Creality's SPARKX i8 Puts Four Color Channels in One Toolhead

Creality has announced the SPARKX i8, a four-color bedslinger that runs all four filament channels into a single toolhead and merges them 1.7 mm from the nozzle, rather than at the extruder. It sells under SPARKX, the Creality sub- brand that already carries the i7 line. It is an open frame, 260 x 260 x 255 mm. The spec sheet quotes 500 mm/s and 300 °C at the hotend.

QuarTeks is Creality's name for the arrangement. The i7's CFS Lite and Bambu Lab's AMS bring the four filaments together before the extruder, then change color by pulling one out and feeding the next in. What has already melted cannot be pulled back, so it is purged through the nozzle. Keeping the channels separate almost the whole way down leaves less to flush. A switch finishes in under a second, Creality says.

Multicolor printing runs up to five times faster, Creality claims. On a dragon test model it puts the i8 at roughly a third of the filament and a third of the time of a comparison print. A chart on the same page has the i8 finishing ahead of a four-toolhead changer and a seven-hotend changer as well. None of the compared machines is named, and no slicer, layer height or purge setting is given.

Over 3,000 color changes, Creality says, the i8 saves 438 kg of filament. That is more than 400 spools, which it prices at about $1,500. The page claims 2.7 times less filament waste, and no external purge waste at all. The zero-gram figure comes with a footnote: it describes a model printed with the purge pushed into its own infill, which Creality limits to select models.

The i8 reached Indiegogo on September 21 with a $289 opening reward and a stated $399 retail price. The launch tier was no longer available when checked the following day, when the lowest selectable pledge was $309. Creality expects delivery in November; our campaign launch report covers the pricing and production schedule.