SunLu TPU Filament – 1.75mm Transparent Clear 0.5kg

As an experienced Maker, you may have tried your hand at some of the popular 3D Filament materials on the market, using PLA for aesthetic and decoration purposes, while taking advantage of the high strength of ABS for functional prints. However, if you want to enjoy a more unique style of 3D Filament, then Transparent Clear SunLu TPU Filament is certainly one of the most unique around and is designed with a high level of flexibility to give it extra mechanical strength in real world applications, and a lot of extra fun for the more playful types of prints. TPU is a thermoplastic polyurethane, which means that it fits right between rubber and plastic, and this results in a filament that can flex, bend, squish and more, depending on the style of the print and the infill used. This makes SunLu TPU Filaments unique even among other filaments and is certainly a good polymer to try if you’re looking for something different, or just want to have fun with your 3D Printer.

Although you may have noticed that a large majority of TPU designs on popular sites like Thingiverse will primarily be designed just for fun, TPU can also be quite an impressive functional filament to use as well, for brackets that need a little more flex than what PETG or ABS Filaments offer, for dampeners that need to take some force while still staying upright, as well as many other useful applications that can easily be utilised in the real world. This is why, in addition to printing loads of flexible creatures like the classic “Flexy Rex”, we also like to use TPU for handy applications like high-grip robot wheels, rubber feet for 3D Printers, door stops and many other useful things that we can use around the office and home. This high level of functionality, coupled with the incredible fun that TPU can offer, makes it an awesome material to have on hand for when you need it.

This SunLu Transparent TPU Filament is clear, making it an interesting filament to work with and could take on the colour of LED light behind a cool Electronics Project as well! However with SunLu’s range of TPU filaments being available in a wide range of different colours, you can find the style that best suits you, ultimately providing fun, functionality, aesthetics and personalisation to whatever projects (or desktop toys) that you’re eager to print. So far we’ve enjoyed each and every variant that we have in stock, and we’re quite certain that you’re going to fall in love with SunLu just like we did when first sinking our teeth into their range of materials and colours.

Helpful Tips for Printing with Sunlu TPU Filament:

3D Printing with the highly flexible TPU polymer is a fun, yet potentially difficult task, but is not quite as difficult as many of the popular sources would have you believe. It may certainly take a little bit of trial and error to get just right (and some patience too), but the results are incomparable, and no other filaments can achieve the same unique properties that TPU and TPE can.

However, if you really want to get the most out of your TPU prints, and enjoy durable and stretchy filaments that really add a whole lot of character and fun to any design, we always recommend finding as much information as possible, which is why we’ve got this awesome collection of external research for you:

• TPU Printing Tips – The Infamous Direct Drive Myth: If you’ve ever done research on or have investigation the exciting but often-tricky TPU filament, you will have certainly seen at least one resources suggesting that TPU printing is impossible with a Bowden setup. However, while this used to be true in the past, this is no longer the case with the more recent models and iterations, and modern Bowden-style desktop 3D Printers now offer a far more constrained filament feed-path, making them more than just capable of printing with flexibles, with some 3D Makers even suggesting that it’s a better setup compared to the older direct drive setups. So if you’re a proud owner of one of the many Creality 3D Printers since as far back as the Creality CR-10S model, you can rest assured that printing TPU is definitely a possibility that you can enjoy, opening up many new opportunities for printing unique, exciting and memorable 3D prints.
• TPU Printing Tips – Speed Kills (Good Prints): When dealing with a new filament (or even one that we already know) it’s always tempting to try to print it as quickly as possible, since time is money and the majority of us are cost-conscious 3D Makers. However, printing TPU too quickly is the easiest way to kill a good print, since TPU demands substantially lower speeds than standard polymers like PLA. This is primarily due to the high level of flexibility and the ability of the filament to compress and stretch, which can easily lead to clogs and other problems as the filament bends over itself and tangles within any open spaces it can feed. This is why it’s important to print slowly, allowing the filament to steadily move without too much speed-related friction, encouraging it to behave nicely and avoid bending or tangling between the filament drive gear and the nozzle.
• TPU Printing Tips – Retraction & Backpressure: In a very similar fashion to the previous tip, it’s important to also get right is retraction and backpressure, since flexible filaments tend to have a slight amount of delay when moving within a constrained filament feed-path. This delay is caused by the compression and expansion of the filament in conjunction with the high levels of friction against the walls of the feed-path, and is precisely why you want to minimise retraction distance and speed by as much as possible, wherever possible. With a high level of retraction, the push and pull action on the filament can happen too quickly, and if the TPU is still hot when this happens, it can easily get stuck along the walls of the cooling tower or Bowden tube, leaving inconsistent chunks that can result in clogging or oozing. Of course, retraction is a lot more complicated than many other settings on a 3D Printer, so be sure to prepare yourself for a bit of trial and error when you get started printed with TPU, and consider even leaving retraction off until you have all of your other settings dialled in just right – then move on to experiment with how retraction can improve your results.
• TPU Printing Tips – Keeping Your TPU in Tip Top Shape: With most of the common filaments like PLA, ABS and PETG, keeping them stored safely and out of reach of humidity and moisture is not too vital, as most of those filaments are relatively neutral in terms of how easily they absorb moisture from surrounding environments. With some filaments, however, such as TPU and Nylon, it’s imperative that you always try to keep them as isolated from humidity as possible. Of course, you don’t necessarily need to invest in expensive (and often unnecessary) specialised filament drying containers, but it is a good idea for get yourself a nice container to keep filament in, and then simply throw any spare sachets of desiccant (Those small silica gel packets you get with new shoes) into the box to remove excess moisture from the small space. This will help keep your TPU filament safe from moisture, which will prevent any bubbling or weaknesses in the filament as it’s being printed.

As a final note, it must be said that TPU, TPE and other Flexible Filaments are some of the more difficult polymers to print with, so it’s important to go into this with an open mind and a willingness to learn from mistakes. However, with that being said, modern machines like the Creality Ender 3 Pro and Creality CR-10S Pro V2 have made printing with TPU so much easier than ever before, and with a bit of trial and error (and patience) you can easily learn to create your very own flexible keyrings, desktop toys, cable holders and even shoes!

Additional Resources For 3D Printing TPU:

If you’re still eager to learn more about the intricacies of 3D Printing with TPU, and want to sink your teeth into more knowledge to arm yourself with information to help you succeed with this tricky filament, we’ve got you covered, and we’ve taken the time to collect together some of our favourite resources, guides, tutorials and discussions on this matter. Each of these offer some unique insights that can help you not only achieve success with this awesome 3D Filament, but actually help you troubleshoot problems, figure out what exactly is going wrong, and then prevent those problems from happening in future prints. Just remember, however, that each of the following resources will have their own unique take on printing TPU, and may have used different brands or colours in their tests, although they can still offer great assistance if you’re running into troubles, or are just looking for further information over and above what we’ve provided:

• This insightful Pinshape TPU Filament Best Results Guide is an excellent resource for anyone to being with, offering loads of great information on TPU, and discussing some of the main challenges that newcomers experience when trying out TPU for the first time.
• The second resource to make this list is the MatterHackers flexible Filament Guide, which covers both TPU and Soft PLA, and caters to a lot of factors ranging from print settings to filament storage – also having similar opinions about the classic TPU Filament Direct Drive myth.
• Third on the list is the ever-famous Simplify3D, offering their succinct but highly informative Simplify3D TPU Printing Guide, which caters to both newcomers and veterans, with a few sample projects along the bottom to help you troubleshoot with more clarity.
• Finally, this Prusa Printers Blog TPU Guide is a truly expansive and valuable collection of information about 3D Printing with TPU, offers details on what the polymer is made of, what TPU is most commonly used for in 3D Printing, as well as what kinds of problems and solutions you can expect when starting out with this tricky filament.

Although it may not be a popular brand here in SA (yet!), many 3D Makers will recognise the name SunLu, as these fantastic 3D Filament Makers have been involved in 3D Printing since as far back as 2013, specialising in affordability & accessibility, but placing a strong focus on R&D & bringing new materials to the market for 3D Makers to enjoy.

From the classic PLA & ABS range through to the more exotic styles like PETG & TPU, as well as what we like to call Semi-Exotics like Marble & Twinkling Filament, SunLu has garnered a lot of experience in the world of 3D Filaments, & have one of the most comprehensive catalogues that the Hobbyist 3D Printing world has ever seen. This gives them a good spot amongst the leaders in 3D Filaments, & while they may not quite match the premium quality of Fillamentum & other high class brands, the affordability & range of options that SunLu offers is simply unbeatable even for the major players.

If you’re looking for a good brand to use for all kinds of different prints & applications, but don’t want to pay a premium, SunLu is the ideal brand that is ready to become your next new favourite. So get out there & start testing out the range that SunLu has to offer! With so many options available & a price that is low enough to simply take a chance with, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t give SunLu a chance & test this awesome brand out, to see if it’s a good fit for your 3D Printing fun.