250 g. White FlexiSMART 1.75 mm Flexible filament TPU for 3D Printer - Flexible filament for 3D printing - TPE filament, TPU filament, elastic filament

Information is a little limited on this filament unless you can read spanish but essentially a TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) material.But to mention that I did have to add a small adaption to my Makerbot Replicator 2, by adding a small piece of thin walled plastic pipe to cover the hot end securing screw (in between the hob drive and the start of the hot end assembly) which allowed a piece of 2mm bowden tube to be inserted into it. I then trimmed the end of the bowden tube to match the profile of the hob drive diameter (as best as I could). This adaption was to improve the guiding of the filament into the hotend as like all flexible filaments they need encouragment to get pushed through small holes without buckling or wrapping around the hob gear!...I have to say that I was amazed to have this material printing on a Makerbot Replicator 2 (with added heatbed).In my setup using the heated bed (at 50 deg) gave me more confidence to use the filament but the manufacturer does state that this is not necessary and it can be printed on an unheated or untreated surface. Quality was excellent with just a few strings attached to the part after printing. Extruder temp was 220 deg and printing at 25-30 mm/sec. Layer height 0.2mm with a 0.8mm retraction. FlexiSMART has around a 80-90 shore rating from my estimation which can be a little hard for some items, but again this will need time and testing to discover the best combinations for different projects.The manufacturer does claim that this will work in most direct drive printers but as like anything in 3D printing you need to prove theclaims...I'm happy to say that with a small alteration I have now the capability of using flexible filament (I tried Ninjaflex without success) in the Replicator at last so I am very happy and can recommend FlexiSMART as a consequence.So I can highly recommend FlexiSMART

Background**************I bought this to begin experimenting with printing fingers and hands out of a combination of PLA and a flexible filament, in this case TPE.The Filament/reel***************The filament is on a very small reel, measuring just 100mm in diameter by around 56/57 mm deep (it kinda has a ridge on the reel)Centre hole is a very small 16.8 mm.I generally found the TPE measured at 1.67mm so be warned.Printing*********I don't have a flexion extruder, so simply printed on my Dreeml 3D40 using the stock head.No heated bed.The filament was tricky to feed in, had to try a few times :(As can be seen from the image included, it took a few tries and many changes to get to a stage where I can get it to print.Settings I used******************190 degrees CBuild Speed 30 mm/sTravel Speed 40mm/sShells 4Layer Height 0.1I will continue trying.With my basic Dremel software, I have limited control at this point, but will try again over the coming week using Autodesk Print Studio (It stopped working with Windows Creator Edition, a known problem)The final print is a lovely flexible material.Any questions, let me know, hope the images help, will put some more up as I work with it more.Sarah

I almost gave up trying to make this work with a bowden setup until as a last resort, I backed my extruder spring tension all the way to the minimum. Suddenly, I could print this reliably at 50mm/s with 3mm and 40mm/s retraction!! Once I figured this out, this has been an absolutely amazing filament and have gone through almost one full roll with nothing but joy.The flexibility really depends on flow rate, number of walls and infill. At 100% flow rate with 2 walls and 15% infill, the parts can pretty much be flattened and they spring back to shape, with the walls behaving almost like an uninflated balloon. However, if you crank up the flow to 120% and 100% infill, it's almost like a car tyre.Also worth noting, it will string A LOT if stored without silica gel on a sealed container.All in all, a versatile material I will always keep around from now on.

Got this for printing tyres for my OpenRC-F1 car, does a great job. I printed it with the same settings as PLA, with a wall thickness of 0.8mm - it came out really well printed, no clogging problems. the tyre ended up slightly too soft, but that was a test print to see what this stuff was like, as I haven't used it before. I'm going to do the tyres again with a 2mm wall thickness, I'm sure they will be great!

After having some issues with TPU (specifically Flexfill 98A) on my Prusa i3 MK3, I decided to try some 'newer' flexible filaments that claimed to be easier to print. Whilst the Flexfill took me dozens of failed prints & hours of frustrating tweaking to find even semi-reliable settings, this FlexiSMART printed fine first time & every time after just with the settings on their Website. I find that it is noticeably softer/more flexible than Flexfill & than rigid.ink Flexible PLA, which can either be a benefit or a drawback depending on what you're printing - the photo is a GoPro Session case which I can easily squash the opposite sides together until they touch, whilst with Flexfill & Flexible PLA there is a lot more resistance. The quality of the finish is better toward the lower end of the quoted temperature range for me (I've taken to printing at 200 degrees).

Wasn't expecting this to work as I haven't been able to get any flexible filaments working on my stock CR-10S. Works great though, I didn't get sent any guides or profiles though which is disappointing. I'm printing it really slow, 20mm/s.Need to do some more testing but I will be trying more for sure.

Have used the filament on a few projects with great success. The 1.75 mm thickness has been perfect, and the flexibility of the extruded filament was as advertised. A great product and good value for money.