FDM Materials Guide

PLA

What is it? Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is an environmentally friendly and biodegradable polymer made from corn starch or sugar cane. It is the easiest material to work with and perhaps the most commonly used filament type nowadays. While easy to use, it is not viable for extremely high mechanical loads but still offers reasonable strength for most of the applications. Additionally, a heated print bed is not strictly necessary (60ºC if used) and it prints at a lower temperature than ABS.

Print temperature: 195 - 215ºC

Pros:

• Easy to print
• Widely used
• Biodegradable (though very slowly)
• Easy to post-process
• Available in variety of colours
• Good UV resistance
• Lower print temperature
• Food safe

Cons:

• Lower mechanical strength

ABS

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) used to be the most widely used 3D printing material, due to its high mechanical strength, resistance to higher temperatures (from -20ºC to 80ºC), and low cost. With ABS, little post-processing is required and shiny, smooth surfaces can be printed. The printer’s print bed must be heated to 80ºC as the material shrinks if cooled too fast. However one of the many reasons ABS has been knocked off the to spot by PLA (including being harder to print successfully) is its poor safety profile as it needs to be printed in an enclosed printer or a filtered system to protect users from micro-particle emissions and volatile organic compounds. This is easily detectable by the strong smell it produces when printing.

Print temperature: 230 - 260ºC

Pros:

• High mechanical strength
• High temperature resistance
• Lightweight
• Little post-processing

Cons:

• Requires heated print bed
• Not biodegradable
• Harder to print (compared to PLA)
• Bad odour & potentially harmful fumes
• UV sensitive
• Brittle (very little flexibility)

Nylon

TPU

Thermoplastic Polyurethane's (TPU) main feature is that it is flexible (though it is al abrasion and chemical resistant). It is also fairly tough and that combined with its flexibility makes it hard to break (it is also resistant to low temperatures unlike some other flexible plastics). You can vary its degree of flexibility by adjusting the level of infill (a higher infill being more stiff) and it does not require a heated bed (but when used it should not go above 60 ‎°C). The downside of TPU is that it is more difficult to print compared to other filament materials, mainly due to its flexibility.

Print temperature: 220-250ºC

Pros:

• Flexible
• Tough
• Chemical and abrasion resistant

Cons:

• More difficult to achieve successful prints

PVA

Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) (think of the glue you use in glue sticks) is a biodegradable polymer that dissolves in water. It is ideal for support structures since it can be removed easily with water. PVA is mostly used in dual extruder 3D printers, such as the Ultimaker 3, and only used in supports as it can be easily removed. The main downside of PVA is its high cost and difficult storage. In the makerspace we keep our PVA in special silica gel dry boxes at all times to prevent them from becoming unusable.

Print temperature: 200 - 220ºC

Pros:

• Water soluble
• Ideal for supports

Cons:

• Very Moisture sensitive
• High Cost
• Prone to clogging
• Requires a dual extruder printer

Breakaway

Ultimaker’s 'Breakaway' material, a Polyurethane/PLA blend, is used to create support structures. This material is designed to be used as a support material for prints. 'Breakaway' is generally much easier to remove leaves a good surface finish after the removal of the supports on the faces of the object contacting the supports, compared to PLA for example. Although when it comes to dual extrusion printers, PVA supports provide great surface quality and require no hands on post processing, the object needs to be submerged in water to dissolve the supports. Breakaway material comes in handy when you don’t want to, or don’t have the time to, wait for PVA to dissolve in water. Unfortunately breakaway can only be used with a very specific set of nozzle sizes on Ultimaker printers.

Print temperature: 215 - 230ºC

Pros:

• Ideal for supports
• Good surface finish
• Easy to remove
• Long shelf life (not sensitive to moisture)
• Slightly cheaper than PVA

Cons:

• Requires a dual extruder printer
• Not useful for internal supports
• Limited printer usage
• Only available from Ultimaker (branded)