Large multicolor 3D printers: 300 mm beds with AMS, CFS or tool changers

Sixteen shipping printers in the database have a bed of at least 300 mm on each side and print in more than one color. Ten feed several spools through one nozzle with a filament changer: Bambu Lab AMS, Creality CFS, Anycubic ACE or QIDI Box. Six have two nozzles or take a tool changer.

Four print at least two colors out of the box, with two nozzles: the Bambu Lab H2D, H2D Pro and H2C, and the Snapmaker Artisan. The H2D Pro and H2C also come with an AMS 2 Pro. On the other twelve, the filament changer or tool changer is an optional extra, and the table shows the launch price without it.

The largest are the Anycubic Kobra 3 Max and Kobra 3 Max V2 at 420 x 420 x 500 mm (16.5 x 16.5 x 19.7 in). The largest CoreXY on the list is the QIDI Max4 at 390 x 390 x 340 mm. Single-color machines are in the full list of large printers.

Which large 3D printers print in multiple colors?

Sixteen shipping printers in the database with a 300 mm bed print multicolor. Ten use a filament changer: Bambu Lab A2L and H2S (AMS), Creality K1 Max, K2 Pro and K2 Plus (CFS), Anycubic Kobra 3 Max, 3 Max V2 and S1 Max (ACE), and QIDI Plus5 and Max4 (QIDI Box). Six have two nozzles or a tool changer.

Most changer units hold four spools, and most printers accept several units:

• Bambu Lab: the A2L takes up to 4 AMS plus 1 AMS lite, for 19 colors. The H2S takes up to 24 filaments across the AMS 2 Pro and AMS HT.
• Creality: the K2 Plus and K2 Pro take up to four CFS units. The K1 Max takes one through the K1 Series CFS upgrade kit.
• Anycubic: the Kobra S1 Max takes up to four ACE 2 Pro units, for 16 colors. The Kobra 3 Max models take two ACE units, for 8 colors.
• QIDI: the Plus5 reaches 16 colors with multiple QIDI Boxes. The Max4 takes the QIDI Box, with 4 spools per unit.

On all ten, the changer is optional and the launch price excludes it. The Kobra 3 Max V2 Combo includes the ACE 2 Pro, but Anycubic lists the $599 printer without one.

Which large 3D printers have a tool changer?

Two shipping printers in the database with a 300 mm bed take a full tool changer, both as an option: the Original Prusa XL+ (360 x 360 x 360 mm, up to five toolheads) and the Prusa CORE One L+ (300 x 300 x 330 mm, INDX, up to eight tools). The Bambu Lab H2C swaps hotends instead.

Four more have two nozzles built in:

• Bambu Lab H2D and H2D Pro: two fixed nozzles, 325 x 320 x 325 mm. The AMS is optional on the H2D. The H2D Pro comes with an AMS 2 Pro and an AMS HT.
• Bambu Lab H2C: a fixed left nozzle, plus a Vortek hotend changer on the right that swaps among six induction hotends. An AMS 2 Pro is included, for up to 24 filaments.
• Snapmaker Artisan: a dual-extrusion module with two nozzles on one toolhead, 400 x 400 x 400 mm.

Prusa sells the XL+ as a single-tool, dual-head or five-head machine. Its five-head page lists the same 360 x 360 x 360 mm volume. The “Nozzles” column shows 1 for both Prusa printers, because their base model ships with one tool.

None of the shipping printers in the table is an independent dual extruder (IDEX) machine, with two toolheads on separate carriages. The Sovol M1D, announced at $1,799, is one: 300 x 300 x 350 mm, with one fixed toolhead plus six swappable ones.

Is the whole bed usable with two nozzles?

On the H2D and H2C, no. Bambu Lab gives a shared area of 300 x 320 mm for prints that use both nozzles. On the Artisan, the dual-material area is 350 x 400 x 400 mm.

With the INDX changer, Prusa lists the CORE One L+ INDX at 298 x 275 x 330 mm, below this table’s 300 mm cutoff.

What is the difference between a filament changer and a tool changer?

A filament changer feeds several spools into one nozzle. At every color change, it unloads the old filament and loads the new one. The printer then flushes out the leftover old color. A tool changer gives each filament its own nozzle and swaps whole toolheads or hotends, so each change wastes much less filament. Those printers launched at higher prices.

Bambu Lab’s wiki describes the cycle on a single-nozzle printer with an AMS:

• Flushing: the AMS loads the new filament, and the extruder flushes the old one through the nozzle until only new filament comes out. The purge is extruded beside the bed and directed away from the print.
• Priming: the nozzle wipes, then by default prints into a prime tower, which must rise as high as the last layer with a color change.

Darker-to-lighter changes need more flushing. In Bambu Lab’s four-color cube example at 0.2 mm layers, 153 filament changes waste 83 g of filament. The CFS, ACE and QIDI Box also feed a single nozzle, so they flush on every change too.

With separate nozzles, the waste per change drops:

• Prusa CORE One L+ INDX: Prusa states 0.013 g of waste per tool change, at about 12 seconds per change.
• Prusa XL+: each toolhead keeps its own nozzle, extruder and filament.
• Bambu Lab H2D: two filaments on two nozzles only need a nozzle switch, not a flush.
• Bambu Lab H2C: with fewer than seven filaments, the purge cycle can be skipped entirely.

With more filaments than nozzles, a dual-nozzle printer flushes again, though less often than a single nozzle.

The filament-changer printers in the table launched at $469 to $1,299 without the changer unit. The multi-nozzle and tool-changer printers launched at $1,899 to $3,799, and the two Prusa prices are for single-tool base models.

For more on bed size alone, see the large CoreXY printers or the build volume topic.