Eight filaments. Pick by what the part has to survive.

PLA

The default for anything that doesn’t have a reason to be something else. Prints accurately, holds fine detail, and produces the cleanest surface finish of the set at the lowest cost. It’s the right answer more often than engineers expect.

Good for: general-purpose parts, cosmetic components, display and presentation models, fit-check prototypes, low-stress fixtures, packaging inserts.

Watch out for: it softens at temperatures a closed vehicle in summer will reach, so it’s not a car-interior or near-machinery material. UV exposure makes it brittle over months, and it’s stiff rather than tough — under impact it cracks instead of flexing.

PLA-HR

A higher-resilience PLA. It keeps PLA’s easy printing and dimensional accuracy while being noticeably less prone to snapping under sudden load. We stock it as a specified option: if your drawing or supplier calls for PLA-HR, that’s what we run.

Good for: PLA parts that get handled, dropped, or clipped in and out repeatedly — and any job where the specification names it.

Watch out for: the temperature and UV limits are still PLA’s. Improved toughness is not improved heat resistance. If the part goes outdoors or gets warm, you want ASA or ABS instead.

Glow-in-the-dark PLA

PLA with a phosphorescent additive that charges under light and glows in darkness. Genuinely useful for a narrow set of jobs, and honest about being a novelty for the rest.

Good for: emergency and wayfinding markers, switch and handle indicators, equipment that has to be located during a power cut, event and display pieces, branded items with a talking point.

Watch out for: the additive is abrasive and mildly reduces strength, so it’s a cosmetic and visibility choice rather than a structural one. Glow decays over minutes to an hour after charging — it is not a substitute for regulated photoluminescent safety signage.

PETG

The pragmatic middle ground, and our most common recommendation for functional parts. Tougher than PLA, more forgiving than ABS, and comfortable with moisture and a range of chemicals. It flexes under load rather than shattering.

Good for: enclosures and housings, brackets and mounts, guards and shields, parts near liquids or cleaning products, anything that gets knocked in normal use.

Watch out for: the surface finish is slightly glossier and less crisp than PLA, and fine detail is a little softer. It handles occasional sun but isn’t the material for permanent outdoor installation — that’s ASA.

ASA

The one to lead with for outdoor use. ASA is UV-stable by design: it holds its colour and mechanical properties under sustained sunlight where PLA embrittles and ABS yellows and chalks. Otherwise it behaves much like ABS — tough, heat-tolerant, and sandable.

Good for: external signage and fixings, sensor and antenna housings, garden and site equipment, roof and vehicle-exterior mounts, anything installed outside and expected to last.

Watch out for: it needs a controlled chamber to print without warping or splitting. Ours is enclosed, so this is a routine production material here rather than a request we have to decline — but it’s worth knowing why a cheaper quote elsewhere might come back in PETG instead.

ABS

The traditional engineering thermoplastic, and still the right call when impact resistance and heat tolerance matter more than surface finish. Tougher than PLA by a wide margin, and machinable, drillable, and glueable after printing.

Good for: housings that get dropped, automotive and workshop parts, components near warm equipment, jigs that live a hard life on a bench, parts you intend to post-process.

Watch out for: it shrinks as it cools, so large flat parts need the enclosure to stay flat. It is not UV-stable — left in sunlight it yellows and chalks, which is exactly the job ASA exists to do.

PC (polycarbonate)

The strongest and most heat-tolerant material we run. Polycarbonate is where you go when the part carries real load, gets genuinely hot, or has to be as close to a machined component as FDM can reasonably get.

Good for: load-bearing brackets and structural components, parts near heat sources, tooling and fixtures under clamping force, high-stress mechanical prototypes.

Watch out for: the most demanding material of the set. It needs high temperatures, an enclosure, and thoroughly dried filament, which makes it the most expensive per part. It’s also notch-sensitive — a sharp internal corner is where a PC part will crack, so design in a fillet. We’ll say plainly when PETG or ABS would do the job for less.

PVA is not a part material. You will never receive a PVA component from us and you shouldn’t specify one. It is a water-soluble support material, printed alongside your chosen part material and then dissolved away in plain water, leaving the part behind.

Printing two materials in one job needs a multi-material setup. Our machine has an automatic material system feeding multiple filaments, so this is a standard capability here rather than a special request — which is worth knowing, because most FDM shops can’t offer it.

What that gets you

• Enclosed internal geometry. Channels, manifolds, and voids that are impossible to reach with a tool once the print is finished.
• Deep undercuts and captive features. Snap-fits, retaining lips, and trapped geometry that break-away support would either wreck or refuse to release.
• Unmarked cosmetic surfaces. No scarring, gouging, or witness marks from prying support off a face that had to stay smooth.
• Overhangs on their own terms. Steep, complex, or organic overhangs supported fully and then removed completely.
• Consistency across a run. Dissolving support removes the manual step where units start differing from each other.

The practical test: if a supplier has previously said a part was unprintable, or it came back damaged where supports were, soluble support may be worth considering for a future accepted project.

The trade-off, stated honestly: soluble support adds material cost and dissolving time to the job, so it isn’t the default. We use it where the geometry actually needs it and quote conventional support where it doesn’t — and we’ll tell you which one your part is getting.