Could there be a relationship between Bambu Lab’s new 3D printer and the Stratasys lawsuit?
With information finally being released about Bambu Lab’s new 3D printer, the H2D, it’s time to look back at Stratasys’ patent infringement lawsuit.
The story was that last year Bambu Lab was “due” to release a new flagship 3D printer. At the time the X1C was getting older, and there were some competitors making noises about upcoming machines (which have started to appear). The word was that a new Bambu Lab machine might appear in the fall of 2024.
However, no machine was announced, and at about the same time Stratasys launched a major patent infringement lawsuit against Bambu Lab and associated companies, details here. Five patents were specified, each with varying degrees of infringement.
The case went quiet after that.
My theory was that Stratasys had some understanding of Bambu Lab’s upcoming machine and felt that their own sales might be compromised by the machine’s introduction. Therefore, the lawsuit.
The 3D print community totally misread the lawsuit, somehow believing that Stratasys’ purpose was to shut down all 3D printers that violated these patents, which would be basically all of the desktop devices. That’s not the case at all; Stratasys doesn’t care about those machines because they are in a different market segment. But perhaps the new Bambu Lab machine was not.
My guess is that Stratasys attempted to force a negotiation with Bambu Lab to ensure that Stratasys would gain some type of royalty payment for each of these new machines sold. In other words, get some cash from the situation, even if another company’s products are being sold.
We haven’t heard anything from the lawsuit, as far as I know, so negotiations are clearly behind the scenes.
Now we hear that Bambu Lab will release the new H2D on March 25th.
When I analyzed the rumour material on the H2D, it does indeed seem like a machine that would compete against Stratasys products, assuming my guesses as to the H2D’s capabilities are true:
- Large build volume
- Ability to easily print a range of engineering materials, including CF materials
- Use of soluble support material
- Easy-to-use software and cloud support
Stratasys has a couple of 3D printer products that would seem to be close to those specifications, including:
- F190CR – 355 x 254 x 355 mm
- F370CR – 355 x 254 x 355 mm
These machines can print a range of engineering materials, have easy-to-use software, soluble support, and a build volume almost the same as the rumoured H2D.
While we don’t yet know the price of the H2D, it is likely lower, perhaps substantially, than either of these Stratasys options. So you can see why Stratasys may be concerned. Someone buying a desktop 3D printer would not consider these, but someone buying an H2D might.
I’m guessing that some agreement between the two companies has been negotiated, and Bambu Lab has been given the all-clear to release the H2D. However, we have no idea what the deal might be, or whether this speculation might be true.
But it sounds very much like previous patent infringement scenarios that concluded in this way.
