eSUN ePLA-ST Filament - 1.75mm Grey

Please Note: eSun has recently changed their filament spool material. You may receive a cardboard spool, instead of the plastic spools depicted above. This move means a more environmentally friendly design to their 3D filament spools which comfortably sit on your 3D printer's standard spool holder for smooth filament feeding.

When looking at 3D Printing for the first time and seeing all of the exciting, vibrant and funky prints that 3D Makers around the world create on a regular basis, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that 3D Printing is primarily for creating decorative items, especially given the fact that the most common material used for 3D Printing is PLA. However, despite PLA not necessarily being “engineering grade” plastic for high durability, you may be surprised to find that PLA can in fact work for a variety of functional prints, capable of withstanding a fair amount of punishment before breaking, deforming or otherwise failing. Unfortunately though, this decent level of strength isn’t always enough though, and if you want materials that can really withstand real world forces and stresses, you typically have to upgrade to ABS, PETG or some other kind of stronger filament, but with these higher strength materials often requiring specific upgrades or extra features to print properly, they’re not always an easy option, and that’s why we’re pretty darn excited to bring eSUN ePLA-ST to the SA Market.

eSUN ePLA-ST Filament is a semi-specialised polymer that takes the easy-printing style of PLA Filaments and adds some extra high strength additives into the mix, creating a fresh new sub-polymer that is both easy to print as well as capable of withstanding real world stresses, bringing the best of both worlds together for what many could consider to be the ultimate in 3D Printing Materials.

How is eSUN ePLA-ST Filament Different from Standard PLA?

When comparing eSUN ePLA-ST to the many standard PLA Filaments on the market, many would suspect that it’s just normal PLA after printing with it. However, ePLA-ST is much more than meets the eye, and actually brings a substantially higher level of impact resistance, a higher elongation at break rating, as well as excellent bonding strength for dramatically reduced layer separation and higher durability against tearing and splitting. This translates into a filament that offers engineering-grade mechanical traits, but still looks good while doing so, and essentially allows anyone and everyone to finally start printing for both functionality and aesthetics without having to compromise or settle for less than ideal. All of this is achievable with almost any standard 3D Printers on the market, and rather than requiring the use of an enclosure or specialised hotend, simply requires a slightly higher temperature range of 210°C to 230°C rather than the classic 190°C to 220°C temperatures of standard PLA.

So, if you love printing for aesthetics, but wish that your creations had a higher level of mechanical strength and durability, or conversely if you want to print for functionality but also want your prints to look good while acting tough, eSUN ePLA-ST Filaments are the ideal choice that brings the best of both worlds together.

Helpful Tips for Printing with PLA/ePLA-ST Filament:

Although 3D Printing at first glance can seem extremely complicated, with a crazy amount of different polymers and plastics available, PLA and similar materials like PLA-ST are polymerised in such a way that even a beginner can enjoy awesome results without ever needing any training or formal education on the topic. This is why it is arguably the most popular filament in the world, and as long as you aren’t requiring the printed models or parts to be very strong, it can handle a wide range of applications from decorative art to functional door handles and similar types of objects.

However, even though it is very easy to print with compared to other polymers, there are still some handy tips to help you get to a good level of quality from your PLA Prints, and this is why we’ve taken the time to provide what we feel are the Top Three Tips for 3D Printing with PLA:

• PLA Printing Tips – First Layer Adhesion: When 3D Printing with PLA, or pretty much any other polymer for that matter, First-Layer-Adhesion is arguably the most important factor to get right, as it acts as the foundation for the entire print, allowing the print to be printed tall or wide (or both) without any major problems. However, this factor also happens to be one of the more difficult parts to get right for beginners, so we’re here to help you out with our three top tips for first-layer-adhesion, which can also be used on other polymers as well, and they are as follows:
  
  
  • The first step to a great first layer is to ensure that the bed,  the X-Axis and the Y-Axis on your machine are all perfectly aligned, and this can be achieved by ensuring that all four sides of your crossbars are angled at exactly 90° from the base, while simultaneously ensuring that the gantry is exactly perpendicular to both side bars too. This is relatively easy to identify with a simple right-angle tool, and dramatically improves your chances of levelling your bed perfectly, as the nozzle should now be the same Z-height at all points on or above the bed.
    
    
  • The second step is to drop the z-height down so that the nozzle is ALMOST touching the bed, with a tiny air-gap below the point that’s just barely visible. Then, take a piece of standard (2D) printer paper and slide it gently beneath the nozzle. If the paper slides through without causing any scraping or tugging, you need to drop the nozzle by the smallest amount possible on your machine, before sliding the paper and testing it again. Conversely, if the paper grips too hard, and you struggle to actually move the paper or even slide it under the nozzle initially, then the nozzle is too far down, and you want to raise the nozzle by the smallest increment possible, until you can slide the paper beneath the nozzle with some light “scratching” or grip between the nozzle and bed.
    
    
  • The third and final step is then to move the nozzle to different points on the bed, with a primary focus on the four corners and the middle of the bed. And once you’ve gotten that perfect grip on the paper in all of the points you’re checking, you will then have your bed levelled and are pretty much ready for printing!

• PLA Printing Tips – Becoming One with Your Slicer: Although it may not seem obvious at first, after starting with 3D Printing you will soon come to realize that a good print actually begins before the filament is even loaded. In fact, a good print really starts within the software that you use to slice the model, as the slicer is essentially a translator that turns a three-dimensional model into what is known as “G-Code” (No, not the Gangster-Code, the Geometric-Code), which the 3D Printer can then read as instructions on how to build the object. With this in mind, learning the in’s and out’s of whatever slicer software you’re using is fundamental, and the more you get to know the fine details in your software, the better you will be able to translate models into G-Code for awesome results. So, regardless of what Slicer you choose to use, whether it be Cura, Simplify3D or even lesser popular options like MatterControl, you need to master and become one with your slicer, so that nothing will hold you back from turning great designs into effective G-Code for your 3D Printer.
  
  
• PLA Printing Tips – Practice & Patience Leads to Perfection: Although there are certainly a lot of things you can do to help enjoy great success with 3D Printing, it’s important to realize that 3D Printing is not easy, and will require a fair amount of patience, practice and learning to get just right. So don’t be scared to experiment if you’re struggling (or if you’re not) so that you can learn even more about your particular 3D Printer, as well as 3D Printing in general, and while not every print will come out perfectly each and every time, remember that each failure is just another step towards success, and every success is another notch in your Maker’s toolbelt of experience.

Additional Resources for 3D Printing PLA/ePLA-ST:

Although we like to believe that we are masters of 3D Printing, after spending a good many years enveloped in the industry, we have to admit that even we learn something new from time to time, and as such we always recommend getting out there and doing your own research to develop your own opinion and grow your knowledge from multiple sources!

As such, in addition to the above PLA Printing Tips, we’ve also gathered an awesome collection of what we feel are great resources to start with when getting into 3D Printing, so be sure to check these out if you’re looking for more insights and information on PLA Printing, or if you’re just curious and eager to see more opinions on one of the many facets of this still-fresh industry:

• This is a relatively general Guide on PLA Printing by Simplify3D, world-renowned experts in 3D modelling and Computer Aided Design. It offers so great tips for troubleshooting minor problems, while giving some good general guidelines on how to “dial in” your 3D Printer one step at a time.
  
  
• The next awesome resource we have to share is the Awesome Rigid Ink PLA Guide, which offers a mountain-load of insights into the chemical and material composition of PLA, with a slew of great tips and tricks on how to get your PLA looking good (and behaving properly) for every print.
  
  
• Because first-layer-adhesion is one of the trickiest factors to get right for beginners (and also veterans sometimes), we feel that this 3D Printer Bed Levelling Guide is a good addition to this collection of resources. It does a great job at explaining why bed levelling is important, what you can expect from a well or poorly levelled bed, as well as some tips on how to make the entire process much easier.
  
  
• Finally, this is just a great General 3D Printing Quality Guide, that is designed to help users troubleshoot various quality-related problems, while giving some great tips on what to do when certain problems arise. If you’re struggling with an issue, this is a great place to find out what is actually going wrong, as well as how you can remedy it, with good explanations of why certain remedies work to fix certain problems.

Shenzhen eSUN Industrial Co., Ltd was established in 2002 in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and has rapidly become one of the leading international suppliers of 3D Printing Filament. They specialise in research, development and production of degradable polymer materials, and have grown their catalogue of filaments to include PLA, ABS, PC, PVA, and a wide range of other polymers and copolymers.

Their list of exclusive filament formulas include unique materials like wood, aluminium, bronze and other materials to create highly specialised filaments that can stretch, bend, be moulded or otherwise behave in very unique ways. Their filaments are also commonly characterised by their absolutely round shape, extremely low diameter tolerance, uniform colours and impressively stable melting points. These characteristics, in combination with their long-term insistent policy of “Best Quality, Reasonable Price” has garnered them a large share of the market, with their reputation commonly preceding them within knowledgeable online and offline 3D Printing communities.

eSUN’s popularity in the industry has also helped to produce sustainable partnerships with many internationally famous 3D Printer manufacturers and distributors, with DIYElectronics having sole distributorship rights to provide their 3D Printing Filaments to South Africa and neighbouring African countries.