Bambu Lab is often painted as the “worst” 3D printer manufacturer that happens to make the “best” 3D printers. The company’s walled-garden approach and clashes with open-source projects have earned it some deserved pushback over the years, and yet this week they still don’t look as bad as Stratasys.

A Texas court just ruled that Bambu Lab infringed on 3D printing patents held by a company called Stratasys in the production of its first generation of 3D printers. That includes the debut X1, follow-up P1, and entry-level “bed-slinger” A1. These models are notable for taking the 3D printing world by storm.

Stratasys originally named 10 patents in its lawsuit. Bambu Lab was able to successfully defend its use of heated build surfaces and flexible steel plates on which filament is deposited (US 9592660) and remote monitoring of a cloud-connected 3D printer with a camera (US 8562324).

It was not so successful when it came to the use of purge towers (also called prime towers) as per US 9421713, or bed-leveling techniques via the use strain-gauge and force-sensor components which infringed upon US 9168698.

Purge towers are necessary to keep the nozzle clean and improve print quality in prints that use more than one filament. Bed-leveling was once the bane of 3D printer owners , requiring painstaking manual calibration. The implementation of reliable self-leveling technology and other user-friendly features is what put Bambu Lab on the map and caused so many to take notice of the brand in the first place.

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