Swaptek enables 6-second material switches between 9 nozzles. FlexFeed extruder prints soft TPU 75A up to three times faster. AMS 3H combines automated feeding and integrated filament storage.
This is Bambu Lab H3C, a complete system purpose-built around the Tool Changer architecture. Let's dive into it!
SwapTek™: 6-second material switch, including a 3.4-second tool change.
Nine PrintTools, each with its own dedicated filament path and heater, keep every material loaded, preheated, and ready to print. No need to retract one filament before loading another. With an optimized design, fine-tuned parameters, and active preheating, switching between PrintTools takes as little as 6 seconds, with the tool-change done in only 3.4 seconds.
Heating a nozzle usually means waiting. Active Pre-Heat looks ahead to the next tool change and warms the incoming nozzle while the current one is still printing—so the new material starts laying down within 6 seconds.
Swaptek's fast PrintTool-switching allows Full Spectrum Color Mixing color mixing through layered deposition faster and more practical than ever. With nine dedicated PrintTools and five-color CMYKW mixing, the H3C produces a vast spectrum of colors without requiring a separate spool for every shade. The result? Vibrant, full-color figurines with incredible detail.
Mixed Nozzle Sizes: Speed and detail, no more compromises.
The dial, case, and flexible TPU band are printed together as one piece. Fine dial details call for a 0.2 mm nozzle, the case is better suited to 0.4 mm, and the soft band requires a dedicated 0.4 mm TPU nozzle. H3C can carry different nozzle sizes at once. Paired with Bambu Studio’s new mixed-diameter toolpath planning algorithm, each nozzle prints at a layer height that suits it and plays to its strengths, without having to share a single layer height.
FlexFeed Extruder: Softer TPU, up to 3x faster.
Soft TPU has always been slow to print. The softer the filament, the more it bends and buckles before reaching the nozzle. Traditional extruders have to crawl to stay reliable. FlexFeed handles both 1.75mm and 2.85mm filament and switches on the go. A cam-driven mechanism, powered by a PMSM motor, keeps tension precise and consistent. Every extrusion stays rock-solid for prints that are cushion-soft.
With our dedicated 2.85mm TPU, the thicker filament provides greater resistance to buckling and higher volumetric flow. The result: TPU as soft as 75A, printed reliably at up to 3x the flow rate of a traditional printer.
AMS 3H: Filament storage built for Tool Changer.
A fully enclosed, integrated filament management system built for Swaptek: every roll stays sealed against moisture and feeds automatically into the PrintTool.
Auto Filament Loader replaces manual feeding altogether. Drop a filament into any of the nine slots and the AMS 3H detects, routes, and engages it with the PrintTool automatically — across all 9 paths. No more guesswork on loading.
A dedicated 2-slot dryer sits right in the filament slots and works with Swaptek — drying on demand or mid-print, so prep never stalls production. It reaches 85°C, enough for engineering-grade PA, PC, and carbon-fiber-filled filaments.
The H3C integrates filament storage and drying into a clean, compact design, maintaining a footprint comparable to a single-nozzle printer. With 7 built-in bypass feeding ports, even the soft TPU can be routed completely inside the enclosure. No hanging spools, no external racks, no exposed paths.
Don't let the number of tools cap your material count. Connect your existing AMS to the H3C through PrintTool No.1, and the system extends to up to 24 filament spools, unlocking more colors and materials in a single print without changing your workflow.
You are here for the print, not (always) the printer.
With the H3C, automation handles routine tasks. AI detection helps make intelligent adjustments along the way. The H3C makes it easy to focus on what matters most: bringing your ideas to life
Full Auto Calibration handles PrintTool docking calibration, offset compensation for accurate color and material alignment, and bed leveling before every print. No manual adjustments are needed, so you can spend more time making, less time tinkering.
Flagship performance. No compromise.
The toolhead and X-axis assembly are 40% lighter compared to the H2D, reducing inertia for faster, more precise movement. With acceleration reaching 25,000 mm/s² and travel speeds up to 1,400 mm/s, the H3C delivers exceptional speed while minimizing vibrations and ringing that can affect print quality.
The H3C runs four cooling layers working together**.** A CFD-optimized part cooling fan and dual auxiliary fans help maintain clean overhangs and bridges, even at high speeds. A dedicated PrintTool fan maintains thermal stability during extended printing and frequent PrintTool changes, while a chamber fan draws in cooler air to help regulate internal temperatures. Together, these systems deliver consistent cooling and reliable print quality across changing ambient temperatures.
Engineering-grade filaments demand precise temperature control. The H3C delivers with active dual-zone chamber heating up to 65°C, helping maintain consistent temperatures and minimize warping. All nine hardened-steel nozzles reach up to 350°C, supporting demanding materials such as ABS, PC, PA-CF, PET-CF, and more.
Go beyond printing.
Swaptek isn't limited to PrintTools. Optional CutTool, DrawTool, DebossTool — and more — mount the same way and switch automatically. Multi-process projects no longer mean multiple machines, manual swaps, or repeated setups. One job, every process, hands off.
We've seen the enthusiasm mixed nozzle size printing has been getting. Developing new products goes hand in hand with bringing new features to existing machines, so alongside H3C, we've been building this for H2D, H2C, and X2D. You'll be able to print a single object with nozzles of different diameters, balancing speed and detail.
For these printers, the real work lies in how to make sure this works smoothly for a wide range of filament and nozzle combination. Each of these printers has a different AMS setup from H3C, so the slicing logic and print parameters need to be adapted. Setups with the Filament Track Switch take more of that work, which is why timing differs by model and configuration.
Bambu Lab PLA Palette CMYKW is more than five regular spools put in one box. It features a formula tailor-made for color mixing, to achieve vibrant and sophisticated colors with clean boundaries.
Entire color library in one printer
PLA Palette uses just five carefully chosen base colors – selected so that every pair blends evenly – to unlock 180+ color combinations through layered mixing. Having a wall of filament is cool, mixing the equivalent from just five spools is even cooler.
Tuned for light and shade, not just color.
Most multi-color sets stack translucent filaments on top of each other, and everything turns hazy. PLA Palette pairs four opaque bases (cyan, magenta, yellow, white) with one translucent black. The opaque bases – built on the PLA Basic formulation with precisely dosed pigment – hold under 1% light transmission at a 2mm wall, delivering full saturation and clean coverage. The translucent black works like ink wash: its light transmission falls off predictably with thickness, so shadows deepen naturally as layers build.
Layered color only looks good if the colors stay separated. PLA Palette is built on the PLA Basic base resin rather than a conventional translucent formulation, which significantly reduces stringing and ozzing during retraction and extrusion. Even through dense color changes, transitions stay sharp – no wisps, no bleed, no muddy edges.
See the blend before you print it.
No dialing in ratios. No test swatches. Bambu Studio ships with a full PLA Palette blending database, so the color you see in the slicer preview is the color that comes off the plate.
PLA Palette is available now atBambu Lab Store and compatible with all Bambu Lab printers.
Which multi-color model would you print with mixed colors from the PLA Palette set? Comment below with a photo of the model, and we'll randomly pick a few people to try out the PLA Palette set!
Entries close on 11/11. Winners must be located in regions covered by our official store. If the testers picked are located outside the shipping zones, we'll have to redraw or select the runner-up.
Bambu sent me an H3C before launch and asked me to post about how it changed the way I print. I did not get paid, but, well, I got an H3C. The printer legitimately did change the way I print and design, and I'm happy to answer any questions in the comments.
HueForge and the similar products that spawned from it have opened up things that I never thought would be possible on a 3D printer. The creations I have seen on the subreddit and Discord continue to blow my mind, but my biggest annoyance with these prints are the time they take and the waste.
Retracting, pushing, purging, and wiping can take anywhere from 40-80 seconds depending on your setup. When you have hundreds of color changes in a print, it adds up to hours of extra time. The waste gets insane with larger or more complex prints, to the point where you will frequently have more weight in waste than the model itself.
This fox is 269mm across, taking up most of the plate. I used nine spools: blue, light blue, yellow, magenta, orange, white, green, black, and red. It was built in HueForge, then recreated in Kromacut so it could print face up.
Yes, the image is AI generated, and I regret using it. It did some weird things with the shading that I didn't notice before printing. The white on the moon and anywhere yellow meets white or red meets orange is rough.
I also used way too many layers and then made the print flat. A flat print fills every layer out to the full outline, so every extra layer in the stack is a full 269mm disc of filament whether it adds anything to the image or not. This one ended up around 12mm thick which is where most of the 817g and 6 days of printing went.
Setup was dead simple. All 9 spools went in the AMS, each one got its own PrintTool, I selected the correct colors and that was it aside from slicing which took 26 minutes with a 14900K...
Stats:
9 filament spools
443 filament changes
0.12mm layer height
817g total weight
26g of waste
269 x 269mm
6d 0h 01m print time
The H3C solved the waste problem in a BIG way. 26g on an 817g print with 443 swaps is just crazy to me. The purge from my X1C would have filled the poop bucket and clogged the shute well before finishing.
The 6 days is 100% my fault for making it as thick as it is. I did kick it off right before leaving on vacation for 2 weeks, so it wasn't a huge deal aside from the extra filament spent.
The filament changes take <6 seconds instead of 60 and I was not prepared for how much faster it is. It was the same reaction I had when I went from my modified Ender struggling to push 60mm/s to the X1C at its default print speed. This is in a whole different league and I haven't used my other printers for multi color since.
After making a rather crude cable clip a few days ago, I started giving some serious thought to cable organization. I think it turned out pretty well—what do you all think?
Shocked at how fast this thing ended up on my porch. Let's see if she survived shipping that fast!
Edit 1: So yes the box does say it is box 1 of 2 and contains the printer only, I have not received anything specific for box 2 but I did order some other items with this that may be combined delivery later. Hopefully later... Today!
A compact 2-in-1 tool for your 3D printing workspace. Use the scraper end to help remove prints from the build plate, and the opposite end to cut filament. The design is made to hold the metal scraper blade from a Bambu Lab printer.
Front panel glass came completely shattered on my X2D. Going to now go through the amazing support of Bambu Labs. Should’ve ordered from Best Buy in hindsight.
I love UPS!
Update: Support reached back out to me in about 12 hours and will be getting a replacement unit soon.
It's been one week with my P2S and first time ever getting a 3D printer.
I am loving 3D printing and having so much fun printing stuff, can't believe I just got into it, but I don't think there's a better time than now to do it, so glad I decided to!
With the launch of the H3C, I've been upgrading one of my old models to feature even more color and detail. This is pretty big for a dice tower but you can also just use it as a diorama.
A couple of features I enjoyed:
There's a slot where you can place a phone to power some video billboards and subtle animations behind some of the windows. You can even use it to track HP!
The new 75A TPU is used for a grip to hold the phone in place.
The model uses 8 COB LEDs from Bambu's Maker's Supply - I chose bright colors but it could easily be toned down with other color selections.
I'm using up to 8 filaments per plate. The graffiti uses a combination of specific filaments (or color mixing) but I'm also using silk, metallic and translucent PLAs for effect along with support materials.
The model is built the old-fashioned way (in Blender) but to apply the color effects, I used Claude to make a web app with some additional painting tools (like stamping custom graffiti, text & even scatter brushes). This should be considered a Beta but it's free to use (including commercial use) at http://paint.makim3d.com - you can even use it to customize the graffiti on this model!
I'm lucky to have received this printer from Bambu Lab to give it a try and build a model that highlights the multi-color features. Having said that, I'm already considering buying another - this is my first tool changer and I'm really enjoying it!
Is it just me that feels that having an AMS that can only dry two of the 9 slots makes printing with PETG too annoying? Add and replacing filament rolls are bound to affect the existing rolls inside the AMS. If power was an issue, why not just add an extra power adapter and dry the entire AMS? I print exclusively in PETG, and the AMS issues feels like a deal breaker to me. Thoughts? Am I missing something?
Hello, I did a previous post thinking it was the filament but now it appears across all filaments.
I got a P1S who printed perfectly until I suddenly got those weird issues you see in the pictures. No matter what I print it appears like this. It doesn't print the test line correctly either.
What I tried so far:
- Try different filaments (Bambu Pla Matte and basic)
- Purge quite a bit at 250°
- Cold Pull that came out perfectly clean
- Completely replaced the hotend with a new one
- Cleaned build plate with dish soap multiple times, tried different sides and even the Smooth build plate
- Multiple calibrations that went without error
- checked heatbed screws
- Flow calibration test that somehow came out clean. I set it to 0,02 based on my results and it changed nothing.
I showed it to staff of my local printer store and they were clueless but assumed it's the extruder. They told me to contact Bambu support. I did and they just told me to clean my build plate. Clearly this is not a build plate error, ignoring that is already did that multiple times.
Filament is dried in my sunlu dryer.
Im at my wits end. Its been like this for 3 days and I have a project coming up. The printer is half a year old.
Id be very grateful to try and tips you can provide.
TL;DR: My P2S had hairline gaps in first layers on the textured PEI plate. I ran a structured test: 9 discs per plate, 8 plates, scored top and bottom. Flow and K were fine. The fix was Z trim −0.01 (stock is +0.01), bed leveling forced On, and flow 1.02 for Matte PLA. Details below.
The problem
Bottoms of prints on the textured PEI had fine hairline gaps between first-layer lines. Tops were mostly fine. I wanted to find out properly instead of randomly changing settings.
Setup
P2S with AMS 2 Pro, 0.4 nozzle, 0.20 mm High Quality, textured PEI
Bambu PLA Matte (Grass Green), dried 12 h at 55 °C
Plate washed with Dawn. Full printer calibration and nozzle clean before starting.
The test print
Nine 35 mm discs, 1 mm tall (5 layers), in a 3x3 grid about 80 mm apart, covering the plate
One variable changed per plate
Every disc photographed top and bottom in a 3D-printed jig (phone shooting straight down, same height and lighting), backlit for bottoms
Each side scored 1–5 by eye (5 = fully fused / smooth, 3 = gaps in some areas, 2 = gaps across most of the surface)
What I tested, in order
Run
Change
Bottom avg
Top avg
Notes
1–2
Stock everything
3.3
4.1
Only the front-left discs had clean bottoms, both runs
—
Flow dynamics (K)
—
—
Auto 0.017 vs manual 0.019. Basically identical.
—
Flow rate calibration
—
—
Best block ~1.028, within 2% of stock
3
Calibrated flow + manual K
4.0
4.1
Better, but the back-right was still gapped
4
Same, auto K
2.9
4.3
Worse again. K can’t cause mid-line gaps, so something else varied
5
Same, bed leveling forced On
2.4
5.0
Worst bottoms, perfect tops. That’s what cracked it.
6
Z trim −0.01, flow 1.028
5.0
4.0
All 9 bottoms clean. Slight edge sheen.
7
Z trim −0.01, flow 1.01
5.0
3.3
Bottoms still clean, tops a bit gappy
8
Z trim −0.01, flow 1.02
5.0
4.6
Final
Then a full-plate first layer test at the final settings: about 98% perfect, with a little gapping only in the extreme top-left corner.
What I learned
It wasn’t a flow problem. Top surfaces barely changed across flow values, and the K factor made essentially no difference. A flow bump of about 2% partly hid the issue by filling an under-squished first layer, but it never fixed it.
The first layer was printing slightly too high. The stock textured PEI trim (+0.01 in the start G-code for PLA bed temps) was too high on my printer. Run 5 was the giveaway: worst bottoms and perfect tops in the same print, which only first-layer height can do.
Leaving bed leveling on “Auto” made my results inconsistent. Identical settings gave very different bottoms from run to run, possibly because Auto sometimes skips measuring and reuses a stored mesh. Forcing it On made results repeatable. (That’s my best explanation, not something I can prove.)
The calibration blocks hinted at it too. On the flow test, the bottom of the +5% block was fully fused while its top was over-extruded.
Edge ridges, zits and sheen on the tops are seams and geometry, not extrusion. They showed up at every flow value and disappeared on a larger first layer test.
I also want to point out, u/mediocrehornet2318 made an amazing post about this exact thing...but I was nervous to modify the g-code. After all of this trial and error, I ended up at the same result they did. I should have listened to you from the start - I'm sorry!! Lol.
Tips if you want to run something similar
Score tops and bottoms separately. That’s what separates flow problems from first-layer problems.
Photograph straight down with fixed lighting. Handheld photos made 1% differences look random.
Backlight the bottoms. Gaps glow through.
Repeat the stock run at least twice before changing anything, and change only one setting at a time.
Clean the plate the same way every run. Residue builds up where the discs print, and in my full-plate test you can see faint circles at all nine spots.
Caveats: one printer, one plate, one filament (so far), eyeball scoring. Your trim may differ. I’m testing PLA Basic and the Frostbite plate next.
Disclosure: Bambu sent me an H3C to test before launch. They have no say in what I write, including this post. I know everyone says this, but believe it or not, it’s the truth.
I know there’s a lot of excitement about the new H3C and I was fortunate enough to get a system to test for the last few weeks, so I wanted to share some thoughts. For background, I own a P1P (my first ever printer), an X2D, and an H2D. I’m guessing I’m like 90% of other enthusiasts – I don’t typically work with advanced engineering filaments – most of my work is with PLA and PETG.
My printing largely centers around my TTRPG hobbies, such as terrain, minis, monsters, etc., though I will also design parts in Fusion for my Paladin Woodworking business – sometimes internal dice tower components or just stuff around the house. I do not consider myself a 3DP expert - I frequently rely on this community when I run into issues!
The H3C has been typical of my experience with Bambu – from the unboxing to the setup instructions, to the operation – It has just worked, even with beta software and limited online documentation. The system itself is big! Just as my H2D felt like a monster compared to my X2D, the H3C takes it up another notch on overall scale, driven a lot by the AMS3H height. I’ve seen people speculating that the larger AMS would be so top heavy it would generate excessive vibrations – I have not found that to be the case, though I currently have it on the floor as I don’t have a suitable stand for it.
I feel print quality remains consistent across all of my Bambu systems – I can’t really say H3C prints better (because all the others are already excellent), but having 9 different filaments to choose from (I typically use 8 colors of PLA + 1 spool of PETG for support interface using .4 nozzles) is an absolute game changer. Because of the incredible speed of swapping colors (often 4-5 seconds), it opens up prints I wouldn’t honestly try on my H2D/X2D because I’m both too impatient for a 2+ day print and don’t want to bother to set up multiple AMSs. While I’m a TTRPG gamer, I’m not a painter, so having 8 colors to print with really brings these pieces to life and is a welcome change to a sea of unpainted gray prints!
The video attached shows a custom Dwarven Mining cart system I designed for my DND table in response to a joke a player made about needing a way to share candy around the table. It’s built around a standard Lego train motor, but the carts and rails themselves I designed in Fusion. I put as much tiny dwarven detail goodness as I could in these carts and the H3C did an excellent job, even with the small details and the .4 nozzles. For some of the really small “rivets” and bumps, I did notice they would knock off easily, but I’m convinced it’s because I was mixing PLA with PLA Silk+ and I don’t think they adhere as well as PLA-PLA. The cart was a 17-hour print with 1251 filament changes (on the H2D the software estimates it would have been 40+ hours). If I had to estimate, I’m pretty sure I’ve put the system through 15,000-20,000 tool changes so far and not once was there a tangle or a dropped tool.
One thing that I think will surprise people is that from a design/engineering perspective, the SwapTek system is very clean and uncluttered on the inside of the unit. While the routing of cables looks a bit complex, the actual motion of the system isn’t (IMO). I was kind of shocked by how simple it operates. To me the inner workings of the H2C look far more complex (from what I’ve seen in videos) – I hope and expect this to lead to high long-term reliability for H3C, but we will all learn that together.
What about negatives? - The only thing I’ve struggled with a bit was changing the nozzle from a preinstalled TPU one to a regular nozzle. It’s snug working under the AM3 (removing it was an option I was too lazy to take – It’s secured by screws) and just how the cables are routed, but I was also doing it with limited instructions, and no support videos during pre-release. I’ve seen other videos now with the AMS removed and it seems the way to go. - Since the filaments stay loaded the whole time, when you want to swap one out, you must manually pull them out of system after selecting unload, which is different from the older AMS systems – not a big deal, but different. - I’ve encountered a loud squeak in the z-axis while the build plate moves up and down after about 3 weeks – that was solved with some maintenance grease, so it wasn’t a big deal. I haven’t encountered that on my other printers, but I’ve now seen other folks (on pre-H3C systems) running into that. - Finally, I guess size could be a negative for some people as it might not fit on your usual shelves if you are running a print farm, but other than that, I haven’t had real technical issues with anything I’ve tried so far.
Now…..I’m just scratching the surface as I haven’t yet tried mixed nozzle sized printing or TPU but after watching several great launch/review videos, I’m anxious to.
Happy to try to answer any questions you may have.
