Versatile Plastic

WALL THICKNESS

Minimum Supported Wall Thickness

0.7 mm

Minimum Unsupported Wall Thickness

0.7 mm

A supported wall is connected on two or more sides. An unsupported wall is one connected to other walls on less than two sides. Walls in your model should be thicker than or equal to the minimum measurements suggested to ensure your model makes it through printing and cleaning. Walls that are too thin are prone to warping in the printing processing, or may break when we remove it from the printer and clean it. Walls and wires close to or slightly above the guidelines may still be rejected based on the geometry. For example, extra long wires or walls protruding from an object may be damaged during cleaning. Our production team will communicate with you if the design is too weak with tips on how to strengthen it.

WIRES

Minimum Supported Wires

0.8 mm (Natural)
0.9 mm (Processed and Premium)

Minimum Unsupported Wires

1.0 mm

A geometry considered a wire when its thinner in both unconnected directions than its length. When a geometry is thicker than 0.9 mm in one direction, it will fall under the wall guidelines. Wires that are under our suggested minimums are prone to breaking in the cleaning process, or warping.

SURFACE DETAILS

Min embossed detail

0.2 mm high & wide
0.5 mm for readable text

Min engraved detail

0.2 mm high & wide
0.5 mm for readable text

We recommend these minimum measurements for details like embossing or engraving, based off of printer resolution.

Although 0.2mm details will show up in this material, we find that text raised at least 0.5 mm shows up most clearly. If you want crisper text or embossed details, try bumping the thickness up to 0.5 mm.

ESCAPE HOLES

Single Escape Hole Diameter

4.0 mm

Multiple Escape Hole Diameter

2.0 mm

Pressurized air is used to blast excess powder from models that are hollow, or contain hollow cavities. In order for us to safely do this, escape holes need to be larger than 4.0 mm in diameter. For models larger than 50.00 mm³ we require two or more escape holes at least 2.00 mm in diameter.

A single escape hole at the end of a cavity will not allow material in the corners near the escape hole to fully escape. So we recommend multiple escape holes at both ends of the cavity.

CLEARANCE

0.5 mm

Clearance is the space between an two parts, e.g. space between gears or a ball and socket joint.

SPRUES

2 mm thick, attached in at least 2 places per part

Sprues are wires that keep two models together. Sprues are more likely to break compared to other wires because they typically connect parts with high mass on either side. For this reason, they need to be thicker than our minimum wire thickness.

INTERLOCKING AND ENCLOSED PARTS ?

Yes.

Versatile Plastic is printed with an SLS process that uses a laser to fuse together nylon powder. This enables interlocking parts, as long as the distance between them is greater than the indicated minimum.

MULTIPLE PARTS ?

Up to 250.

ACCURACY

±0.15 mm + 0.15% of the longest axis

For example: a product with dimensions of 50x50x100 mm can be 0.15 mm + 0.0015*100 mm = 0.3 mm bigger or smaller in any direction.

DESIGN TIPS