3D Printer Filaments

Happy New Year!

We’re starting out 2019 with a brand-new 3D printer (THANK YOU SANTA), and are checking back in to what’s available for printing materials. If you’re new to the 3D printing world, let’s just say it’s a fast-changing landscape – last time we looked was about a year ago, and there’s a whole raft of new materials.

We’ve found some awesome reference sites, but the most informative so far is the Matterhackers post, here. What’s new? Well, to us anyway, it’s the NylonX – a carbon-fiber infused Polyamide:

“NylonX 3D printing filament is an amazing, reinforced nylon filament. By adding micro-carbon fibers to nylon, you get a tough filament capable of printing parts with stiffness, impact resistance, and high tensile strength. NylonX filament is an engineering grade filament, ready for home 3D printing, which gives you the durability of Nylon combined with the stiffness of carbon fiber. The best part of NylonX is that the carbon fiber adds stability and rigidity, so parts are much less likely to warp than with standard nylon. With a unique matte black finish, NylonX eliminates post-print processing. Finished prints can immediately be moved to production with no sanding, polishing, scraping, or pesky acetone vapor baths. If you are already printing with Nylon, it’s time to upgrade to Nylon X. NylonX is available in both 1.75mm and 3mm. For tips and tricks on 3D printing NylonX, check out A Closer Look at 3D Printing with NylonX.

NylonX 3D Printing Filament Properties:

• NylonX filament is strong like carbon fiber and durable like nylon.
• Best used for tough functional parts, wear parts, and production-ready prints.
• Printed parts come off the bed with zero post processing required.

Another game changer is the flexible materials – they’re not for beginners, but with this stuff you can go for anything that needs to have the properties of a rubber-like material:

PRO Series Flex is a TPE filament, which is a flexible 3D printing material that feels and acts much like flexible rubber. As with all PRO Series filaments, Flex is made in the USA to the tightest tolerances for precision 3D printing. PRO Series Flex can be used to make parts that can bend or must flex to fit their environment – stoppers, belts, springs, phone cases and more. This extremely flexible 3D printer material will allow you to create 3D prints that will have the properties of a soft rubber, making it even more flexible and elastic than our Soft PLA filament. Due to its flexibility, slower print speeds must be used to keep the filament from binding in the extruder. PRO Series Flex filament is available in 1.75mm and 3mm.

PRO Series Flex 3D Printing Filament Properties:

PRO Series Flex filament creates rubbery, elastic, and impact resistant parts.
Best used for stoppers, belts, caps, phone cases, bumpers and more.
The less infill you use, the more flexible your finished print will be.
For tips and tricks on 3D printing PRO Series Flex, check out How To Succeed When Printing With Flexible Filament.

Let the printing games begin!