The prelude to a BL vending machine? or a printer that makes deserts and drinks eventually?
Bambū Desserts & Drinks … interesting.
During the activation, Bambu Lab’s 3D printers will be stationed directly inside Bambū storefronts, allowing customers to watch in real time as the machines precisely extrude layers to produce 1:1 replica drink models.
For Bambu Lab, the collaboration is primarily a demonstration of desktop 3D printing in public spaces. The company is not announcing any technical innovations. Instead, the focus is on allowing people to observe an automated additive manufacturing process firsthand.
I do not understand the logistics of this. They are going to teach bobaristas to maintain a 3d printer?
Also, I assume Bambu’s marketing budget is paying for all of this.
A barista can definitely run and maintain a Bambu Lab printer. The easy of use, reliability and low maintenance of BL printers come in handy for this kind of use. Also the low VOC emission filaments such as PLA Pure will help.
For the moment, it is only for printing replicas of the drink models. But I can see this can be broaden into a vending machine service that prints out models of people’s pets, handbags, people’s face, etc, based on some photos or the use BL’s upcoming 3D scanners. Customers can probably also print out some curated collection of toys from a menu on the screen.
It could be marketing budget because it will help build BL’s brand. But Bambu ( the deserts and drinks company) can potentially get more buzz and traffic because of the 3D printing. It may not cost BL that much or it could even be free for a trial period. Once it develops into a vending service, the deserts and drinks company can get a share of the profit.
It can promote 3D printing to the general public. So other printer companies and filament makers will also benefit from this.
I know a lovely barista who operates a cocoa press in her shop 
it’s not that hard or workflow disruptive to select a file on the menu and hit go. Espresso machines are 10x more operationally involved. She does it during prep, not while you wait though.