Prusa XL Gets a Silicone Printing Toolhead for Liquid Materials

A new kind of material for the XL

Prusa Research has released an add-on that turns the Original Prusa XL into something it was never designed to be: a liquid material printer. The new Silicone Printing Toolhead, developed in partnership with Filament2 and exclusive to Prusa, lets the XL work with two-part liquid materials such as heat-resistant silicone. Prusa expects the toolhead to ship in September 2026.

The system uses a precision mixing nozzle to combine the two components of a liquid material in real time, then deposit them through the same toolchanging mechanism that already handles the XL's other five toolheads. The first commercial material is real, heat-resistant silicone. Prusa says polyurethanes, industrial epoxies, and other paste materials are on the roadmap.

Why this matters

Until now, desktop 3D printing has been limited to materials that can be extruded as solid filaments. Silicone, polyurethane, and most industrial epoxies cannot be turned into consistent filament spools, so they have remained in the domain of expensive industrial machines or hand-cast fabrication. The XL toolhead bypasses that constraint by bringing the liquid to the printer instead of forcing the material into filament form.

The practical advantage is mixed-material parts. Because the XL can swap toolheads automatically, a single print job can alternate between traditional PLA, PETG, or nylon and liquid silicone. That means you can print a rigid FDM chassis with a soft silicone gasket in one job, or build a single part that uses five different silicone shore hardnesses by loading five toolheads.

What the specs say

Prusa has not published detailed material compatibility lists beyond silicone, but the company has confirmed the toolhead works with the XL's existing auto-leveling, toolchanging, and multi-material workflow. The nozzle is a precision mixing type, not a standard 0.4 mm FDM tip, so users will need new slicer profiles and material settings. Prusa is expected to release those profiles through PrusaSlicer alongside the hardware.

The toolhead will be available as an add-on for existing XL owners and as part of new XL configurations. Pricing has not been announced. The move also positions Prusa against emerging desktop liquid material systems, most of which are standalone machines rather than toolheads that slot into an existing multi-material platform.

The bigger picture

If the toolhead works as promised, it closes a gap that has separated desktop FDM from industrial polyjet and silicone printing. The XL is already a capable multi-material machine. Adding liquid silicone gives it a capability that no other desktop FDM printer can match without a separate investment in dedicated hardware. For small manufacturers, prototype shops, and advanced makers, that is a meaningful expansion of what counts as a "desktop" fabrication system.