Bambu Lab have officially announced the launch of their new multi-material 3D printer, the Bambu Lab H2C, taking place on 18 November 2025 at 3:00 PM CET—and I’ll be there at Formnext in Frankfurt to witness the reveal in person.

This is shaping up to be one of the most significant announcements in desktop 3D printing for years.

For the past three years, Bambu Lab have been working on a cleaner, more efficient approach to multi-colour and multi-material printing. Their teaser hints at something genuinely ground-breaking: the end of purge waste.

Back in 2022, the X1 series opened the door to accessible multi-colour printing, but the trade-off was always the same—purging. Endless little strings of wasted filament, time lost, and the compromises that every multi-colour printer still struggles with today.

Bambu’s engineers zeroed in on the real culprit: contamination within the hotend. Their solution? Don’t purge—swap the hotend.

Image and Video Credit: Bambulab

Introducing the Vortec Hotend Change System

The H2C is expected to showcase a brand-new technology called Vortec, described as one of the first induction-heated, fully automated hotend-swap systems.

The innovations highlighted in the teaser include:

• Dedicated hotends instead of purging

Like using a fresh paintbrush for each colour. No cleaning required, no cross-contamination, and no filament waste.

• Induction heating in just 8 seconds

Rapid heating without the slowdown of bulky toolheads or complex gantries.

• Wireless data and power sync

Each hotend contains its own chip that communicates temperature, filament data and status to the printer—without cables or pogo pins to wear out.

• No sacrifice in speed, volume or reliability

Rather than adding multiple nozzles or loading a heavy toolhead, Bambu Lab have focused on keeping things fast, compact and robust.

According to Bambu Lab, Vortec represents “the epilogue to the imperfections of X1” and marks their first major step toward eliminating purge altogether.

I’ll Be Reporting Live from Formnext

As The Gadget Man, I’ll be on the ground at Formnext in Frankfurt when the H2C is unveiled. Expect hands-on impressions, photos, early thoughts and—as always—my honest take on whether this could be the next revolution in multi-material 3D printing.

Stay tuned. This could be the moment multi-colour printing finally becomes clean, fast and… uncompromising.