SLA MATERIALS
With a matte surface finish, opaque appearance, and precise details, Grey Resins are ready to use right off the printer. Their neutral undertone also makes a great base for parts that will eventually be painted or undergo other finishing processes.
Tough 2000 Resin is the strongest and stiffest material in our functional family of Tough and Durable Resins. Choose Tough 2000 Resin for prototyping strong and sturdy parts that should not bend easily.
Durable Resin is the most pliable, impact resistant, and lubricious material in our functional family of Tough and Durable Resins. Choose Durable Resin for squeezable parts and low-friction assemblies.
An 80A Shore durometer material for more rigid flexible parts with a matte-black soft-touch finish. Choose Flexible Resin to create ergonomic features as part of larger assemblies.
Rigid Resin is reinforced with glass to offer very high stiffness and a polished finish. This material is highly resistant to deformation over time and is great for printing thin walls and features.
High Temp Resin offers a heat deflection temperature (HDT) of 238 °C @ 0.45 MPa, the highest among Formlabs resins. Use it to print detailed, precise prototypes with high temperature resistance.
Our softest Engineering Resin, this 50A Shore durometer material is suitable for prototyping parts normally produced with silicone. Choose Elastic Resin for parts that will bend, stretch, compress, and hold up to repeated cycles without tearing.
Tough 1500 Resin is the most resilient material in our functional family of Tough and Durable Resins. Choose Tough 1500 Resin for stiff and pliable parts that bend and spring back quickly.
Our original formulation for direct investment casting. This pure polymer requires an alternate burnout from a typical wax schedule.
Tested at length by dental technicians, Castable Wax Resin provides accurate, sealed margins and contains 20% wax for reliable casting with clean burnout. Printed patterns are strong enough to handle with no post-cure required, allowing for a faster, simpler workflow.
Model Resin was developed specifically to meet the high precision, accuracy, and throughput requirements of dental professionals. Print removable dies with crisp margins and contacts within ±35 microns.
Surgical Guide Resin is an autoclavable, biocompatible resin for applications including 3D printing dental surgical guides for implant placement. Developed specifically for Formlabs printers and rigorously tested with autoclaves, solvents, and implant systems, this material was designed from the ground up to exceed dental demands in part quality, accuracy, and performance.
Manufacture affordable, high-quality occlusal splints in-house with Dental LT Clear Resin. A Class IIa long-term biocompatible resin with high resistance to fracture, this clear material polishes to high optical transparency for a finished appliance you’ll be proud to deliver.
Bring your removables department digital now. Formlabs is expanding access to digital dentures with an efficient, cost-effective manufacturing solution. Class II long-term biocompatible Digital Denture Resins enable dental professionals to produce 3D printed full dentures accurately and reliably.
Bring your removables department digital now. Formlabs is expanding access to digital dentures with an efficient, cost-effective manufacturing solution. Class II long-term biocompatible Digital Denture Resins enable dental professionals to produce 3D printed full dentures accurately and reliably.
Ceramic Resin is a silica-filled photopolymer. After firing, the photopolymer network burns out to form a true ceramic part. Fired parts have unique properties that can be leveraged for applications where fired part accuracy is not critical.
Our fastest printing material, Draft Resin is suitable for printing large, bulky parts quickly. With a 300 micron layer height, it has acceptable accuracy for prototyping needs while enabling faster design iterations.
FDM MATERIALS
PETG is a Glycol Modified version of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), which is commonly used to manufacture water bottles. It is a semi-rigid material with good impact resistance, but it has a slightly softer surface which makes it prone to wear. The material also benefits from great thermal characteristics, allowing the plastic to cool efficiently with almost negligible warpage. There are several variations of this material in the market including PETG, PETE, and PETT. The tips in this article will apply to all of these PET-based filaments.
Polylactic Acid, commonly known as PLA, is one of the most popular materials used in desktop 3D printing. It is the default filament of choice for most extrusion-based 3D printers because it can be printed at a low temperature and does not require a heated bed. PLA is a great first material to use as you are learning about 3D printing because it is easy to print, very inexpensive, and creates parts that can be used for a wide variety of applications. It is also one of the most environmentally friendly filaments on the market today. Derived from crops such as corn and sugarcane, PLA is renewable and most importantly biodegradable. As a bonus, this also allows the plastic to give off a sweet aroma during printing.
ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) has a long history in the 3D printing world. This material was one of the first plastics to be used with industrial 3D printers. Many years later, ABS is still a very popular material thanks to its low cost and good mechanical properties. ABS is known for its toughness and impact resistance, allowing you to print durable parts that will hold up to extra usage and wear. LEGO building blocks are made from this material for that same reason! ABS also has a higher glass transition temperature, which means the material can withstand much higher temperatures before it begins to deform. This makes ABS a great choice for outdoor or high temperature applications. When printing with ABS, be sure to use an open space with good ventilation, as the material tends to have a slight odor. ABS also tends to contract quite a bit as it cools, so controlling the temperature of your build volume and the part inside can have major benefits.
Flexible filaments are made of Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPE) which are a blend of hard plastic and rubber. As the name suggests, this material is elastic in nature allowing the plastic to be stretched and flexed easily. There are several types of TPE, with Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) being the most commonly used among 3D printing filaments. In many cases, these terms are used interchangeably, along with popular brand names such as Ninjaflex. The degree of elasticity in the plastic depends on the type of TPE and the chemical formulation used by the manufacturer. For example, some filaments can be partially flexible like a car tire but others can be elastic and fully flexible like a rubber band. This guide will cover tips to help you with both of these variations of flexible filaments.
Nylon (a.k.a. Polyamide) is a popular material in the plastics industry, known for its toughness and flexibility. Nylon filaments typically require extruder temperatures near 250 ºC, however, some brands allow printing at temperatures as low as 220 ºC due to their chemical composition. Many printers do not include a hotend that can safely reach 250 ºC, so these lower-temperature versions can be useful and potentially save you from needing to upgrade your hotend. One big challenge with Nylon filaments is that they are hygroscopic, which means they readily absorb moisture from their surroundings. Printing Nylon after it has absorbed moisture will lead to several print quality issues, thus filament storage becomes very important and requires special attention.