Bambu Lab’s H3C is a nine-nozzle 3D printer designed to combine multiple materials, colors and levels of detail in one project. Announced at $2,499, it loads nine filament rolls into separate printheads and uses the company’s Swaptek system to change tools in about six seconds. The printer still works with only one material at a time, but its printheads can be prepared at different temperatures before use.
In early testing, the H3C was used to produce a multicolored feather with cyan, magenta, yellow and white PLA, a watch housing with a flexible band, and a shoe combining two grades of flexible TPU. Different nozzle sizes and filament diameters can also be used to move between faster printing and finer detail within a single job. Having multiple printheads can reduce the waste created when changing colors.
The printer stores its filament in an auto-loading AMS 3H container, which is intended to keep the rolls dry. Two of its nine slots include dryers that can reach 85 degrees Celsius and operate while printing. Keeping filament dry matters because moisture is a common cause of print failures, according to the report.
Initial testing also uncovered problems. Prints reportedly needed to be started twice because of errors initializing the toolhead camera, and a false print-failure alert once interrupted a job. Review software initially struggled with color mixing, while flexible TPU must be loaded manually and can cause a jam if placed in an unsuitable slot. Bambu provided troubleshooting steps for the camera issue and said the software problem would be fixed by launch.
The H3C is not the first tool-changing or color-mixing printer. The report compares it with the lower-priced Snapmaker U1, which has four colors and five-second tool changes, and Prusa’s eight-tool INDX system. Bambu’s proposed advantage is combining multiple tools with filament storage and drying, though longer testing will be needed to assess how reliably the H3C performs.
Bambu is also preparing a smaller seven-tool P3C, according to certification filing leaks cited in the report. The company plans to enable two nozzle sizes on its existing H2D, H2C and X2D dual-nozzle printers by next spring.
Sources: The Verge.