The Bambu Lab H2D 3D printer is a superb machine, however many Bambu Lab followers had been hoping for one thing else. Many wished “an X1C, however larger,” and plenty of wished toolchanger printer, just like the Prusa XL. Bambu just lately introduced the launch of the H2S, which caters to that first group. And in an enormous shock this morning, Bambu Lab simply introduced the H2C that ought to please the toolchanger followers.
The H2x fashions
The Bambu Lab H2D is a dual-nozzle 3D printer and you may learn our overview of that machine right here. Due to that second nozzle, the H2D can swap between filaments rapidly and that lowers total multi-material print occasions. But it surely nonetheless requires purging and the infamous “pooping,” which many customers see as wasteful.
The Bambu Lab H2S is a single-nozzle 3D printer and primarily an X1C, however larger. It does embrace many of the options of the H2D, however omits the second nozzle. Like each different Bambu Lab 3D printer geared up with an AMS, it requires purging and pooping.
The Bambu Lab H2C that was simply introduced is an entire departure from that mannequin and has most of some great benefits of a toolchanger 3D printer, whereas circumventing lots of the disadvantages.
Toolchanger vs. hotend-changer
On this planet of 3D printing, the “device” in “toolchanger” refers to a whole hotend and extruder meeting toolhead, together with the extruder motor. The printer can swap these toolheads rapidly, however every meeting is dear and requires its personal cables and PTFE tube. That’s the reason machines just like the Prusa XL are costly when you add all the toolheads.
The Bambu H2C will not be a toolchanger, however quite a “hotend-changer” and Bambu is asking that the Vortek system. As a substitute of swapping all the hotend and extruder meeting, the H2C swaps simply the recent finish. That eliminates the wasteful poop, whereas holding prices affordable and, presumably, bettering materials swap pace. The hotends are additionally small, so a number of of them (as much as seven) can be found. Mixed with the same old AMS swapping, a single print job can have as much as 24 colours/supplies — although going over seven would require pooping.
H2C twin nozzles
However the H2C remains to be a dual-nozzle printer just like the H2D. The left nozzle isn’t a part of the hotend-changer system. It strikes up and down throughout print jobs to keep away from dragging and is the “lifting nozzle.” The correct nozzle is the hotend-changer and might settle for one of many six ready hotends. That’s the way you get that complete of seven hotends — one on the left, six on the precise.
It is a novel system and we haven’t seen something prefer it earlier than. Bambu Lab could have developed this to get round present toolchanger patents, however that’s simply hypothesis. Regardless, the associated fee advantages in comparison with a toolchanger are actual.
Vortek system challenges
Nevertheless, getting this Vortek system to work wasn’t a easy job. A typical hotend wants electrical connections for the heater cartridge and thermistor. Bambu wanted a strategy to reliably plug and unplug these connections many hundreds of occasions for the thought to be viable. In addition they wanted to make sure that the underside of the hotend nozzle is all the time set to precisely the precise peak after each swap.
They addressed the primary problem by eliminating {the electrical} connections altogether. As a substitute of a heater cartridge, the Vortek system depends on induction heating of the hotend and that doesn’t require wires. Bambu says the induction heating can convey a hotend to temperature in simply eight seconds. To get temperature knowledge, Vortek communicates with a chip embedded within the hotend meeting wirelessly. That seems to work like NFC (Close to-Subject Communication), so the chip within the hotend doesn’t want its personal energy supply.
For nozzle offset after a swap, the H2C seems to make use of a system much like the H2D. Tight manufacturing tolerances hold the hotends constant, then device peak detection fine-tunes the offset. Mixed with the lifting left nozzle, that ought to stop any Z-height-related points.
Availability
That is breaking information and we don’t but have any data on the worth of the H2C, however Bambu Lab has mentioned that they count on this new mannequin to begin delivery by the top of the yr. They’ve additionally mentioned that there shall be an improve package out there for H2D and H2S house owners to transform their printers into an H2C with the Vortek system.