Bambu Lab:
We hope you're as excited as we are about the H2S launch.
After all, the H2S is more like the product everyone has been hoping for over the past three years; essentially, a larger X1C.
But this launch also presents us with a tricky question: should we let everyone know that we will be launching another H2 series product, the H2C, before the end of the year?
If we announce it now, it will certainly hurt sales of the H2D and H2S and impact the company's revenue, because the H2C hasn't even reached our warehouse yet, and news of a new model might make people hesitate to buy now.
On the other hand, if we don't mention the H2C at all, many people might regret buying the H2D or H2S later.
This is really a difficult choice.
Ultimately, we decided to go ahead and share the existence of the H2C with everyone and tell the story behind this product.
Let's return to the original question: Why do 3D printers "poop"?
Simply put, residual melted material needs to be purged from the nozzle.
When you try to print different colors with one nozzle, it's essentially like painting with only one brush.
Each time you change colors, you need to clean the brush to prevent the old paint from contaminating the new.
The same goes for 3D printing: the nozzle must be purged before changing materials.
So, what if we could eliminate that tedious cleaning step?
In painting, you could choose to use several different brushes, each dedicated to one color.
But on a printer, what constitutes the "brush"? Is it the entire frame? The toolhead? The hotend assembly? Or just the nozzle itself? Each option has its pros and cons—which is precisely why this competition is so fascinating.
Contamination occurs only at the nozzle, but the nozzle doesn't work alone.
The nozzle requires motion systems, material feeding, heating, and temperature sensing, all of which need to be connected to the 3D printer.
Disconnecting and reconnecting these systems when changing nozzles is a reliability nightmare.
The more components replaced as a whole, the higher the connection reliability—but this leads to a larger footprint and higher cost.
The fewer components replaced, the lower the cost and smaller the volume, but the harder it is to ensure reliability.
Ultimately, there's always a trade-off between reliability and cost versus footprint.
Here's a quick overview of the various trade-off options:
Option A: Replace the entire gantry. Simple and direct, no need to worry about connection reliability.
Disadvantage: Each nozzle requires a complete gantry, leading to high cost and large volume. This is the IDEX solution on the market, usually limited to two nozzles.
Option B: Only replace the toolhead, but share the same motion system.
This saves cost and space, but now you need to deal with mechanical connectors between the gantry and the toolhead carriage.
Toolheads are still heavy, so not too many can be mounted.
This is the "tool changer" solution, found in products from E3D, Prusa, and later Snapmaker.
Option C: Only replace the hotend assembly. This way, hotends can share the motion system, extruder, and cooling system, saving even more space and cost.
But then you still face the challenge of connecting all the power and signal wires for heating and temperature sensing.
Pogo pin connectors might work in demonstrations, but ensuring their reliable operation over millions of cycles is another matter.
Option D: The simplest idea. If you trust the thermal conductivity at the interface, you can heat and measure the temperature from the toolhead side, like with an A1 nozzle.
This way, you only need to replace the bare nozzle and heatsink. The challenge is ensuring consistent thermal conductivity, especially when nozzle changes occur thousands of times more frequently than on an A1.
We could continue with Plan E, Plan F, and even further, but let's stop here.
In 2023, we decided that Plan C was the best option—striking the right balance between reliability and footprint—as long as we could solve the wiring connection problem.
Our secret? Ditch mechanical connectors for wireless ones.
Inductive heating can already wirelessly heat the nozzle, but heating alone isn't enough; we also need to measure the temperature.
Our solution is to design a custom microcircuit in the hotend to receive power, measure temperature, and communicate wirelessly with the toolhead.
While this might not sound new on paper, making it robust, reliable, and certifiable requires extensive engineering and expertise.
Ultimately, this integrated approach allowed us to miniaturize the hotend assembly to just four parts: the nozzle, thermal insulator, thermistor, and a compact PCB.
All of this weighs only 10 grams and measures 20 × 15 × 56 mm.
Wireless heating and communication solved a major problem, but precisely positioning the nozzles is another challenge.
Simply switching nozzles isn't enough—they must land with micron-level precision every time on every printer we deliver.
Otherwise, your prints will have defects and scratches.
Achieving this requires highly repeatable mechanical structures, or a fast and precise measurement system, or both.
Then there's the software. Embedded firmware, slicer integration, user interface—all of it.
Customers often underestimate the importance of software, and to be honest, so did we at first.
That's why even though the hardware design was finalized months ago, we're still not ready to ship.
The reality of product development is staring at a pile of finished printers waiting for software refinement and asking yourself, "Should we launch now, or wait?"
However, after three years of R&D, we finally have confidence. We will be ready to launch the H2C by the end of 2025.
Before we conclude, we know many people will ask one last question:
Can I upgrade my H2D to an H2C?
The answer is yes—but it does require some skill, patience, a willingness to meticulously follow instructions, and a few hours of your time.
It's definitely more complex than changing a clogged nozzle, and we don't encourage entry-level customers to do it.
Can I upgrade my H2S to an H2C?
Theoretically, yes, but we are publishing this blog to ensure you don't waste time and budget on it.
👉To learn more about Bambu Lab products, please visit our product page!
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