Complete Guide to 3D Printer Filaments

Complete Guide to 3D Printer Filaments
Apr 27, 2020
Complete Guide to 3D Printer Filaments

Here is the complete guide to finding the color options available for all kind of filaments that RoboRium is capable of supplying. Each filament is mentioned according to their type, and weight of the filament per roll is mentioned in brackets. All our filaments are 1.75mm in diameter, and compatible with 3D printers and 3D pens available on our store.

Note: If you are placing bulk order of weight 24kg or more, we'll give you 10% off on the price of the filament.

Some colors mentioned here may not be listed on the website as we only list the most commonly sold filament colors and types but they are still available for purchase. You can contact us on email (Click Here) to find out the price and availability for the quantities you need, even if its just 1 roll.

Filament Properties

PLA filament works with all printers, even the ones without a heat-bed. It usually requires a nozzle temperature of 180° to 230°C, but works well at 210°C. It does not require a heat bed so works on all low-cost printers as well, but when a heat-bed is available, a temperature of up to 50°C is usually enough to maintain a good print adhesion but if you are working in cold temperatures, it is best to use magigoo (Click Here) or PLA Gloop (Click Here) for bed adhesion. This is a biodegradable plastic.

ABS filament works best with printers with a heat-bed in warm weather and requires good bed adhesion to avoid warping which can be avoided in printers that have an enclosure. ABS dissolves when exposed to Acetone. It usually requires nozzle temperature of 210° to 230°C and a heat-bed temperature of 90° to 110°C is ideal. If the printer does not have an enclosure and you are printing during a relatively cold weather of less than 10°C room temperature, make sure there are no cold wind drafts in the room while the printer is operating, the cooling fans on the printer are off, the bed temperature is kept to 110°C at all times, and you have good bed adhesion by using ABS Slurry (a mixture of ABS filament that has been dissolved in Acetone), magigoo (Click Here), OR ABS Gloop (Click Here).

PETG filament works with all printers. Even though it requires higher nozzle temperature of 210° to 230°C, it does not require a high heat-bed temperature and can work on printers with heat-bed temperature of up to 50°C. This filament has the durability of ABS and is yet quite flexible. Due to this property PETG (and PET) are commonly used in manufacturing soft-drink bottles.

HIPS filament and PVA filament dissolve in d-Limonene and water respectively when kept overnight (at least 6-8 hours). This property makes them ideal for creating supports to highly-detailed objects made of ABS or PLA filaments respectively. These filaments work best with printers with dual nozzles, with one nozzle focused on creating the supports, and the other nozzle using ABS or PLA for the object to be printed. HIPS has similar properties to ABS making them the ideal printing companion. Print settings for ABS will work for HIPS as well and print settings for PLA will work for PVA too.

Flexible TPU filament works on all printers as it does not require extremely high heat-bed temperatures like ABS, so similar settings to PLA work for this filament as well. However for TPU it is best to have a good bed adhesion with glue-water mixture (craft glue like Fevicol MR, mixed with water in 1:1 ratio) or magigoo (Click Here), a slightly higher bed temperature of 50-60°C and the reduced print speed of 20-25mm/s.

Thibra Skulpt filament and can be heated with a heat-gun to sculpt more details into the design, to make adjustments or changes on 3D prints after printing! Thibra3D Skulpt is infinitely changeable when heated with a hot air gun. A revolutionary filament for industrial designers, prototyping, artists, architects, prop makers or anyone who wants to make complete, clean and extremely smooth creations with their 3D printer. You no longer have to worry about printing lines, blobs or zits in the surface of your 3D print. To sculpt after printing, you can use your hands or normal sculpting tools on the object. Once it cools down again, it will retain these sculpted details. It has the flexibility of TPU and the durability of PETG. When printing objects with this filament its best to keep the infill at 25% or higher if you intend to use a heat-gun after printing with it. Objects printed with the Gray filament are a little more rigid yet bendable (like PETG) but with a rubber like texture. Objects printed with Black are more flexible (comparable to TPU) and can even be used for practical things like wearable shoes. Both Gray and Black can be used for welding PLA objects together using a 3D pen. Extruder temperature of 210°C and heatbed temperature of 60°C is best for the first layer and though the manufacturer recommends you decrease it to 45°C for second layer and above, from our experiments we think its possible to let it stay at 60°C as well if you are not an advanced user and don't know how to do that. Make sure you add extra top and bottom solid layers (5-10) as well as a few extra outer perimeter shells (5-6) IF you intend to heat it after printing to add details. Default printing speed of 40mm/s is usually ideal. Though a brim of 10-20 is recommended, if you use glue-water mixture on your print surface a brim of 4-5 will work just as nicely. This is a pretty good tutorial to follow (Click Here).

Marble, Tri Color, Silk-Like, Rainbow filaments works exactly like PLA filament with the same print settings.

Wood filament, Metal-like filament, Conductive filament and Carbon Fiber filament work exactly like PLA filament too, but it is best to have a steel nozzle when printing with these filaments in excess as it will cause some wear on a normal brass nozzle with regular use.

Light Color Change filaments change color on exposure to UV led lights or to normal sunlight.

Temperature Color Change filaments are thermochromic filaments which change color, to the second color mentioned in the name, when their surface temperature goes above 33°C.

Glow in the Dark filaments glow when kept in darkened areas but needs to be UV-charged which means that the longer the object is exposed to UV rays of sunlight, the brighter it will glow when moved to the dark. It is best to have a steel nozzle when printing with this filament in excess as it will cause some wear on a normal brass nozzle with regular use.

When in doubt, refer to the box of the filament for print temperature settings and print the object at the average temperature of the range mentioned on the box. You can download some common Simplify3D print profiles we use for the above filaments from this link (Click Here).

Filament Color Variants

PLA Normal (1kg) : Natural/Transparent, Paper White (default white color), Milk White, Skin, Pink, Yellow, Orange, Sky Blue, Blue, Green, Grass Green, Dark Green, Dark/Navy Blue, Grey, Red, Purple, Brown, Bronze, Gold, Silver, Black, Maroon, Graphite

PLA Fluorescent Colors (1kg) : Red, Pink, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange

PLA Glow in the Dark (1kg) : Blue, Red, Green, White

PLA Light Color Change (1kg) : White to Red, White to Yellow, White to Blue, White to Purple

PLA Transparent (1kg) : Blue, Orange, Red, Yellow, Green, Purple

PLA Matte (1kg) : Black, Milk White, Blue, Graphite, Grey, Red

PLA Temperature Color Change (1kg) : Red to White, Blue to White, Yellow to White, Grey to White, Green to Yellow, Orange to Yellow

PLA Shining (1kg) : Gold, Silver, Pink, Blue, Black, Purple

Tri Color (1kg) : Lava (Black to Red to Yellow)

Rainbow Silk-like (1kg) : Rainbow

Firefly (1kg) : Green

Rainbow PLA (1kg) : Multicolor

Rainbow PLA (0.5kg) : Multicolor

Silk-Like (1kg) : Gold, Silver, Silver Grey, White, Green, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Dark Blue, Sky Blue, Fog Blue, Blue Purple, Copper, Youth Red, Wine Red, Red, Lavender

Flexible TPU (0.8kg) : Clear/Transparent, White, Purple, Skin, Red, Transparent Yellow, Transparent Blue, Transparent Red, Transparent Green, Transparent Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, Black

Wood (0.8kg) : Soft-wood, wood

Marble (1kg) : Marble White

Metal-Like (1kg) : Gold, Bronze, Brass, Copper, Aluminum

Carbon Fiber PLA (1kg) : Black

Carbon Fiber PETG (1kg) : Black

ABS Normal (1kg) : Clear/Transparent, Natural, White, Skin, Pink, Yellow, Orange, Sky Blue, Grass Blue, Blue, Green, Dark Green, Dark/Navy Blue, Grey, Red, Purple, Brown, Bronze, Gold, Silver, Black, Maroon, Graphite

ABS Fluorescent (1kg) : Fluorescent Red, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Blue, Fluorescent Green

ABS Glow in the Dark (1kg) : Luminous Blue, Luminous Red, Luminous Green

ABS Light Color Change (1kg) : White to Red, White to Yellow, White to Blue, White to Purple

ABS Transparent (1kg) : Blue, Orange, Red, Yellow, Green, Purple

ABS Temperature Color Change (1kg) : Red to White, Blue to White, Yellow to White, Grey to White, Green to Yellow, Orange to Yellow

TPE (0.8kg) : Natural, Black

HPLA (1kg) : White, Transparent, Black, Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Skin, Yellow, Grey

PETG (1kg) : Transparent, Orange, Green, Yellow, White, Red, Grey, Blue, Black, Purple

HIPS (1kg) : Natural, White, Pink, Yellow, Orange, Green, Grey, Red, Blue, Purple, Silver, Black

PVA (0.5kg): Natural, White

Conductive (0.5kg) : Black

Conductive (0.2kg) : Black

PCL (0.5kg) : Natural/White

ASA (1kg) : Natural/White

PA (1kg) : Black, White

PC (1kg) : Natural

POM (1kg) : White

Thibra Skulpt (0.5kg) : Black, Copper, Gray, Gold

Thibra Skulpt (0.75kg) : Black, Copper, Gray, Gold

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