Jan 23, 2015 | By Will
In honor of the upcoming year of the goat, Chinese filament manufacturer eSUN adds a new bronze PLA filament for 3D printers to their portfolio. For those who didn't know, PLA is a common biodegradable thermoplastic used in FDM 3D printers. According to one of their R & D engineers the new bronze PLA filament has "not only the colour of bronze, but also the metallic shine, so you can easily finish bronze art." Like normal PLA it is also easy to use, with low processing temperature and good liquidity. The company makes no mention of containing any actual bronze, so it appears to be lead-free and safe to use. The eSUN team created a special model called "San Yang Kai Tai" to honor the goat in hopes that spring comes in full form.
eSUN, a leading Chinese filament producer, is sure that this metallic PLA will "bring more joy to creation" using 3D printers at the price of 200 RMB per 0.5 kg spool, roughly 28.5 EUR or 32 USD. Great for artistic and sculptural designs, they say that it also is easy to use. The filament melts at a low 190~210°C and, according to the company, exhibits less warping and shrinking than other PLA options while maintaining excellent strength and Young's modulus (for those who aren't familiar, Young's modulus is a measure of tensile strength). eSUN says that it's easy to process and doesn't smell when melting like most other filaments. They recommend using a 60°C heated print bed with blue textured tape in order for prints to stick best.
Bronze PLA sculpture of the Buddha
Bronze PLA sculpture of Einstein
The company admits that after using the bronze PLA, one should clean out the extruder head on his or her 3D printer. Coincidentally, eSUN is one of the only companies to offer a cleaning filament among their products. Just load up some of that after printing with bronze and it will flush the residual PLA right out!
If you'd like to be one of the first to try eSUN's new bronze filament, head over to their website and check it out. They ship to anywhere in the world, the price is reasonable compared to most other PLA options, and inventory is ready to be sent out immediately — just in time to ring in the year of the goat.
Bronze PLA sculpture of Putin
Bronze goblet sculpture
Posted in 3D Printer Filament
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its just Metallic Bronze not the actual bronze fill. BTW every Metallic filament ive owned is brittle and breaks, sometimes during printing so watch out.
kees wrote at 1/26/2015 9:54:46 AM:
How is this bronze PLA? on its colour it doesn't look at bronze at all....
Tao wrote at 1/24/2015 5:33:11 PM:
wow really great pictures and information. i really enjoy reading it. http://www.mbot3d.com