Image: Bambu Lab
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Bambu Lab spent the week before the H3C reveal posting a teaser a day: a tool rack that gets out of the way, a watch printed with two nozzle sizes and two filament sizes, and a promise that every nozzle is hardened. Meanwhile, leaked photos of the AMS 3P, the filament unit for the smaller P3C, landed on Reddit.
TL;DR
- October 28: Bambu teased a “Retractable rack. Full Visibility.” Its still shows the nine-tool rack up near the top of the chamber with a clear view of the plate.
- October 29: a watch printed in one go, with the details on a 0.2 mm nozzle, the case on 0.4 mm and the soft strap on 0.4 mm with 2.85 mm filament. Bambu’s new TPU 75A comes in 2.85 mm and is listed as “Compatible only with H3C.”
- October 30: “Hardened? HRC 55+, ALL.” That’s the hardness Bondtech says real hardened nozzles reach, and the INDX nozzles came in around 30–32.
- Leaked photos of the AMS 3P show seven slots, a bypass feed on most of them and a magnetic front panel. Bambu hasn’t confirmed any of it.
- The H3C reveal is November 3 at 9:00 AM Eastern.
My take
It would not be release time for Bambu Lab without a series of leaks. This release told us a few things about not only what the P3C is going to look like, but what the H3C could potentially be.
The rack teaser was also the first of multiple shots at Prusa and Bondtech because of the poor visibility of the first layer. The watch unlocks some exciting possibilities in terms of at-home manufacturing, and the possibilities are seemingly getting endless.
Then Bambu Lab was clearly poking fun at Prusa and Bondtech again by posting that their nozzles were graded at 55+ HRC, if anyone was asking. For those unaware, Bondtech advertised that the nozzles coming with the INDX system would be hardened. Many think of the industry standard for 3D printers as 55+ HRC, and they shipped nozzles that came in around 30–32 HRC. Adding to this, in my opinion, they have still not resolved this debacle in an acceptable manner. Now for the appearance of the nozzles: they do look like Vortek nozzles but have some sort of pins on the top. It is not clear yet if this means there is yet another nozzle type.
The AMS 3P photos give us a few insights into how the H3C AMS could come together. The bypass feed is presumably for TPU to be compatible with the new AMS systems, as that has been a major drawback for some. The photos also reference a magnetic panel for ease of maintenance, which, while it seems simple, is a nice addition. The AMS 3P does look like it will be the cheaper-made model. One thing that jumped out to me is that the nozzle inlets did not appear as if they moved like in the one shown off in teasers of the H3C.
I am sure there is more to see, but we will finally get all the details of the H3C, including pricing, on November 3 at 9 AM Eastern.
What Bambu showed this week
Bambu has kept up a run of H3C teasers since it put up the H3C page on October 23. Each one goes up at 9 AM Eastern on X and on Bambu’s own forum, and each ends with the same date: November 3, 9 AM EST.
October 26: soft TPU. A pair of printed shoes, “Ultra-soft TPU 75A and 90A, printed in one build on Bambu Lab H3C.” The TPU 75A is already on Bambu’s US store, and it’s an odd one. It comes in 2.85 mm, not the 1.75 mm Bambu’s current printers use. The listing says “Compatible only with H3C,” credits something called FlexFeed for reliable printing and says it’s certified for skin contact. There’s no price on it yet.
October 28: the rack moves. The X post reads “Retractable rack. Full Visibility.” with a 12-second video, and the forum version says watching your print build layer by layer is part of the fun, “We would never take that away from you : )”. In the still from the video, the nine docks sit up near the top of the chamber, dock 6 is empty because its tool is down printing, and the build plate is in clear view underneath. The plate in that shot is printed with “Max build volume 330 × 320 × 325 mm³,” the closest thing to a spec Bambu has shown so far.
Bambu didn’t name anyone, but the X post’s opening line, “There’s a lot more action you can SEE from this stage than _____,” is hard to read any other way than as a dig at tool changers with a fixed rack in front of the plate. Tom’s Hardware, which reviewed Bondtech’s INDX on a Prusa CORE One, said that setup makes you look through the tool rack to see the print.
October 29: one watch, two nozzle sizes. The image, titled “One Print, Wrist Ready,” labels each part of a printed watch. The rigid case is 0.4 mm nozzle with 1.75 mm filament. The crisp dial details are 0.2 mm with 1.75 mm. The soft strap is 0.4 mm with 2.85 mm filament, which lines up with that TPU 75A listing. Bambu’s caption: “Do I pick 0.2 or 0.4? YES.”
October 30: hardened nozzles. “Hardened? HRC 55+, ALL.” over a render of a single H3C tool marked 0.4, with “Durable by design. Hardened by default.” on the forum. The tool is a compact block with a heatsink and the nozzle at the bottom, and a row of pins sticks up from the top. Bambu hasn’t said what the pins are for.
Why “HRC 55+” is a dig
HRC is the Rockwell C hardness scale, and it’s the number that decides how long a nozzle survives abrasive filaments like carbon fiber or glow-in-the-dark. In July, Bondtech confirmed that the nozzles shipped with the INDX Founders Edition, and with the first batches of Prusa’s CORE One+ INDX upgrade kit, are nitrocarburized steel that measured about 30–32 HRC. In the same post, Bondtech put true hardened steel at about 55–60 and brass at 0–10. The company apologized and said a truly hardened INDX nozzle is “still a long way from serial production.” That’s the backdrop for a teaser that just says 55+ on every tool.
The AMS 3P leak
This is a leak, so treat it that way. Photos of a filament unit labeled AMS 3P, plus pages from what looks like its Quick Start Guide, first went up on Reddit from a user called u/Houk3, who said they came from a close relative of someone who owns a P3C. Its author took that post down, and we haven’t been able to check it ourselves. The images are still up in a repost on r/BambuLab. Bambu hasn’t commented.
The name at least matches a real filing. The FCC certified two unannounced Bambu AMS units on September 21: the AMS 3H (FCC ID 2A6J8-SA017) and the AMS 3P (2A6J8-SA018). The P3C itself showed up in Japan’s radio certification photos with seven tool docks, next to the nine-dock H3C.
Here’s what the leaked images show, going by our own look at them and descriptions from PrintNexus and 3DBite:
- Seven slots under a hinged lid, one per tool, and a Quick Start Guide cover with the unit sitting on top of a printer labeled P3C.
- A “bypass feed” on most slots. The guide notes slots 2 and 6 don’t have one.
- A magnetic panel on the front of the unit.
- An inlet for an external spool and a 6-pin Bambu Bus port.
Nothing in the guide says what the bypass feed is for. Soft filament like TPU is the obvious guess, but Bambu hasn’t explained it. The leak covers the P3C’s unit only. Whatever the H3C uses, possibly the AMS 3H, hasn’t leaked.
What’s next
Bambu reveals the H3C on Tuesday, November 3, at 9:00 AM Eastern (6 AM Pacific). Still unknown: the price, whether that’s a reveal or the start of sales, how the tools swap, whether the H3C works with today’s AMS units, and whether the P3C or AMS 3P show up the same day. We’ll update this story when Bambu shares more. The H3C is on our Coming Soon list if you want a launch alert.
Sources
- Bambu Lab forum: [Bambu Lab H3C] TPU 75A: Our softest yet, for Shore (October 26, 2026)
- Bambu Lab US Store: TPU 75A (2.85mm) (checked November 1, 2026)
- Bambu Lab on X: “Retractable rack. Full Visibility.” (October 28, 2026)
- Bambu Lab forum: [Bambu Lab H3C] Introducing…Your print (October 28, 2026)
- Bambu Lab on X: “Do I pick 0.2 or 0.4? YES.” (October 29, 2026)
- Bambu Lab forum: [Bambu Lab H3C] 0.2 or 0.4? Why not both (October 29, 2026)
- Bambu Lab on X: “Hardened? HRC 55+, ALL.” (October 30, 2026)
- Bambu Lab forum: [Bambu Lab H3C] HRC 55+. All of them (October 30, 2026)
- Bondtech: INDX – Hardened Nozzles Update (July 29, 2026)
- Tom’s Hardware, “Bambu Lab teases its mysterious H3C tool changer 3D printer” (INDX rack visibility)
- FCC filing 2A6J8-SA017: AMS 3H and 2A6J8-SA018: AMS 3P (granted September 21, 2026)
- PrintNexus, “Bambu Lab AMS 3P Leak: 7 Slots, Photos and Price” (slots without bypass feed)
- 3DBite, “Bambu Lab H3C and P3C Roundup” (AMS 3P Quick Start Guide details)
- Leak: r/BambuLab, “AMS 3P / P3C leak” (repost of photos first shared by u/Houk3, whose post was removed)
