A laser cutter, a nine-tool printer and a plan to put a Bambu partner in every town

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Bambu Lab’s Frankfurt stand carries a machine that doesn’t print anything. The R1 is a 55W CO2 laser cutter and engraver, the company’s first product outside 3D printing, and it anchors the booth alongside the nine-tool H3C printer and a partner program called Bambu Circle.

Formnext 2026 runs November 17 to 20 in Frankfurt, with Bambu Lab in Hall 12.1 at booth G01 for its fourth year at the show. The R1 is already on sale through Bambu’s own store at $2,499, so the laser is the part of this announcement you can act on today.

Bambu Lab R1
55W CO2 laser · 600 x 300mm work area · Class 1 enclosed
Price: $2,499
Where to buy: Buy at Bambu Lab

A CO2 laser that cuts clear acrylic and aligns its own mirrors

The 55W CO2 tube cuts and engraves wood, acrylic, leather, paper and fabric, and it engraves glass, stone and coated metals. Clear acrylic is the tell here, since a diode beam passes straight through it while a CO2 beam gets absorbed and cuts. The bed measures 600 by 300mm, and the working speed runs up to 1,000mm/s. It engraves curved stock too, bowls and cups included.

Cut depth splits by lens, and the split decides what the base price really buys. The short-focus lens in the box cuts 15mm black walnut plywood and 20mm acrylic, while the 18mm walnut figure needs the medium- or long-focus lens, and that lens is sold separately.

The thickest cuts cost extra.

The alignment routine is the one CO2 owners will feel first. A sensor plate rides the toolhead, the machine reads the beam’s landing point, and motorized actuators walk the mirrors into line in about a minute, with no thermal paper, no test pulses and no screws to turn. TriSense then finds the stock for you, reading its position and surface height before the cut so focus lands on flat and curved pieces alike.

Class 1 on the desk, Class 4 once the conveyor goes on

In its enclosed setup the R1 is a Class 1 laser under IEC 60825-1, so it runs with no protective goggles and no dedicated room. Crossflow ventilation pulls air in one side and out the other, opening the lid stops the laser on the spot, and flame sensors keep watch while it works. That safety story has an asterisk.

With the Conveyor fitted, stock runs to 3,000mm long, three meters of board through a 300mm bed. Fit the Riser Base or the Conveyor and the enclosure opens up, which reclassifies the machine as Class 4 and puts goggles and trained use back on the table.

Both accessories are sold separately, along with the rotary attachment, the E1 Pro air purifier, the Vision Encoder and the automatic fire extinguishing system. It runs on the same Bambu account and MakerWorld library as the printers, through Bambu Suite on Windows and macOS.

Bambu Circle turns owners into the local dealer

Bambu Circle is the bigger bet at the booth, an authorized network of local partners who service machines, sell printers and materials at small scale, run print jobs for walk-in customers and teach classes.

The pilot starts in the Netherlands, where Bambu Lab’s own survey found 58% of its Dutch users wanted to earn side income from printing.

It’s a dealer network, built from owners.

The waiting list for the first partner cohort is open to anyone in Europe, show ticket or not, and Germany and France follow in early 2027. Bambu trains and certifies every partner itself, and its stated goal puts an authorized partner within an hour’s drive of every user it has in Europe.

Bambu Lab R1
55W CO2 laser · 600 x 300mm work area · Class 1 enclosed
Price: $2,499
Where to buy: Buy at Bambu Lab

Buy the R1 at $2,499 if your bench already runs Bambu printers and the setup labor is what kept you off CO2 lasers. Skip it if the work you want needs the conveyor, the rotary or the thick-stock lens on day one, since each is a separate purchase and the conveyor takes the machine out of Class 1. The nine-tool H3C shares the booth and the ecosystem pitch, and our H3C coverage from its launch has the tool-changer details.

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