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Lulzbot Ninjaflexes its Extruder’s Muscle

There is (or there will soon be, if the video below is any indication) a new filament in town on Lulzbot’s online marketplace. It is called Ninjaflex and it is one of the most rubber-like filaments to use with a FFF 3D printer.

The Colorado-based, strictly open-source, 3D printer manufacturer has introduced the new “highly elastic-plastic” material in a variety of colours, along with a new extruder, appropriately called Flexystruder, which is necessary to 3D print with the thermoplastic urethane (TPU).

TAZ-3 3D Printer lulzbotAs often happens when you add something new, it is good to do a recap of what you already had and Lulzbot did exactly that by releasing a detailed filament guide to all its 3D printing materials. The company claims that its machine is able to print with “more materials than other machines” (it does not, however, say that it does more materials than “all” other machines) and most of these you are probably already familiar with.

They include, Polyactic Acid (PLA) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (aka ABS), as well as more “exotic” filament types such as the mineral based Labrick or wood-like, cherry colored Laywoo-D3. They also include High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS), Polycarbonate, the highly recyclable, clear and flexible T-Glase (PETT) and, last but not least, Nylon Taulman 645 and 618.

The best part about the guide, which you can download freely (of course) from the dedicated page on Lulzbot’s website, is that it includes a lot of information you need to know right away when choosing filament, such as main characteristics and uses, ideal extrusion and bed temperature settings, along with colours and spools sizes (up to 5 lbs in some case) available. There is even a link to download each material’s Slic3r settings for the different layer height setups on Lulzbot’s TAZ printer.