The Bambu Lab X1 Is a 16-Color CoreXY 3D Printer

CoreXY kinematics are all the rage in the 3D printing community at the moment. And that is for good reason: CoreXY printers are very fast compared to bed-slingers. Voron is the biggest name in the CoreXY world, but building a Voron is a DIY project that many are unwilling to commit to tackling. If you want the benefits of CoreXY and 16-color/material printing in a ready-to-print package, the new Bambu Lab X1 series of 3D printers is on Kickstarter right now.

The Bambu Lab X1 Kickstarter campaign has already raised a mind-boggling $3.5 million and it still has almost a month until the campaign ends. That is a very impressive number — one of the highest we've ever seen for a 3D printer crowdfunding campaign. Clearly these printers are exciting to the community and it is easy to see why.

The Kickstarter special price for the Bambu Lab X1 is $800. That makes it a few hundred dollars cheaper than typical Voron 2.4 and Trident kits. And you're getting a lot for that money. Both the X1 and X1-Carbon are fully enclosed (and airtight) CoreXY 3D printers. They have all-metal hot ends that can reach 300°C, a bed that can reach 120°C, and a chamber that can reach 60°C.

Standard CoreXY capability is enhanced here thanks to a welded chassis, lightweight carbon rails, and a lightweight extruder. Bambu Lab claims that both the X1 and X1-Carbon can reach 20,000mm/s/s acceleration, 500mm/s velocity, and 32 cubic mm/s flow. Vibration compensation and pressure advance features help to keep print quality high at fast speeds. The "Speed Benchy" demonstration shows very impressive results in less than 18 minutes.

There are three additional features that make the X1 series stand out: LIDAR, AI print monitoring, and multi-material printing. A built-in LIDAR sensor lets the printer measure the bed with precision for leveling and Z-offset adjustment. The printer can scan the first layer with the LIDAR sensor and use machine learning to determine if it is acceptable. The AI can also detect a "spaghetti" print through a camera.

Multi-color/material printing is possible thanks to an AMS unit similar to the Mosaic Palette and Prusa MMU. Each unit handles four spools of filament and users can chain multiple units together to print up to 16 different materials in a single model. Though it isn't clear if users will need four or five AMS units to reach that 16 material limit.

If Bambu Lab puts as much effort into the X1 printers as they did the Kickstarter video, then this will be a very desirable series of printers.

To get your hands on a Bambu Lab X1, you can back the Kickstarter Campaign before June 30th. They expect to deliver rewards in July of 2022.