Every material on this list is here for a reason. The question is what your part has to survive.
Material selection is the decision that most often separates a printed part that works from one that is quietly wrong. Below is what we run and, more usefully, what each material is poor at. Published datasheet values for any filament are measured on injection-molded or optimally-printed coupons. A real part with layer lines, infill and a specific orientation will not match them, so treat the guidance here as directional and tell us the actual requirement.
| PETG | The sensible default. Tough, dimensionally stable, low warp, decent chemical resistance. Good for enclosures and general functional parts. Softer than nylon and it will creep under sustained load, so it is not the pick for a permanently stressed structural member. |
|---|---|
| PETG ESD | Static-dissipative PETG. For handling electronics, populated boards and anything where surface charge is the risk. Choose it when the part touches hardware that ESD would damage. |
| PLA | Stiff, precise, easy. Excellent dimensional accuracy and detail, good for fit checks, form studies, patterns and light-duty parts. Poor heat resistance and brittle under impact, so do not put it in a hot car, a sunny window or an enclosure near a power supply. |
| Nylon (PA) | Tough and abrasion resistant. The choice for living hinges, snap features, wear surfaces, gears and parts that get handled hard. Nylon absorbs moisture from the air, and that changes both its dimensions and its behavior. Worth knowing if the part has a tight fit. |
| ABS | Heat resistance on a budget. Takes more heat than PETG, and sands, bonds and finishes well. Sunlight yellows and weakens it, so a part that lives outside should be ASA. |
| ASA | ABS for outdoors. UV-stable: it keeps its color and strength in sun and weather, with a heat deflection near 100 °C. Weak across layers, so orient it for the load. |
| PC | Strength and heat, without fiber. The strongest and most heat-resistant unfilled plastic on this list. It must be dry to print well and costs more than PETG. |
| TPU | The flexible one. Shore 95A and rubber-like, for seals, feet, bumpers, cable guards and grips. It will not hold a tight dimension the way a rigid material does. |
| Nylon CF (PA‑CF) | The stiff one. Chopped carbon fiber in a nylon matrix: markedly stiffer and more dimensionally stable than unfilled nylon, with better heat performance. The right answer for structural brackets and parts where deflection under load would defeat the purpose. Stiffer also means less forgiving. It is not the material for a snap fit that has to flex. |
| PPA‑CF | Stiff, hot and solvent-resistant. Carbon-fiber polyphthalamide, a high-temperature nylon. The stiffest, strongest material we run in the print plane, with a heat deflection of 227 °C and resistance to oils and most solvents. Like any nylon it takes up moisture, and across layers it has under a third of its in-plane bending strength. |
| PPS‑CF | For hot, wet and chemical environments. Carbon-fiber PPS: a heat deflection of 264 °C, almost no water uptake, resistance to acids, alkalis, solvents and oils, and it self-extinguishes. It is brittle across layers, so it is not for parts that flex or take impact. |
The filament maker’s numbers, measured on its standard test specimens. XY is in the print plane, Z is across layers. Use them to compare materials, not to size a part.
| Material | Heat deflection, °C at 0.45 MPa | Bending strength, MPa (XY) | Bending modulus, MPa (XY) | Impact, kJ/m² (XY / Z) | Water uptake at saturation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PETG | 69 | 65 | 1,670 | 52.7 / 13.6 | 0.32% |
| PLA | 57 | 76 | 2,750 | 26.6 / 13.8 | 0.43% |
| ABS | 87 | 62 | 1,880 | 39.3 / 7.4 | 0.65% |
| PPA‑CF | 227 | 208 | 9,860 | 41.7 / 4.3 | 1.30% |
| PPS‑CF | 264 | 142 | 7,160 | 27.8 / 2.8 | 0.05% |
| PC | 117 | 108 | 2,310 | 34.8 / 9.0 | 0.25% |
| ASA | 100 | 65 | 1,920 | 41.0 / 4.9 | 0.45% |
| TPU | — | — | — | 125.2 / 88.7 | 1.16% |
TPU is flexible, so heat deflection and bending figures do not apply. PETG ESD, nylon and PA‑CF are not listed: no published figure here is measured on the grade we run.
Any of these will change the recommendation: peak operating temperature; sustained versus intermittent load; solvents, oils or cleaning chemicals it will meet; UV or outdoor exposure; whether it contacts a finished cosmetic surface; whether it must be static-dissipative; and how many assembly cycles the features have to survive.
Need something not on this list? Ask. If we cannot run it we will say so plainly rather than substituting something and hoping.
Parts are cleaned up before they ship. If a specific color or finish matters for your application, raise it in the quote notes and we will confirm what is available before production.
Sources: Bambu Lab Filament Guide and PPA‑CF and PPS‑CF technical data sheets.
Describe the load, the temperature and the environment in the quote notes. We will recommend one during review.
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