PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA or TPU? Choosing the right filament for your part

Every quote request starts with the same question, even when the customer doesn’t ask it: what does this part have to survive? Sunlight, heat, a drop on the floor, a screw being tightened into it, or nothing at all except being looked at. The answer decides the material, and the material decides the price, the finish and how long the print takes. Here is how we choose between the five filaments we run on the Voron and the V-Minion.

The short version

PLA — the default for anything you look at

PLA prints the cleanest surfaces and the sharpest detail of the five, comes in the widest range of colours, and is the cheapest. It is stiff and dimensionally very stable, which is why almost all our display pieces, masks, vases and figures are PLA. Its limits are heat and impact: leave a PLA part on a car dashboard in summer and it will sag, and a thin PLA feature snaps rather than bends. For a collectible, a cosplay prop or a prototype to check fit and form, none of that matters.

PETG — when the part has a job to do

PETG is tougher than PLA, takes a bit of flex before it fails, handles warm environments and doesn’t mind moisture. That makes it our pick for brackets, holders, enclosures, containers and anything that gets screwed, clipped or clamped indoors. The trade-off is cosmetic: PETG strings more and its surfaces are a little softer looking. For functional parts that is rarely a problem.

ABS — heat, strength and a smooth finish

ABS is the classic engineering plastic: strong, slightly flexible, comfortable at temperatures that would soften PLA and PETG, and it can be sanded, drilled and tapped. Acetone vapour smooths it to a glossy, injection-moulded look. The catch is that ABS shrinks as it cools and will warp or crack on an open printer. That is one of the reasons our main machine is an enclosed Voron 2.4: the chamber stays warm, so large ABS parts come off flat. Printer parts, tool holders and anything near a heat source are ABS jobs.

ASA — ABS for outside

ASA behaves like ABS on the printer and in the hand, with one important difference: it doesn’t yellow or go brittle in sunlight. Garden, car exterior, boat, balcony — if the part lives outdoors, we print it in ASA. Same enclosure requirements, same finishing options.

TPU — when it has to bend

TPU is a rubber-like filament. Phone-case flexibility, gaskets, feet, straps, protective bumpers and vibration dampers are all TPU. It prints slowly and doesn’t hold fine detail the way PLA does, so it is a material you choose for the property, not the looks.

What we would pick for common requests

• Cosplay prop, figure, mask, vase, display model → PLA
• Bracket, mount, holder, enclosure that stays indoors → PETG
• Part near heat, printer or machine part, something you’ll sand and paint smooth → ABS
• Anything outdoors → ASA
• Grip, gasket, strap, bumper, anything flexible → TPU
• Not sure → tell us what the part does and we’ll choose; that is part of the quote

Colours and finish

We print in up to six colours in one part, so logos, labels and two-tone designs are possible without painting. Layer heights start at 0.1 mm for fine detail; larger, purely functional parts are printed coarser to keep the price down. If a part needs to look moulded rather than printed, tell us — sanding, priming and painting, or acetone smoothing for ABS/ASA, are options.