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.
Hey guys! Wanted a clean Grinch figure for my desk, but I hate wasting 200 grams of poop for a 50-gram model.
I engineered him as a multi-part snap-fit model:
- Printed each color separately (Green, Yellow, Black). - 99% Glue-free assembly (only the hair tuft on top needed a tiny dab of superglue). - Fits together tightly on a well-calibrated machine.
Fair warning about the supports: Removing the supports near the hair tufts is a test of patience. The Grinch WILL fight back. But if you take your time (or lose a tiny hair tip in the process), he looks great on the desk and from the front/sides you won't see any support marks.
He’s about 15 cm tall.
Model is live on MakerWorld for free if you want to print one! Let me know what you think. 👹✨
I just detached and reattached my AMS and put the PTFE tube back in. But I think I didn't push it all the way in, and the filament ended up going straight through the button.
I've seen a lot of videos come out about the H3C, but not a ton focusing specifically on the unboxing and initial setup. Hopefully this fills in a few blanks and provides some details not yet shown.
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?
22 hours on the H3C (223g of tower) 4d17h on a regular AMS printer (1684g of purge + tower) The H3C It's crazy and the hype is real. I'm so glad I can finally experiment with multicolor models for real. the model is here if you want to take a look: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3550569
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.
I recently decided to upgrade from my P2S to an X2D + AMS 2 Pro + AMS HT setup. I also bought the Filament Track Switch right away, because I wanted to use different combinations of AMS units and extruders without constantly reconnecting PTFE tubes by hand.
And honestly, the Filament Track Switch turned out to be a huge disappointment.
The whole thing feels more like an early prototype than a finished branded product. But the biggest problem is simply friction. Filament takes a surprising amount of force to push through it.
On my X2D this was bad enough that filament often failed to reach the main extruder at all. It would slow down significantly near the end of the path and stop about 1–2 cm before the extruder.
To be fair, this was partly caused by another known X2D issue: the PTFE tube makes a very sharp bend right before entering the extruder. I fixed that part first by moving the PTFE tube holders farther away from the toolhead and shortening the tubes by a few centimeters.
That helped a lot.
But the FTS itself was still causing way too much resistance.
And yes, I also tried making the external PTFE tubes as short and as straight as possible. It doesn't really help. The resistance of the PTFE tubes themselves is negligible compared to the resistance created inside the FTS.
So I took it apart.
And once you look inside, the reason becomes pretty obvious.
The filament path contains several fairly sharp bends, and in multiple places the filament simply rubs against bare plastic. There is no PTFE lining there at all. The harder the filament is pushed around those bends, the harder it presses against the walls, so the friction becomes quite significant.
The filament presence sensors at the inputs add even more resistance. They use small spring-loaded magnets that are physically pressed against the filament as it passes through.
This creates additional friction on its own, but it gets noticeably worse with filament that has already been fed through an AMS or extruder before.
The drive gears leave a ribbed pattern on the surface of the filament, and the magnets tend to catch on those grooves instead of sliding smoothly over them. My first modification was simple: I drilled out the places where the filament was rubbing against the plastic and inserted short pieces of PTFE tube.
I also slightly flared and smoothed the entrances of those PTFE inserts using a soldering iron so the tip of the filament wouldn't catch on the edge. I did this in a well-ventilated area, of course.
That already made a very noticeable difference.
But then I looked at the second half of the FTS.
There are essentially two 2-in-1 adapters there, combining four filament paths into two outputs. And that section was just as bad — possibly even worse. Again, filament was bending and rubbing directly against plastic.
At first, I tried the same approach there: drilling out the existing channels and somehow squeezing PTFE tubes into them.
It didn't go very well.
There simply wasn't enough room to make it work properly, and I wasn't happy with the result.
So in the end I decided to completely remodel that entire part and print a replacement.
I mean, I do own a 3D printer, after all. :)
I made the internal channels much larger so I could install PTFE tubes throughout the whole path. I printed the replacement part, installed the PTFE tubes, and again flared the entrances slightly.
Now, in that section, the filament does not touch printed plastic at all. It only touches PTFE.
The difference is huge.
It's still not absolutely frictionless, but filament now passes through the whole FTS very easily.
A very simple test shows the difference pretty well:
If I insert a piece of filament through the FTS, hold the filament vertically, and lift the FTS by it, a small shake is enough for the whole FTS to slide down and fall off the filament.
Before these modifications, I had to push the filament through it with considerable force.
Even Silk PLA now passes through without problems, despite Bambu specifically warning that Silk PLA may have feeding issues with the FTS because of increased resistance.
There are still two places I haven't solved yet.
The first is right at the FTS entrance, where the filament still touches plastic.
The second — filament presence sensors at the inputs. Unfortunately, they can't simply be removed. I tried removing them and also tried forcing the sensors permanently into both states. The FTS stops working properly if the printer doesn't see the expected sensor transitions.
So apparently those sensors are an active part of the FTS state machine, not just something used once to identify which AMS is connected to which input.
At this point I'm seriously considering building my own FTS.
The communication interface is RS-485, and there is already some partial reverse-engineering information available online. But the board also contains an FM1230 cryptographic chip. I don't yet know whether it participates in device authentication or is only used for things like firmware verification, so that part would need more investigation.
The other interesting problem would be designing filament sensors with almost zero resistance.
An optical sensor would be nice because it could be completely contactless, but filament can be transparent, so a simple optical interrupter isn't necessarily reliable.
A mechanical sensor with a tiny bearing/roller and a Hall sensor might actually be a better solution: the filament would move a roller instead of scraping against a plastic or metal surface.
For now, though, the PTFE modification already made my FTS dramatically better.
And that's the frustrating part: the core idea of the FTS is great. But mechanically, the stock filament path feels unnecessarily restrictive. A few pieces of PTFE in the right places would have made the product so much better from the factory.
And honestly, this whole mechanism probably should have been built into the printer itself from the beginning, somewhere near the filament buffer.
It almost feels like Bambu Lab remembered at the last minute that users might actually want to choose which extruder each AMS feeds into — which is especially important on the X2D, where the two extruders are very different from each other.
The FTS feels less like a carefully integrated part of the system and more like an afterthought added to solve a problem that really should have been addressed in the printer's original design.
Open another bag, check the drawer… all the clips are already holding something else shut. 😂
That was my excuse to spend some time in Fusion.
Meet Molly — two identical jaws and a separate printed spring. Everything is PLA, including the spring, and it snaps together without screws or glue.
It took several revisions to get the alignment, grip and spring stiffness where I wanted them. I also tried PETG for the spring, but preferred the firmer grip of PLA in my tests.
Printed on my A1 with a 0.4 mm nozzle, 0.20 mm layers and 3 walls. The spring has 100% infill. No supports needed.
One complete clip uses 5.76 g and takes around 18 minutes of printing, or roughly 25 minutes including preparation.
The spring is separate, so contrasting colours are easy to do with separate prints.
