristine and ready for printing.

• Titanium Heatbreak: A titanium alloy heatbreak blocks heat creep from the melt zone, preventing premature filament softening and subsequent clogging.

 

Hotend Comparison: SPARKX i8 vs SPARKX i7

Keeping It Simple and Elegant

QuarTeks™ keeps all the color/filament switching mechanisms entirely within the toolhead, leaving you with an experience as effortless and intuitive as possible.

• 13 Intelligent Sensors: Continuous monitoring of filament and channel status — for runout, air printing, and clogging.

• Zero Repeatability Issue: No tool-changing or XYZ alignment issues.

• Quick-Swap Hotend: Replace or maintain hotends in seconds with ease.

• Compact Multicolor: SPARKX i8 prints splendid four-color with just the standard model without accessories. But with CFS Lite, it takes a step further in terms of ease-of-use — RFID auto-filament identification, auto-loading and unloading, and sealed filament storage.

• New Filament Cutter: A redesigned blade that cuts all four filaments at once for unloading filament (when paired with CFS Lite).

SPARKX i8: Cutting and Unloading 4 Filaments All at Once

About Avoiding Color Bleeding

The longer the shared filament path, the higher the risk of color bleeding.

QuarTeks™ makes color contamination virtually nonexistent, leveraging its ultra-short, less-than-1-mm shared filament path, a proprietary hotend design, and an optimized flushing algorithm. Even with extremely high-contrast colors — such as white transitioning to black — SPARKX i8 maintains razor-sharp color boundaries.

A Dalmatian Printed on SPARKX i8

Introducing SPARKX i8

SPARKX i8 — Powered by QuarTeks™

• 500%+ Faster Multicolor Printing*
• 0 Filament Waste*
• < 1s Color Switching
• < 1 mm Shared Filament Path
• Multicolor Made Effortlessly Simple

Bye-bye to splitting 3D models and hand-painting models. True multicolor 3D printing is now here.