Should I get an AMS (Automatic Material System) with my 3D printer?
Firstly, what is an AMS or Multi-Colour System? The main part of a Multi-Colour system is to hold multiple reels of filament that the printer can use if needed, without having to unload and reload filament into the printer.
When I bought my first FDM a couple of years ago, I bought the Bambu Labs A1 without the AMS. At the time, I couldn’t see the use of buying a multi coloured printer when I painted everything I printed on my resin printer.
Then the beginning of this year, I was struggling to get print jobs done with just one FDM printer and was starting to see a use for multi-colour when I was looking at printing certain models. So, I bought a Bambu Labs A1 mini with the AMS Combo. Now I know more about this what are the benefits and really happy I bought one.
The less well-publicised benefit of multi coloured systems is the ability of the printer to switch to another reel of filament when one runs out. For example, if you have a job that uses 200g of filament, but you have a reel with only 120g left. If you also load a new reel of the same filament, the printer will automatically switch mid-print without you having to do anything. This enables you to leave the printer unattended.
The multi colour is the obvious use of this, and it speaks for itself; I have found printing doors, for example, for a building, I can print one piece and have the door one colour and the door frame another and found the print comes out better than I could have painted it. The big downside of multi-colour prints is that you can waste a lot of filament with single-head printers. Long-term multi-heads will solve this, but in the meantime, you need to look at how best to print your items to reduce waste.
The other benefit of multi coloured systems (not on all systems) is the ability to keep filament dry and the ability to dry the filament; some filaments absorb moisture that can affect the print quality. To solve this issue, you need to dry the filament before use, and some of the new multi-coloured systems do this for you.