Can I print more than four colours in one part?

Not in a single print. The AMS holds four spools, so four is the ceiling per job. A part needing more colours can be split into sections printed separately and assembled, or you can use a paint pass for the additional colours.

Can I mix different materials, not just different colours?

Yes, within limits. Materials that print at compatible temperatures and bond to each other can be combined, PLA with PLA-CF, or PETG with a soluble support interface, for example. Combining materials with very different print temperatures or poor mutual adhesion produces a part that delaminates at the boundary, so we'll tell you if a combination won't hold.

Why can TPU not be used in a multi-colour print?

TPU is flexible, and the AMS feed path involves tight bends and a buffer that a soft filament buckles in rather than pushes through. TPU therefore prints from an external spool on a direct path to the extruder, which rules it out of AMS jobs. TPU parts are still available as single-material prints.

Multi-Material & Multi-Colour Printing

Our Bambu Lab P1S runs a four-spool AMS, so a single part can combine up to four colours or materials in one print, no painting, no decals, no assembly step.

Get an Instant Estimate Talk to an engineer

Right for

Parts where the colour carries information or brand: colour-coded fixtures, labelled panels, two-tone housings, and anything you'd otherwise mask and spray.

Not right for

Large single-colour production runs, where the AMS only adds cost, or anything involving TPU, which feeds from an external spool and can't join a multi-material job.

How the AMS works

The Automatic Material System sits beside the printer holding four spools. When the slicer reaches a colour change, the AMS retracts the current filament, feeds the next one, and purges the nozzle until the old colour is completely flushed out. Then printing resumes. The whole exchange is automatic and can happen hundreds of times in a single part.

The result is multi-colour geometry rather than a painted approximation. The colour goes all the way through the material, so a scuff doesn't reveal a different colour underneath, and there's no paint layer to chip, peel or wear off a handled surface.

The honest cost of a colour change

Every filament swap purges the hot end, and that purged material is waste. On a part with frequent changes, the waste can approach the mass of the part itself. The swaps also take time, the printer is retracting, loading and purging rather than laying down plastic.

We price this openly rather than hiding it: a multi-material job carries roughly 45% more material and 35% more machine time than the same part in one colour. The estimator applies exactly that when you tick the multi-material box, so the number you see already accounts for it.

There's a design lever here worth knowing. Cost scales with the number of colour *changes*, not the number of colours. A part with four colours arranged in four horizontal bands is cheap, because each colour is used once. The same four colours scattered as a repeating pattern up the height of the part is expensive, because every layer triggers four swaps. If budget matters, group your colours by height and the price drops sharply.

Beyond colour: breakaway supports

The AMS earns its keep on geometry as much as on appearance. With a second material loaded as a support interface, overhangs and internal cavities can be supported by a material that doesn't bond strongly to the part. So the support snaps away cleanly and leaves a smooth surface instead of the scarred witness marks that same-material supports leave behind.

This opens up internal channels, enclosed cavities and deep undercuts that would otherwise be impossible to clean up by hand, or would require splitting the part into pieces you then have to glue together.

Good candidates for multi-material

Control panels with printed-in legends and colour-coded zones
Branded enclosures in company colours, no painting required
Fixtures colour-coded by station or by part number
Models where a contrasting colour makes geometry legible
Parts with internal cavities needing clean support removal