Design
Design
In terms of design, you could have seen the A1 mini in any spaceship, starting with the Nostromo’s infirmary (Alien). And yet it’s a bed slinger printer, which shouldn’t have impressed anyone.
Steel and aluminum construction that exudes confidence.
The plastics are well finished and robust. There’s no play in the mechanisms.
The screen is very small, 2.4″ with a definition of 320×240 pixels, but the interface is well designed and everything is very legible. But if you’ve got big fingers, it could pose a few problems.
The extruder has also been designed for fast, tool-free operation. Removing the cover reveals 4-step instructions for changing the nozzle. And with this printer, there’s no need to think about heating the nozzle to remove the filament… no, there’s simply a lever to cut the filament. And so change the nozzle cold. Simple and efficient.
As for the nozzles, they’re proprietary and that’s a bit of a problem when you’re innovating, sometimes you need new, slightly better thought-out solutions that don’t align with the very open community model that’s been the order of the day until now.
Another small detail: the PEI plate is reversible. It will therefore last twice as long. Bambu Lab has also thought of easy alignment thanks to the notches on the back of the plate.
And this is precisely where we find 2 curiosities. Each time you start printing, the nozzle does a little dance to clean itself on the little rasp and silicone scraper.
Now let’s talk about the AMS lite, Bambu Lab’s system for multi-color printing, but not only!
One criticism is that the AMS must be placed to the right of the printer, because of the length and location of the cables. Otherwise, though simple to use, it’s packed with features:
- Automatic filament loading, no need to push and unwind the spool
- Spool filament is always “taut” with a spring system in the holder.
- RFID reader for each spool . This enables the AMS Lite to recognize the type and color of the brand’s filaments automatically.
