Which 3D printing material should you choose?

PLA Basic filament suits most models and prototypes; move off it only when the part must take load, heat above about 55°C, full sun, bending, fine detail, clear faces or metal strength. The table below matches each job to a material, and each section after it gives the short answer and a link to the deeper guide.

Which 3D printing material for which job

The best material for 3D printing a part depends on what it has to do, so start there, not from the material.

Source: filament figures are from the makers’ technical data sheets.

Not sure what it must do? Tell us and a person picks the material

Every material compared: FDM, SLA, SLS, MJF and metal

We print in five ways in our Singapore studio:

• Filament printing (fused deposition modeling, FDM)
• Resin printing (stereolithography, SLA)
• Nylon powder in two processes: selective laser sintering (SLS) and Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)
• Metal (selective laser melting, SLM)

The table shows how hot each material gets before it softens, its colours and the usual time to make a normal-size part (up to about 10 to 15 cm across).

Softens from: under the standard ISO 75 bending load, rounded down; a print with light infill softens a little sooner. Filament figures are from the makers’ data sheets, nylon from typical published PA12 powder data.

Lead times: a rough guide for a normal-size part, up to about 10 to 15 cm across. Larger prints take longer, large resin (SLA) parts especially, so check with us. Express is 3 to 5 working days and Super Rush 1 to 3; primed and painted, or plated, parts take 12 to 18.

Choosing the process first? Compare the five side by side

Looks and display models: PLA Basic or resin

PLA Basic is where most parts start. It is the cheapest material we print (priced by size, material and print time) and among the quickest, it comes in the widest range of colours, up to four in one print, and it is the easiest to sand, prime and paint. Its limits: it softens from about 55°C and goes brittle in the sun, so it stays indoors.

When the detail has to hold up close, a figurine face or small lettering, resin is the better pick: it prints lettering from 2 mm tall where filament needs 5 mm, with a smoother surface that needs only light sanding before primer and paint.

• Choosing between PLA and its neighbours: PLA, PETG, ABS or ASA compares the four everyday filaments.
• Choosing colours: colours for a 3D print covers the filament range, multi-colour and painting.

Display piece or prototype? Upload it and choose PLA Basic or a resin

Strength and durability: PETG, carbon fibre or nylon

PETG is the default for a part that does a job: tougher than PLA and good to about 68°C. For more, we print engineering filaments in our own studio: PETG-CF, ABS-GF, PC, PA6-CF, PAHT-CF and PPA-CF, so ask for the one you want, PETG-CF for example, in the quote notes. The carbon-fibre grades are stiff, but every filament print is weakest across its layers: PA6-CF’s pull strength (tensile strength) across them is about half what it is along them (the maker’s data sheet). How the part lies on the printer matters as much as the material, which carbon-fibre and engineering filaments explains grade by grade.

Nylon powder (PA12: grey, black or white on SLS, black on MJF) is the pick when the load comes from every direction or you need a batch. In SLS a laser fuses the powder layer by layer; in MJF, heat and a printed fusing agent do it. Either way the loose powder holds the part up, so hinges, clips and grilles print with no supports. It is close to equally strong in every direction, though it stretches less before breaking when pulled across the layers. MJF gives a smoother surface and very even batches; SLS is quicker here. Stiffer glass-filled nylon is made only on request: ask us.

• Designing for nylon powder: nylon SLS and MJF problems you can fix in the model.
• Nylon powder printing: our SLS service.

Part that takes a load? Upload it and choose PETG or nylon

Heat resistance and outdoors: ABS, ASA or PC

Under load, PLA softens from about 55°C, PETG about 68°C, ABS about 85°C, ASA about 90°C and PC about 110°C (published data sheets). In a 2018 Arizona State University study published in the journal Temperature, a dashboard in the sun reached about 69°C after an hour: past PLA, right at PETG’s softening point, and below ABS, ASA and PC. Hotter still, PAHT-CF holds to about 170°C and PPA-CF to about 195°C.

• Full sun: ASA. Its maker rates it for exceptional UV and weather resistance.
• Shade or a season outside: PETG.
• Damp: PA6-CF soaks up 2.35% water and loses 37% of its bending strength wet, so PAHT-CF is the carbon-fibre nylon for damp spots.
• Indoors only: PLA and resin, which go brittle or yellow in sunlight.

Will a 3D printed part survive Singapore heat, sun and rain? has the full figures for every material, from parked cars to rain.

Hot, sunny or damp spot? Tell us where it goes

Flexible parts: TPU 95A or flexible resin

TPU 95A is a rubbery filament that bends and springs back, stretching over 650% before it breaks, and it is the toughest filament on impact by far (the maker’s data sheet). It suits grips, seals, bumpers, straps and soft covers. It isn’t painted as a rule, because paint flexes off.

Flexible resin gives a softer-touch part with finer detail, in white. For a batch of soft rubber parts, a silicone mould cast from one printed master is often the better route.

Grip, seal or strap? Upload it and choose TPU 95A

Fine detail: resin printing

Resin holds detail down to 0.5 mm and gives the smoothest surface we print, so it is the base for figurines, masters for moulding, and anything primed and painted, or plated. The grades:

• Standard resin (white): detail, display pieces and masters.
• Strong and tough resins (light yellow, yellow or white): parts that are handled or snapped together.
• Fine-detail and accurate resins (brown or black): small detailed parts and tight fits.
• High-temperature resin (semi-translucent yellow-green): fixtures near heat and moulds; ask us for its figure.
• Clear, flexible and chemical-resistant resins: see the sections above and below.

Resin stays indoors, because sunlight yellows and weakens it, and a thin clip in resin can snap where nylon would flex. Which SLA resin should you choose? goes through each grade, and our resin printing service shows what it is used for.

Read which resin suits your part

Clear parts: clear resin

Clear resin comes in frost clear or full clear and turns see-through after finishing, for lenses, light guides, windows and display parts. It yellows in sunlight, so it stays indoors. If the part can be flat, laser-cut acrylic is clearer still. How clear can a 3D printed part get? compares the routes.

Tell us how clear it has to be

Food contact: PLA Pure filament or food-safe silicone

If you need a food safe filament, the one we print is PLA Pure. It has passed the EU’s food-contact tests under Regulation 10/2011 (70°C for two hours against water, oil and acid) and the EN 71-3 toy-safety test.

Its maker sets the limits: keep the part between 0°C and 60°C, don’t leave acidic, alkaline or oily food on it for long, and don’t soak it in liquid. Even in PLA Pure, a print’s layer lines and tiny gaps can hold food and bacteria, so it suits short, dry contact: cookie cutters, stencils, a scoop for dry goods. No other filament or resin we print is food-contact grade.

We print PLA Pure the way the maker’s PLA Pure guide recommends:

• a new, non-brass nozzle kept only for PLA Pure
• a print path never shared with fibre-filled or high-temperature filament
• a build plate washed with dish soap, and no glue
• 20 to 40% infill and 3 to 4 walls, so fewer gaps can hold dirt
• the food-facing surface printed as a side or top, never against supports
• each part trimmed, rinsed under running water, wiped with ethanol, rinsed again and dried

If you are designing the part, round off the inside corners and avoid blind holes a brush cannot reach.

For hot food, liquids or a kitchen product used every day, we cast in food-safe silicone from a 3D printed master instead. The smooth silicone part has none of a print’s layer lines. Silicone moulding has no minimum order, and a larger run costs less per piece.

Making something for food? Ask us

Metal: stainless steel, aluminium or titanium

When a part must take heat, load or wear that no plastic survives, we print it in stainless steel, aluminium or titanium (the alloy grades are in the comparison table). For another alloy, ask us.

• Aluminium: light and conducts heat well, for heat sinks, brackets and housings. It needs a finish to stay bright outdoors.
• Stainless steel: tough, hard-wearing and corrosion resistant, for tooling, jigs and marine parts.
• Titanium: the strongest for its weight, and it shrugs off weather.

Faces that must fit are machined after printing, and we usually prove the fit in plastic first. 3D printing tolerances and clearances shows how much gap a fitting part needs. Metal 3D print problems and the design fix covers the design side, and metal 3D printing vs CNC machining whether it should be printed at all. See our metal printing service.

Talk to us about a metal part

A materials guide for every process

Each process and technology has its own guide to the materials we use, with what each one suits:

Material finder: answer one question

The finder gives you a starting point, and a person still checks your file before it prints. To compare the processes themselves, see FDM, SLA, SLS, MJF or metal: which is right for you, or our 3D printing service.

Got your answer? Upload the file and pick that material in your quote