Up and Coming 3D Printer Designers Raise the Bar
A new 3D printer manufacturer has recently sent out production stage units to reviewers to find bugs and make suggestions on its 3D printer, the Carbon X1. It is a machine jam-packed with exciting features making it the most advanced consumer-grade 3D printer on the market. It is currently still on Kickstarter, with products scheduled to ship in July 2022. To learn more about Bambu Lab and see their other products, click here.
The Hardware
The Carbon X1 uses 3 Lead screws for sturdy and exact movement in the vertical direction. It also has a Core XY system to control the x and y axis movements. It has a full metal hot end and is fully enclosed with an active carbon air filter, so it can safely print any filament. It uses LiDAR to establish perfect bed leveling. The LiDAR sensor also actively scans the filament as it's printing and can adjustments to the print settings while printing in order to eliminate ghosting and other artifacts. The print bed is a magnetic build sheet with a unique build surface on each side so that any material can adhere to the bed. It has a multitude of sensors, such as a built-in camera to remotely monitor your prints, as well as a thermistor and vibration sensors to establish active vibration compensation.
It has a 7-inch HD touch screen display used to select prints and change print settings. The UI seems to be intuitive, and easy to use. Print selection can be made on the touch screen with an SD card slot for local printing or can be printed over wifi on the Bambu Lab Cloud.
It uses the hardware and sensor suite to have 4 different print settings, including a silent setting for perfect fidelity, and a LUDACRIS setting that can print a Benchy (benchmark print) in an astounding 14 minutes.
Bambu Lab is also selling a module that can be loaded on top of the printer, which can integrate 4 different materials in a single print. They call it the AMS, and it is equipped with RFID sensors to detect the filament sold by Bambu Lab, and apply settings tailored to that material. It is equipped with a built-in scale to determine exactly how much material is still on the spool. If you don’t want to use Bambu Lab filament, no worries; The AMS system will still fit standard-sized filament spools.
The Software
The hardware is still in development, with multiple reviewers showing minor complaints, all of which are being worked on by Bambu Lab. It uses a proprietary slicer program to take a 3d module and make instructions for the printer. The slicer is somewhat basic, with more experienced 3D printer enthusiasts wishing it had more print settings available. It also has a mobile app that can be used to slice, monitor, and print from the cloud. The app is incredibly handy for watching your print on the go or starting a print from anywhere. The main complaint reviewers had was an unusually long upload time when slicing prints remotely over wifi, but Bambu Lab claims this time will be reduced when they have more cloud servers up and running in their offices in the states.
Pricing
The Base X1 Carbon will retail for $999 U.S.
The Base X1 Carbon with 4 Filament AMS System will retail for $1,449 U.S.
The Verdict
As a disclaimer, printers on Kickstarter have had a nasty track record of canceled products that were never delivered, so backer beware. However, the units passed along to reviewers were production models, which will have no hardware changed compared to the units that will be sold in July. If you wish to back their Kickstarter campaign, click here.
This is the most advanced, fastest, and easiest to use 3D printer I have ever seen on a consumer market. With the prices listed, if I didn’t see it for myself, I would say it is almost too good to be true. I will continue following Bambu Lab with great excitement.
If this printer can successfully do what it claims, this will lower the barrier to entry for new 3D printer enthusiasts, by providing the fastest and most reliable Consumer grade 3D printer I have ever seen.
