TL;DR E3D and Bambu unveil a HotEnd that allows you to print 60% faster with your Bambu X1 and P1 Printers. Read more to find out how it came to be, and to find out the full specifications!
Story Time
When we first got our hands on the Bambu Lab X1 printer, we were delighted by its overall performance, and blown away by the speed of its motion system. However, as we started to push the printer to its limits, we found ourselves bumping into the melt flow rate limit of the HotEnd.
We had just launched E3D Revo High Flow off the back of some fastidious research into the perfect internal geometry to deliver maximum flowrates in small packages: it was obvious that we should try our hand at “upgrading” the X1.We designed a version of the Bambu Lab HotEnd that made use of E3D’s High Flow geometry, quickly manufactured the prototypes in our in-house workshop, fitted them onto the rather un-suspecting Bambu Lab printer that we had in the workshop, and delighted ourselves with the performance improvements.
We were able to hit flowrates >60% higher than standard, which enabled us to push the productivity of the Bambu Lab X1 to new heights.It would be an understatement to say: we were excited to be able to bring these improvements to the "Consumer printer of the year" (2023 3DPI awards).
When we visited Bambu Lab in July 2023, we took some of our samples along and left them with Dr Tao, we agreed that if the product lived up to our claims it surely had the potential to delight his users. To get the project moving, Dr Tao dedicated some highly proficient members of his team (including project managers and engineers) to help us bring a product to market that would meet both Bambu Lab and E3D’s quality standards and delights our customers.
High Flow + ObXidian!
From the initial sample handed to Dr Tao, we enhanced the specification to include a hardened steel High-Flow insert (we initially prototyped using brass), a copper heater block (versus the brass Bambu use), and topped it all off with an ObXidian coating to ensure that the new product was in no way a regression on the standard Bambu design, and instead pushed the envelope in every way.
The product is higher flow, more wear resistant, and many plastics will build up less on the nozzle.
📷 E3D High Flow insert
Flow Rate Comparison Chart
This graph shows a comparison between Stock and E3D ObX HF Bambu HotEnd when printing with PLA.
📷 E3DLC™ coating
An easy upgrade
“ …pushing the boundaries of what our printers can achieve” Dr Tao, Bambu Lab CEO - read more in his blog here.
Upgrading to the E3D ObXidian HF Bambu Lab Hotend is designed to be very easy. You do not need to make any modifications to the firmware, mount, or part-cooling fan; and you can reuse the existing temperature sensor and heater pads from the stock Bambu Lab Hotend.
The upgrade takes less than 5 minutes, follow our quick and easy YouTube guide below!
Easy Identification of Variants
The E3D ObXidian High Flow Bambu Lab HotEnd comes in nozzle diameters of 0.4 mm and 0.6 mm. The Bambu Lab team supply us HeatSinks that are engraved to make it very clear which product is which, and to differentiate this product from the standard Bambu Lab HotEnd. .
📷0.40 E3D ObXidian High Flow 📷0.60 E3D ObXidian High Flow
Listen To What The Content Creators Think!
In Closing
With the finalised design, approved by Bambu Lab; we moved onto production: We buy HeatSinks and electronics from Bambu Lab; we manufacture the Nozzles and Inserts; then we assemble them together here in Oxfordshire.
We are delighted to bring you this product, and hope it delights you as much as it does E3D and Bambu Lab.
We are very grateful for Bambu Lab's support and are proud that we have been able to make meaningful improvements to their already excellent products. A huge thank you to the team at Bambu Lab, it's been great working with you, and I look forward to our next collaboration along with the DiamondBack team for - Bambu Lab DiamondBack.
Yes, you can! The ObXidian coating is designed to withstand the force of a cold pull, however it can be a little bit challenging compared to a typical nozzle as the printer cuts filament very close to the heatsink. While it is possible to clear blockages using the cold pull method, it is not always possible with the Bambu Lab printers. We recommend following the Bambu Lab procedure to unblocking the nozzle.
ObXidian™ coated nozzles are exceptionally wear resistant compared to other products on the market and significantly outperform other hardened nozzles. Improvements in ‘exotic’ engineering filaments mean that some new materials which include aggressive fillers, including but not limited to Polymaker’s PolyMide range, can cause significant wear on even ObXidian nozzles. E3D is actively developing even more specialist solutions for these materials. In the meantime please be aware that even the rainbows and unicorns in your ObXidian nozzle are not everlasting under extreme material conditions.
No, you don’t need to!
These Hotends are designed to maintain the exact same form factor as the stock Bambu nozzles and are therefore not compatible with the revo range of nozzles. If this is something you are interested in, we recommend you have a look at the Revo Panda, a Revo compatible hot end by Biqu.
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