The Shapeways 3D Printing Elasto Plastic trial is drawing to a close on July 20th. We are temporarily suspending this material to make improvements requested by the community.
Why are we putting Elasto Plastic on hold?
We launched Elasto Plastic as an experimental material that stretched the limits of 3D printing design. While we were all excited about the potential, there are a few improvements we’d like to make before it goes to prime time.
From a material perspective, the material’s minimum wall thickness requirement prohibited cost-effective and super flexible models, which in turn limited the designs you could create. Elasto was also rejection prone, which was not a great experience for you, nor for your customers.
Though we LOVED the innovative and distinct nature of this material, we’re going to put it on hold for the time being. We’re exploring alternative processes to make Elasto Plastic thinner, airtight, and smoother. If you have any other feedback, please let us know!
What does this mean for you?
If you’re a designer who has Elasto Plastic models available for sale...If your models can be printed in other materials, all you have to do is ensure those materials are enabled on your product page. Given that the design rules for Elasto Plastic were relatively restrictive, most models that were designed for Elasto Plastic can likely be printed in WSF or other materials. We recommend testing these models in new materials before making them available for sale.

Shapeways ElastoPlastic

If you seriously love Elasto Plastic and can’t live without it…Stock up while you can! The last day you can order a model in Elasto Plastic will be July 19th.
Thanks for creating the future with us as we continue to stretch the boundaries of 3D printing.