The Bambu Lab H2D 3D printer is a great machine, but many Bambu Lab fans were hoping for something else. Many wanted “an X1C, but bigger,” and many wanted toolchanger printer, like the Prusa XL. Bambu recently announced the launch of the H2S, which caters to that first group. And in a big surprise this morning, Bambu Lab just announced the H2C that should please the toolchanger fans.
The H2x models
The Bambu Lab H2D is a dual-nozzle 3D printer and you can read our review of that machine here. Thanks to that second nozzle, the H2D can swap between filaments quickly and that lowers overall multi-material print times. But it still requires purging and the notorious “pooping,” which many users see as wasteful.
The Bambu Lab H2S is a single-nozzle 3D printer and essentially an X1C, but bigger. It does include most of the features of the H2D, but omits the second nozzle. Like every other Bambu Lab 3D printer equipped with an AMS, it requires purging and pooping.
The Bambu Lab H2C that was just announced is a complete departure from that model and has most of the advantages of a toolchanger 3D printer, while circumventing many of the disadvantages.
Toolchanger vs. hotend-changer
In the world of 3D printing, the “tool” in “toolchanger” refers to a complete hotend and extruder assembly toolhead, including the extruder motor. The printer can swap those toolheads quickly, but each assembly is expensive and requires its own cables and PTFE tube. That is why machines like the Prusa XL are expensive once you add all of the toolheads.
The Bambu H2C is not a toolchanger, but rather a “hotend-changer” and Bambu is calling that the Vortek system. Instead of swapping the entire hotend and extruder assembly, the H2C swaps just the hot end. That eliminates the wasteful poop, while keeping costs reasonable and, presumably, improving material swap speed. The hotends are also small, so several of them (up to seven) are available. Combined with the usual AMS swapping, a single print job can have up to 24 colors/materials — though going over seven will require pooping.
H2C dual nozzles
But the H2C is still a dual-nozzle printer like the H2D. The left nozzle isn’t part of the hotend-changer system. It moves up and down during print jobs to avoid dragging and is the “lifting nozzle.” The right nozzle is the hotend-changer and can accept one of the six waiting hotends. That’s how you get that total of seven hotends — one on the left, six on the right.
This is a novel system and we haven’t seen anything like it before. Bambu Lab may have developed this to get around existing toolchanger patents, but that is just speculation. Regardless, the cost benefits compared to a toolchanger are real.
Vortek system challenges
However, getting this Vortek system to work wasn’t a simple task. A typical hotend needs electrical connections for the heater cartridge and thermistor. Bambu needed a way to reliably plug and unplug those connections many thousands of times for the idea to be viable. They also needed to ensure that the bottom of the hotend nozzle is always set to exactly the right height after every swap.
They addressed the first challenge by eliminating the electrical connections altogether. Instead of a heater cartridge, the Vortek system relies on induction heating of the hotend and that doesn’t require wires. Bambu says the induction heating can bring a hotend to temperature in just eight seconds. To get temperature data, Vortek communicates with a chip embedded in the hotend assembly wirelessly. That appears to work like NFC (Near-Field Communication), so the chip in the hotend doesn’t need its own power source.
For nozzle offset after a swap, the H2C appears to use a system similar to the H2D. Tight manufacturing tolerances keep the hotends consistent, then tool height detection fine-tunes the offset. Combined with the lifting left nozzle, that should prevent any Z-height-related issues.
Availability
This is breaking news and we don’t yet have any information on the price of the H2C, but Bambu Lab has said that they expect this new model to start shipping by the end of the year. They have also said that there will be an upgrade kit available for H2D and H2S owners to convert their printers into an H2C with the Vortek system.
