Ninjaflex vs softPLA

• Dale Rooney
• 3d Printing
• April 22, 2014

We got some cool new filaments in the past week at the makerspace. We received a reel of black Ninjaflex which is a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) and some samples of softPLA.

The black box in the picture to the left is Ninjaflex and it actually feels rubbery. In fact, it’s so soft that it was difficult to get a good print. The filament tended to buckle between the drive gear and the hot end. I ended up with the extruder temp set to 235c and slowed down the feed rate to 20mm/m which are hotter and slower than the recommended settings. Even then it failed once before I got this print.

The blue box shown below is softPLA from Matterhackers and while not as soft as the Ninjaflex it pushes through the extruder better. I had no trouble extruding at 220c and 20mm/m.

Dale