Bambu Lab, the Shenzhen company behind the X1, P1, and H2 lines of consumer 3D printers, has once again set the rumor mill spinning. On September 11, 2026, Bambu Lab's legal entity, Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology, received FCC authorization for an unannounced 3D printer labeled the H3C (model PF008-P). An X2D Pro was certified the same day, and a P3C followed on September 15. Bambu Lab asked the FCC to keep the H3C's photos and user manual confidential, and those materials aren't scheduled to become public until March 2027. As of this week, the company has made no announcement and published no specifications.
Much of the excitement comes from timing. In August, China's patent office published three Bambu Lab applications describing a hotend-swapping system with ten nozzles: nine stored in a rack and one on the toolhead. That's a big step up from the Vortek system in today's H2C, which pairs a fixed left nozzle with six swappable hotends on the right. Because the "C" in H2C denotes Vortek hotend changing, many fans assume the H3C will be a third-generation H-series machine built around this larger changer. However, the patents never mention the H3C, and the FCC filing says nothing about nozzle count or a toolchanger. Any link between the two is speculation for now. Be wary of "leaked" photos as well, since the confidential FCC images can't be their source.
When might we find out? Bambu Lab's recent printers have shown up at the FCC within days of launch, but the H3C has now gone roughly six weeks without a reveal. Formnext, which runs in Frankfurt from November 17 to 20 and is where the H2C debuted, is the obvious stage, though Bambu Lab hasn't tied the H3C to the show. Community observers note that competitors such as Prusa's XL and INDX and Snapmaker's U1 have put pressure on Bambu Lab in multi-tool printing. If the H3C does turn out to be a ten-nozzle machine, it would be the company's strongest answer yet. Until then, anyone deciding whether to buy an H2C now or wait should remember that the H3C's price, specs, and release date are all unknown.
