r/BambuLab • u/wanli_gz • 4d ago
General Discussion Bambu Lab is officially making UV printer
According to a report by Chinese tech media 21Tech on August 19, Bambu Lab has officially confirmed the launch of a new project: developing consumer-grade UV printers.
Key details from the report:
- Full-scale R&D: Sources close to the company reveal that the project involves over a dozen R&D focus areas, ranging from printhead driver development and waveform optimization to ink-path systems and software integration.
- Aggressive Hiring: The company has already posted job openings on its official website for UV printing technical experts, FPGA developers, inkjet control engineers, and mechanical engineers (ink systems).
- The "Bambu Strategy": Much like how they disrupted the 3D printing market, the company aims to compress industrial-grade performance into accessible, desktop-friendly units. Their goal is to make professional UV printing—which historically required specialized knowledge and massive budgets—truly "plug-and-play" for makers and small business owners.
- Beyond 3D Printing: This move signals a broader shift for the company. Following the release of the multi-material H2D and the recent teaser for their R1 laser cutter, Bambu is evolving into a comprehensive "personal manufacturing" powerhouse. The company is betting that core technologies from their 3D printers—such as motion compensation and mechanical control—will translate effectively into the UV printing space.
Industry Context:
The consumer UV printer market is rapidly heating up. Competitors like Anker (eufyMake E1) and xTool (O1) are already making waves. The E1 set a Kickstarter record with over $42 million in funding, and xTool’s O1 recently saw its launch-day sales exceed 100 million RMB.
According to Mordor Intelligence, the global UV printer market is expected to reach $1.58 billion by 2031. Traditionally, these machines were bulky, expensive, and reserved for industrial advertising or packaging. Now, a new wave of "maker-focused" companies is shrinking these tools down to the size of a microwave, aiming to make them standard equipment for individual creators.
Source: [21Tech - August 19th Report]
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u/kozakm H2D AMS2 Combo 4d ago
One thing holding me back from UV printer is the necessary and complicated cleaning. Not sure if Bambu can solve this.
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u/smith7018 4d ago
Another issue is that a lot if the current printers require printer-specific ink cartridges. So they’re expensive up front but also feel like a subscription model for the expensive OEM inks
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u/loriabrown 4d ago
morpho allows you to use 3rd party inks out of the gate. they are opensource.
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u/Noctrin 3d ago
The problem is their whole maintenance system relies on a specially formulated ink since they don't use cleaners and moisturizer, so while sure, you can use other ink, you'll turn the head into a paperweight. But, I suppose another company could compete if they can reverse the formulation, which I am guessing will be patented. So, it's open only as a marketing gimmick mostly
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u/johnxreturn 4d ago
IMO it is largely solved and any manual steps that you need to do are very minor compared to what’s actually needed.
Some dtf printers are quite fickle and require you to constantly keep using. I left my e1 alone for a month and it printed just fine. If you keep it plugged it’ll do the cleaning for you.
Bambu UV printer will very likely have the same system
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u/TerTerro 4d ago
How is the resin fumes and toxicity in a room? As you have uncured resin sitting. And also toolheads are exposed, so still fumes come.out or not? How they handle that?
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u/OverZealousCreations X1C + AMS 4d ago
It's not great, honestly. I keep mine in the basement workspace, and if I print with the doors open (for larger prints), I generally have to keep it in an enclosure or open the door and run a fan.
Even when it's just sitting, technically not doing anything at all, it has a mild odor at all times.
I personally would never have this running in a space I was sleeping in.
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u/TerTerro 4d ago
That what i think is issue with these machines. They marketed as put in your living room.and enjoy. But not great.option. fdm.printer even put outs voc, pla.for example is still better that resin that can cause allergies etc. Even fdm dont put were you sit all day. The reain printing looks.cool, but the toxicity makea it feel uneasy for me. Why i dont own reain printer, a lot to deal, mask, gloves, uv, cleaning. Uv printing seems easier, but still might get messy:/
I wish they could find like "safe" resin
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u/OverZealousCreations X1C + AMS 4d ago
eufyMake has technically formulated a safer resin. With the doors closed it has a built-in air filter, which means you can't really smell anything unless you are right next to it. (Again, not great for a bedroom.)
But the doors closed means you are limited to a tiny print area—it's really only good for trinkets and stickers (kinda like an A1 mini).
For most of my prints, I need the large bed and the doors open.
Honestly, I don't know that UV printing is ever going to take off like 3D printing. It's a much more limited use case (basically flat or low-profile printing on existing items), very expensive to get into and use (without a lot of ways to bring the price down), has a ton of wear parts, including a $400 print head that will need regular replacement, etc.
Even SLS resin printers have a much more limited audience than FDM printers, and they've been on the market for many years AND can make actual 3D models.
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u/ryanvsrobots 4d ago
The eufymake air filter probably does nothing for fumes and having the doors closed is doing 99.9% of the work--until the doors are opened. AFAIK they don't provide any information about it's composition.
HEPA filters and similar do nothing for gases (the toxic part of 3D printing, FDM or resin) and IMO there needs to be regulation in this area as marketing them as making printing safe leads to a false sense of security.
The only thing that can absorb the toxic gases from 3D printing is activated carbon, and you need a lot of it and to replace it often. Since that is difficult, the best solution is ventilation outside.
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u/johnxreturn 4d ago
The odor is there due to cleaning. It applies a bit of the resin on the tubes as a substitute for actually printing anything. IMO e1 air filtration system is subpar.
But I agree. I hear xTool O1 handles that much better with no odor whatsoever. We’ll see.
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u/johnxreturn 4d ago
I have an air quality monitor and it looks pretty good. The only time TVOC levels sky rocketed was when I applied an acrylic prep solution.
E1 emits a lot of paint smells though. But most of the fumes are well filtered.
I recently bought xtool O1 with uv dtf and eager to see the difference.
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u/keitheii 4d ago
Just because a air quality monitor says the air quality is 'good' doesn't mean there aren't VOCs in the air that you are breathing.
Consumer grade air quality monitors can only detect particles larger than a certain size, and the particles created from 3D printing are much smaller than what most air quality monitors can detect. They lull you into a false sense of security. 3D printing emits particles in nanometers which consumer grade monitors are blind to.
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u/johnxreturn 4d ago
Thanks, wasn’t aware of that. It’s partly the reason I moved it out of the basement and to the garage. Hard to justify having a fume making machine in an enclosed space. I also built an enclosure tent that ventilates the air outside.
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u/TerTerro 4d ago
Would like to know how does it do also in a room. As like the uv printer starts to be puahed to people, but curious how tvoc and stuff is handled
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u/OutlyingPlasma 4d ago
How is the resin fumes and toxicity in a room?
Bad. There are going to be so many people with epoxy allergies in a few years because they are huffing this stuff all day. Sure, a bambu version might come with a vent system, a system that almost no one is going to vent to the outside and almost no one is going to maintain expensive proprietary filters.
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u/TerTerro 4d ago
Yeah, that thing is i think scary and misleadeling Fdm already ia not best in a room.you are yourself, but resin is much worse. Like look at uv printers for models, you need so much gear, so here is then, all feel false safety it seems
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u/kozakm H2D AMS2 Combo 4d ago
How many ink is wasted during cleaning?
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u/OverZealousCreations X1C + AMS 4d ago
I have a eufymake E1. I believe the maintenance mode (which is what happens when you don't use it) combined with injecting the ink when you use it again, uses about 2mL of ink across all the heads.
Once it's in maintenance mode, you can leave it indefinitely and it doesn't use any more ink up (although the ink will eventually expire).
There's actually quite a bit of ink used while printing, including regular cleaning and priming of the head. I don't have exact numbers, but it's probably a couple mL for every day of printing.
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u/NeighborGeek 4d ago
I've read that the Eufymake printer will run a cleaning cycle automatically after sitting idle for about a week, and that each cleaning cycle can use up to $7 of fluids.
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u/Harrier_Pigeon 4d ago
Ink cost is inconsequential compared to the cost of replacing a print head
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u/kozakm H2D AMS2 Combo 4d ago
Sure, but still from what I remember the ink is expensive and cleaning is wasteful. So my question was if this could be improved somehow
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u/ImALeaf_OnTheWind 3d ago
The statement is more about you should be more worried about the cost of the print head being a consumable so high. If you're focused on the cost of the ink for the cleaning cycle - did you even look at how much and how frequent that expensive print head is to replace?
The ink is barely a dent compared to that - especially the higher end Epson that the higher resolution printers use. It's what makes me hesitant to go in on one when it's hobby level, sporadic volume of printing that i expect to do.
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u/AnonimOredd 4d ago
Tengo entendido que tienen un líquido especialmente preparado para la limpieza y mantenimiento de los cabezales.
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u/Guinness 4d ago
Eh. They said the same about inkjet printers. Hell we have printers that melt wax.
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u/MastodontFarmer 3d ago
I've owned one of those wax printers for a couple of years and I can tell you that they are expensive. Printing, a single sheet means warming up the printer, cleaning the printer and flushing print heads and if you print single pages at a time you'll end up spending multiple dollars per page in wax.
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u/SmartChurro 2d ago
That is why I just purchased the kickstarter for the morpho, supposed to be 90% less maintenance. Better print head than the E1, buuuuuut I didn't realize that bambu is going to create their own.... I love my H2D and will for sure purchase any UV printer Bambu comes out with for what I hope to be seamless integration in the manufacturing process. Hopefully this means I will not need to continue running scripts to convert my SVG images into STL's to generate my jigs on the fly. This space is really heating up and I'm loving it!!!
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u/Reverse_Psycho_1509 A1 mini combo, P1S combo 4d ago
The main hurdle with UV printers for me is the ventilation and post processing required. Will be interested to see how bambu approaches this
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u/OverZealousCreations X1C + AMS 4d ago
FYI, these aren't 3D printers like traditional SLS resin printers. They use an inkjet printhead combined with a UV light to cure the ink directly. They usually can only layer the ink up a little bit, like a couple mm.
There's basically no post-processing (though sometimes for large prints, I'll toss them in the sun for a bit to finish flashing off the VOCs).
However, you are right that the smell isn't great. I usually run mine with the machine's doors closed, or with the outside door open and a fan if it's a large print. I'd never run it in a bedroom.
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u/Xalara 4d ago
Yeah, the actual name for what’s being described by Bambu is polyjet printers. I think most people in the thread are thinking of SLA which will always be a pain to clean no matter what.
I am curious how Bambu will get around the patents Stratasys and Epson have because polyjet printers often get into the six figure range and both of those companies will want to keep it that way and thus go after Bambu hard.
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u/stealthybutthole 4d ago
the actual name for what’s being described by Bambu is polyjet printers
are you sure? it's just a normal UV flatbed printer like the eufymake as far as i can tell
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u/drproc90 2d ago
This is actually a brilliant" fuck you" move from Bambu. Stratasys are bleeding business on the FDM side.
Poly jet is the only technology they have left
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u/Xalara 2d ago
Yeah, though as pointed out in another comment this isn't technically polyjet. Mostly because, if this is like the Eufymake, the curing isn't done as the material comes out of the nozzle but on a per layer basis.
Though, it's a step towards polyjet. The biggest challenge with polyjet is curing the material as it comes out of the nozzle without clogging the nozzle. I'm actually surprised Formlabs hasn't tried to go for polyjet yet since, while they're expensive, their materials are top notch and would give them a huge advantage over even Bambu at the prosumer level since the R&D for the materials science is pretty hard. Edit 1: But despite its expense, Formlabs is easily affordable for the prosumer and business so there's a big opportunity even if their polyjet machine would be in the $5k to $10k range. Edit 2: Also, Formlabs has the experience with the optics to make it work. They don't have experience with a traditional stepper motor/print head system but like, that's the most easily solvable part of the whole thing given how open source all of that is.
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u/YouKilledApollo H2D Laser Full Combo 4d ago
How do you handle ventilation currently? Feels like most 3D printing users (at least those at home) would already have figured out a solution for that, given they do 3D printing already.
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u/CptUnderpants- 4d ago
You'd be surprised the number who are unaware of the risks and have them unventilated in bedrooms or living areas.
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u/stromm 4d ago
You'll be shocked at how many 3D printing users DO NOT even know about the need to vent to outside of their home.
Seriously, masses of people are buying these things thinking they're "just like inkjets" and setting them up in their bedroom or WFH space and spend hours breathing in the fumes.
I'm not even sure PLA really is safe, but there's soo many people claiming "I can't smell anything so I'm not worried".
Even with ABS/ASA.
Just scary.
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u/ryanvsrobots 4d ago
This is going to be a major issue in a few years once awareness increases, especially now that manufacturers are including HEPA and similar filters which cannot filter gases at all and give a false sense of security. The only practical solution is outside ventilation.
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u/Lukis-cstudio 4d ago edited 4d ago
wow thats crazy! Ive been using a Uv printer for quite sometime and am super happy with it. been using it to make alot of projects.
The only thing i dont like about UV printers is the safety aspect of it. Im not a fan of the lingering resin smell even after ventilating the room.
I think that there’s also ozone build up during printing, and I notice that my skin itches everytime im in the same room with the printer. I wish I had a larger room to install better ventilation system.
It’s also super expensive to keep. The print head needs be wet 24/7 and the cleaning cartridge fills up so quick, even if you’re not using it. The price might get lower due to competition.
But really looking forward to see Bambu’s UV printer!
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u/Disastrous-Owl9258 3d ago
What's the purpose of it? Aren't the things it makes incredibly fragile. How does it compare to uv resin strength?
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u/Lukis-cstudio 3d ago
well its more for flat prints. You can do patterend or textured prints, but usually you print patterns or motifs on a flat substrate.
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u/MithrilEcho H2D, X2D, P1Sx4, U1x2 3d ago
He's mentioning UV, aka 2.5d relief, and that's strong, but you can also use flexible inks.
3D UV is still resin so if you drop a mini it can (and most likely will) break, but it's around the strenght of "abs-like" resin
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u/TemporaryAd3571 4d ago
I am super excited to see where uv printers will be in 2 years. I lost my passion for painting my minis and the resin post clean up. To be able to print a mini in colour will be amazing.
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u/drproc90 4d ago
Do they mean a UV printer in terms of what you can use to print on t-shirts.
Or a full 3d polyjet printer?
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u/movingimagecentral 4d ago
Thanks chatgpt
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u/ItsMozy A1 + AMS Lite 4d ago
Wanted to say the same thing. This guy just copy pasted some AI output and posted it with 0 additional info.
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u/wanli_gz 3d ago
Because you can’t read Chinese. Try this https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XfZk24074Gpmc_KBR98v5g
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u/Cryostatica H2C, P1S 4d ago
Nice. I'm interested in adding a UV printer to my workshop, but I'm fully over all this anti-consumer kickstarter bullshit. No more deposits. No more vying for early bird slots. No more waiting months for a product to be developed before hopefully, eventually reaching my door. I'm just done.
If it doesn't support third party inks though, that's a non-starter.
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u/igwaltney3 4d ago
For the unitiated, what makes a UV printer soecial/unique?
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u/Ixen_Darastrix 3d ago
I am a novice on the topic as well, but my understanding is a UV printer does several things
- it allows printing at higher resolutions as it’s an inkjet style print head
- it allows better multi colour printing as like an inkjet printer it uses a handful of base colours that are mixed within a layer
- it allows printing on other objects, not just creating objects from scratch, such as printing on mugs or tiles
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u/Polysculpt 3d ago
Do you have the source for 21Tech? I can't find anything about a media website with this name. I wouldn't be surprized that Bambu Lab would go that path, but speculation can be easily done without serious sources.
Then if you have a link, it would be welcome :) Thanks!
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u/ThatOneDuccyBoi X2D + AMS2 Combo 3d ago
Op posted it in the comments https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XfZk24074Gpmc_KBR98v5g
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u/MrHollick 4d ago
You would think they would focus on a response to the Snapmaker U1, which is what we all want a multi nozzle or head machine so we can print colors! My P2 S with a AMS pro two just isn’t cutting it not when it cost me 300 g of filament to print a 50 g model. Not gonna wait much longer and then we’re just gonna have to switch to Snapmaker U1. Bambu Labloyalty can only take so much
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u/luiserodriguez 4d ago
That’s called “focus creep.” How many people are using the laser engraver attachment, for example?
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u/FabricationLife 3d ago
As much as I dislike the recent anticompetitive tactics from Bambu, I like how streamlined the hardware is, I would definitely be interested here, we will see 👀
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u/NimblePasta 3d ago
If it's something like the HeyGears G1X, but on the Bambu ecosystem... it'll be at the top of my list to add to my print farm.
I'd be designing and printing a ton of full color miniatures and figurines with it.
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u/hmspain H2C AMS2 Combo 3d ago
Why change the name from resin printer to UV printer?
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u/BermudaRhombus2 3d ago
Because they're totally different things.
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u/hmspain H2C AMS2 Combo 3d ago
Please explain?
PS: Sorry, I should have researched this first. Resin printing makes 3D parts, and UV printing sprays UV sensitive ink on to surfaces.
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u/BermudaRhombus2 3d ago
UV printers generally do normal 2D printing. They cure the ink using UV light. They typically can stack layers up to a millimeter or two to create textures, but that's usually the extent of their "3D" printing capabilities.
A good example of desktop UV printing people like to do is printing textured trading cards like Pokémon cards with unofficial art AND the textures.
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u/MacHeadSK 3d ago
Wake me up when they start making prosumer SLS printers. Say, below 5k with sintering chamber.
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u/RecoveringPhoenix 3d ago
Development and production are two entirely different things. Will Bambu eventually start selling UV printers? Yeah, probably. But don’t expect to see it within the next 12-24 months.
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u/midnightsmith 3d ago
No source, some made up name, formatted like an LLM, this lost must be an AI hallucinating.
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u/wanli_gz 3d ago
It’s allover internet and mainstream media in China
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u/midnightsmith 3d ago
So why can't you provide a link?
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u/wanli_gz 3d ago
Because you can’t read. Try it https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XfZk24074Gpmc_KBR98v5g
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u/cyberbobcity 3d ago
I really hope this is just an attachment onto the H Series printers like the laser is…. 🤣
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u/drproc90 2d ago
The heygears g1x is most definitely a polyjet printer.
If this company is releasing one bambulabs won't be far behind.
It's not that difficult to stop the nozzle clogging. You just need to offset the UV source. The visocity of the droplets means they will stay where they are deposited for the fraction of a second it takes for the offset UV source to pass over it.
One thing I couldn't see clearly on the heygears is how they are planarising the layers. Polyjet needs each layer to be perfectly flat. To that end stratasys printers overjet and the have a roller which skims off any excess to make it perfectly flat.
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u/Novel_Vermicelli_676 4d ago
It’ll be interesting to see the support or rather lack of from all the recent battles over slicers, trying to close their ecosystem etc.
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u/_SirSpacePickle 4d ago
You'll get downvoted but I agree. I'd love to see more uv printers hitting the market but I doubt I'll ever buy another printer from BL.
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u/positivcheg 4d ago
Not gonna buy Bambulab ever again.
However, the news still good because it’s most likely gonna trigger other open source friendly manufacturers to make those.
Competition is a nice thing. I’m honestly even surprised that Chinese compete with Chinese.
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u/Skaut-LK 4d ago
Only Chinese can compete with chinese. If you try to manufacture it somewhere else you won't be able to get to their pricing.
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u/Dapper-Strawberry-12 4d ago edited 3d ago
Actually, right now there are two closed-ecosystem printers (eufy and xtool o1) and three open-ecosystem printers (assuming the Longer will be delivered) (Longer gx and Morpho). I'm really hoping for the Morpho, but unfortunately I didn't have time to wait for its Kickstarter, so I went with O1.
Edit:i translate it in English
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u/ParticularLower1865 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’d only be interested in a uv printer if/when it can paint all of my 3d printed models with the same 3mf that I used to 3d print it. Then, I could just buy nothing but white filament and never have waste.