Properties

The most popular material, the Strong & Flexible family is laser sintered nylon plastic that comes in a variety of colors and finishes. The material is incredibly versatile; when thin, it is flexible enough to be used for hinges and springs yet strong enough to be used as structural components when thicker. This material can be used for a wide variety of applications, from iPhone cases to jewelry, remote controlled quadcopters to wearable bikinis.

We start with a bed of powder, and then sinter the powder with a laser layer by layer, solidifying the powder as we go. Because of this layer by layer process, some models may see a staircase effect (see picture above). How much you see this effect depends on how your model is oriented in the print tray. Our production planners are working hard to orient models optimally to ensure efficient and good lookin' trays.

We also offer a volume and density discount on Strong & Flexible materials. For models that are greater than 10% dense (material volume divided by bounding box volume), after the first 20cm3, the remaining volume is calculated with a 50% discount.

This material is not watertight, is dishwasher safe, not recyclable, and not foodsafe. It is heatproof to 80C/176F degrees. Higher temperatures may significantly change material properties.

Technical PDFs: Material Data Sheet, Material Safety Data Sheet

Top Design Tips

• 1Make sure your walls are above 0.7mm - One of the most common reasons Strong & Flexible parts get rejected is because the part include walls below 0.7mm. Parts below 0.7mm tend to be fragile, and more difficult to handle, more prone to breaking. To check your walls, you can download Netfabb Basic. Click on your part, then click on the ruler icon at top.
• 2Prevent walls warping on larger model - Large models with thin walls may warp depending on the shape of the part. Because this material is flexible, bigger parts with thin walls will drop due to gravity, so you will get best results if you scale the width of your walls so it is better aligned with the size of the longest dimension. For example, say that your part is x mm long (longest dimension). ... read more
• 3Print lines or "Stepping" - Depending on the shape of your model and orientation in the print tray, you might see print lines, or “stepping” phenomena on your model, which is a natural artifact of 3D printing using the SLS process. SLS printing works by printing layer by layer, and while our layers are around 0.12mm thin, there is a "step" between each layer, much like a staircase. ... read more
• Read more Design Guidelines