This article is about the new Bambu Lab A1. You can view and purchase it here on the Bambu Lab website.
Bambu Lab have been as busy as ever in 2023, arguably busier than ever. The release of the P1S feels like a long distant memory but was only around June of this year. Since then, they’ve hardly put a foot wrong with the release of the very different and frankly odd looking A1 Mini, which was a huge and risky departure from the plain old coreXY boxes they have been creating since their debut X1 Carbon back in August 2022. For a relatively young company they sure do seem established, no?
Anyway to cut to the chase they have released, of all things, a bedslinger. Yes, the last two printers bambu have made are the ones they said they would never make. There’s a lesson in there somewhere about something to do with definitive statements.
The Machine
The AMS
The AMS Lite isn’t new for this model, it’s the same piece of hardware that Bambu Lab released with the A1 Mini. It has some significant simplifications compared to the AMS V1 from the X1 Series, the biggest are the lack of enclosure, and the lack of reel motors. This has been substituted with springs that can catch about a quarter turn of filament, so the machine can’t rewind a spool, only really pull it out of the hotend.
Turns out this is more reliable though – I’ve been seeing a lot less errors on this model. Zero, in fact.
Performance
The machine is exactly what you’d expect if you’d used a Bambu machine before. The experience is the same in the slicer, the colour changing, the printing, the UI is familiar although it’s not quite the same as the X1 UI, but you will have no problems figuring this one out.
Maximum speeds are 500mm/s although the slicer settings in the default profile are 200mm/s for outer wall, which is pretty fast for a bed slinger.
What’s interesting about the A1 is how well it prints TPU. In my tests, I found that not only can it reliably print 95A TPU (Ziro brand), but also that Colorfabb Varioshore had no difficulty printing (93A) even up to 5 cubic mm/s. For both I just used a minorly tweaked (temperature and max flow rate) version of the standard profile.
The full video I made is here.
Further details are available on the Bambu Lab website.
The Full Test / Spec Results
| Printer Name | Bambulab A1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Printer Company | Bambulab | |
| Date | 12/10/2023 | |
| Result | Comments | |
| Firmware Features | ||
| Platform | Closed source / bambu developed | |
| Open/source | No | Unlikely to be any time soon. Bear in mind this hinders customisation of the machine |
| runout sensor | yes | |
| power recovery | yes | |
| thermal runaway | yes | Tested hotend – runaway activates within 5 seconds. Full marks. Bed not tested. |
| limits: acceleration mm/s^2 | 10m/s^2 | |
| limits: speed mm/s | 500mm/s | |
| limits: jerk (?) / accel to decel | Unknown | |
| Limits: sq corner | Unknown | |
| Hardware | ||
| Bed size | 256 x 256 | |
| Machine type (corexy, bed dropper, cartesian, delta..) | cartesian bed slinger | |
| Number of nozzles / colours | 4 | one nozzle, four inputs, uses either single input or optional AMS lite (extra cost) |
| motion (wheels, rods) | rails | X axis – linear rail (MGN type), Y axis – concave wheels on custom tracks. Z axis – screw (twin, belted) |
| stepper characteristics (current, size) | Not known at this time | |
| Extrusion type | direct | |
| Extruder characteristics | Geared down extruder, Nema (14?) – entirely custom unit | |
| Metal hot end? | Yes – all metal. | |
| Extruder ease of disassembly | Difficult | |
| Nozzle type / size | Custom A1 Mini nozzle (plain steel) | Nozzle is quick change. Note: Not the same nozzle as X1/P1 series. Same as A1 Mini |
| Nozzle availability | all common sizes available if in stock on bambu store | |
| Number of axes rods for Z | 2 | |
| Enclosure? | No | |
| Bed type supplied | PEI double sided | |
| ABL / type | strain gauge – nozzle contact | |
| ABL accuracy | Unable to obtain data. | Test pattern done. |
| ABL bed compatibility | Any. | |
| ABL first layer test print | pass | |
| X/Y Homing | sensorless | |
| Z Homing | strain gauge | |
| Bed temperature uniformity (FLIR) | ||
| Wire supports / cabling | excellent | |
| earthing | Not tested – device should have been fully tested in a lab | |
| Lighting / print visibility | camera has a small light | |
| Chamber heating | no | |
| venting/filtering | no | |
| footprint | ~750 x 550mm | AMS lite can be stacked on top to reduce footprint with optional printed stand |
| Filaments | ||
| PLA max feed rate | 28mm^3/s | This is quoted value. I would imagine it should go higher |
| Temperature limit / material compatibility | 300C | |
| Bed Temp max | 100C | |
| Ease of loading per filament type (PLA/Flex) | Easy and guided | If using AMS lite, filament loading is automated |
| Flex filament compatibility | direct feed only | |
| Flex filament print quality | excellent | tested 95A Ziro TPU |
| PLA test print | ||
| Filament compatibility additional notes | higher temp filaments are not recommended according to specs | PETG, TPU, PLA all supported |
| note some filament types are not ams-compatible | eg tpu, glow filaments, anything with high friction in the tubes. | |
| Slicer | ||
| Slicers supported | Bambu Slicer / Orca slicer | The machine should work on cura/prusaslicer but the custom start/end code would need to be implemented. AFAIK this is not widely done |
| profiles provided? | Yes | |
| Max Speed in profiles | 200mm/s outer wall on PLA / draft | |
| 500mm/s travel | ||
| Operating characteristics | ||
| Sound meter (dbA @ 300mm during print) | not tested | |
| Idle power down of all fans? | Yes | |
| Power Consumption | Note: Max 1300W quoted in spec in 220v regions, this needs to be noted for print farms | |
| Availability | ||
| Release date | Dec-23 | |
| Price | 399 unit, 249 ams, 559 combo | prices in us dollars without tax/shipping |
| Notes | ||
| Repair parts rely on availability from Bambu | ||
| Broadly these are available in most cases. | ||
| Repairs tend to be involved and not for the beginner. | ||
| The machine is fully locked down as with other bambu printers | ||
| Ensure you retain the original packaging for the full length of the warranty |
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