Material Comparison Chart
The common FDM materials, side by side, so you can pick before you're mid-print and wishing you'd used something else.
| Material | Nozzle temp | Bed temp | Enclosure | Strength | Flexibility | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLA | 190–220°C | 0–60°C | Not needed | Medium, brittle under stress | Rigid | Display models, prototypes, easiest first material |
| PETG | 230–250°C | 70–90°C | Not needed | Good, more impact-resistant than PLA | Semi-rigid | Functional parts, outdoor use, food-adjacent containers |
| ABS | 230–250°C | 95–110°C | Recommended | Good, durable | Rigid | Automotive-adjacent parts, higher heat tolerance |
| ASA | 240–260°C | 95–110°C | Recommended | Good, durable | Rigid | Outdoor parts needing UV resistance (mailboxes, signs) |
| TPU | 210–230°C | 0–60°C | Not needed | Good, tear-resistant | Flexible | Phone cases, gaskets, wearables, vibration dampening |
| Nylon | 240–260°C | 70–90°C | Recommended | Excellent, high fatigue resistance | Semi-flexible | Gears, hinges, load-bearing functional parts |
| PC (Polycarbonate) | 270–300°C | 100–120°C | Required | Excellent, high heat resistance | Rigid | High-strength or high-temperature functional parts |
Reading this chart before you buy a spool
Temperatures here are starting points, not exact settings — every brand's formulation is a little different, and the temperature tower most slicers can generate is worth running the first time you try a new brand rather than trusting any chart, including this one, as gospel. "Enclosure recommended" means the material is prone to warping or cracking from drafts and temperature swings as it cools, not that it's impossible to print without one; a draft shield or simply avoiding a room with an AC vent overhead often gets ABS or ASA printable on an open-frame printer.
Picking by what the part actually needs
Start from the part's job, not from whichever filament is already loaded: PLA for anything purely visual, PETG as the default for anything that needs to survive being handled or sitting outside briefly, nylon or PC when a part is genuinely load-bearing and PETG has failed before, and TPU only when the part specifically needs to flex or absorb impact. Reaching for ABS/ASA/nylon/PC without an enclosure is the most common source of failed prints for people coming from PLA, since warping from an open frame's cooling drafts looks identical to a "bad" print but is really just a materials-and-setup mismatch.