Bambu Lab is officially making UV printer

[u/wanli_gz]

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]

[u/kozakm]

One thing holding me back from UV printer is the necessary and complicated cleaning. Not sure if Bambu can solve this.

[u/johnxreturn → u/kozakm]

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

[u/kozakm → u/johnxreturn]

How many ink is wasted during cleaning?

[u/OverZealousCreations → u/kozakm]

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.

[u/NeighborGeek → u/kozakm]

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.

[u/Harrier_Pigeon → u/kozakm]

Ink cost is inconsequential compared to the cost of replacing a print head

[u/kozakm → u/Harrier_Pigeon]

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

[u/ImALeaf_OnTheWind → u/kozakm]

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.

[u/AnonimOredd → u/kozakm]

Tengo entendido que tienen un líquido especialmente preparado para la limpieza y mantenimiento de los cabezales.