Materials
Fifteen-plus plastics on one enclosed printer, from everyday PLA to carbon-fibre nylon. Each one below says what it is good for, what it is not, and what it adds to the price. Say what the part does and we will pick.
The machine
The enclosure is what separates this machine from a desk printer. ABS, ASA, polycarbonate and nylon need a warm, still chamber or they warp and split between layers. The P1S holds one, and the carbon filter keeps the fumes in the box. Fibre-filled materials run on a hardened steel nozzle; flexible ones are fed directly rather than through the material changer.
On the shelf today: PLA in every colour, and PETG in black and white. Those print as soon as the model is approved. Every other material on this page is ordered in for your job, which adds 3 to 5 business days to the turnaround and nothing to the quote beyond the material's own price. The quote says which.
TurnaroundThe materials
Stiff, precise and inexpensive. Most indoor parts, prototypes and anything you look at more than you load.
The default. Stiff, dimensionally accurate, the sharpest detail on the machine, and every colour in stock.
Good for. Holders, prototypes, patterns, jigs that stay indoors, dental and display models.
Not for. Hot cars, dishwashers, anything near an engine. It softens around 55 °C.
Stocked in every colour, ready to print. Matte and silk finishes ordered in.
The same base with a finish in it: wood-fill that sands and stains, marble fleck, metal-look, glow in the dark.
Good for. Display models and presentation pieces, anything where the surface is the point.
Not for. Fine detail with wood or marble fills; they want a 0.4 mm nozzle or bigger.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Glow runs on the hardened nozzle.
PLA with chopped carbon fibre. Much stiffer, a matte, fibre-flat surface, almost no warp.
Good for. Stiff brackets and frames that stay indoors, drone and RC parts, fixtures.
Not for. Heat. It is still PLA underneath.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Hardened steel nozzle. Dried before printing.
A step up in toughness and temperature, and it does not mind water, oil or most cleaners.
Tougher than PLA with a little give, so clips flex instead of snapping. Slightly glossy. Good to about 70 °C.
Good for. Brackets, enclosures, clips, containers, garage and bathroom parts, anything that gets wet.
Not for. Fine sharp edges; it strings a little more than PLA. Sanding.
Black and white stocked, ready to print. Other colours and the high-flow grade ordered in, adds 3 to 5 business days.
The see-through version. Printed with thick walls it reads as frosted; thin walls let light through.
Good for. Light covers, level indicators, windows in an enclosure, display pieces.
Not for. Anything that must be optically clear. It is translucent, not glass.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Dried before printing for the cleanest finish.
PETG with carbon fibre. Stiffer, tougher and better in heat than plain PETG, with a matte finish that hides layers.
Good for. Structural brackets, tool holders that take a load, mounts that see some heat.
Not for. Parts that need to flex; the fibre takes the give out.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Hardened steel nozzle. Dried before printing.
Printed inside the enclosure, which is what keeps these flat. UV-stable and good to about 95 °C.
The outdoor material. UV-stable so it does not chalk or yellow, weather-proof, and good to about 95 °C. Matte finish.
Good for. Truck and trailer parts, deck and fence hardware, garden fittings, engine-bay brackets, anything left in the sun.
Not for. Nothing much, other than price. If it lives outside, this is the pick.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Enclosure required. Black or white unless you ask.
The classic engineering plastic. Similar strength and heat to ASA, machinable, sandable, and it can be vapour-smoothed to a glossy finish.
Good for. Housings, knobs, automotive interior parts, anything that gets sanded, glued or painted.
Not for. Outdoors in the sun; use ASA instead. It yellows.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Enclosure required. Black or white unless you ask.
ABS with glass fibre. Stiffer and more stable than plain ABS, with a matte surface.
Good for. Fixtures and brackets that must hold a dimension in heat, larger flat parts that would warp in plain ABS.
Not for. Impact. The glass makes it stiffer but more brittle.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Hardened steel nozzle. Enclosure required.
Rubber-like. Hardness is graded on the Shore A scale: higher is firmer.
Firm rubber, about the feel of a shoe sole. Squashes and comes back, nearly impossible to break, grips well.
Good for. Gaskets, feet, bumpers, grips, phone cases, hinges, belts, anything that has to absorb a hit.
Not for. Anything that must stay rigid or hold a tight dimension.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Fed directly, not through the AMS. Dried before printing.
Softer grades. 90A is a firm eraser, 85A is a soft gasket. Slower to print, and the detail is softer too.
Good for. Seals, soft grips, vibration mounts, wearable pieces.
Not for. Small fine features or thin walls; the softer it is, the less crisp it prints.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Fed directly, not through the AMS. Quoted per part.
The top of what the machine runs. Dried, printed hot and slow inside the enclosure, and worth it when the part has to survive.
Very tough, stiff and heat-resistant to about 110 °C. The material for parts that take a hit near something hot.
Good for. Guards, housings, mounts under the hood, light-duty gears, brackets near heaters and motors.
Not for. Parts that need a large flat base; PC likes to lift. We design around it.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Dried before printing. Enclosure required.
PA-CF, PA6-CF and PAHT-CF. The strongest, stiffest, most heat-resistant material on the machine, past 150 °C, with a dry matte surface.
Good for. Load-bearing brackets, jigs and fixtures, tooling, drone and robotics frames, anything you would otherwise machine from aluminum.
Not for. Parts that need to flex or take a sharp impact; stiff means less forgiving.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Hardened steel nozzle. Dried before printing. Enclosure required.
PA6-GF. Nearly as strong as the carbon version, a little tougher, and easier on the budget for larger parts.
Good for. Structural parts that see heat and vibration, mounts, brackets, fixtures.
Not for. The finest detail; the glass surface is coarser than carbon.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Hardened steel nozzle. Dried before printing. Enclosure required.
Carbon-fibre PET. Stiff, very stable, resists chemicals and heat to about 150 °C, and absorbs far less moisture than nylon.
Good for. Precision fixtures, parts around fuel and solvents, anything that must hold a dimension in a damp or hot place.
Not for. Impact. It is the most brittle of the reinforced set.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Hardened steel nozzle. Dried before printing. Enclosure required.
Printed alongside the part and removed afterwards, so overhangs and internal channels come out clean.
Water-soluble support. The part comes out of a bath with no support marks at all, even inside channels and under bridges.
Good for. Internal channels, complex overhangs, mating faces that must be smooth on every side.
Not for. Large parts; it adds material and print time.
Ordered in for your job, adds 3 to 5 business days. Runs with PLA and PETG. Kept dry.
Bambu's support-interface materials for PLA, PETG, PA and PET. Breaks away cleanly and leaves a smooth face underneath.
Good for. Any part where the underside shows, or where the support would otherwise scar a fit surface.
Not for. Nothing; it is a finish upgrade, not a structural one.
Ordered in per job. Chosen per material at quote time.
A colour change by filament swap at a chosen layer, or a two-colour part with the AMS. Logos, text, a contrasting lid.
Good for. Branded parts, labels that must be read, colour-coded batches.
Not for. Full-colour graphics. Two to four colours is the practical range.
PLA in any stocked colour, PETG in black and white.
Colours
Most functional parts are printed in black or white. PLA is on the shelf in every colour here and PETG in black and white, so those print right away. Everything else is ordered in for your job: 3 to 5 business days longer, nothing added to the quote beyond the material's own price. Brand colours matched on request.
Colour is free in PLA. Engineering and fibre-filled materials are ordered in black, white or the natural shade of the material; other colours in those are quoted. Two-colour parts by filament swap or the material changer, plus $10.
Pick by what the part does
Side by side
| Material | Heat | Strength | Impact | Outdoors | Water | Detail | Added to print price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLA | ●●○○○ | ●●●○○ | ●●○○○ | No | Fine | Best | Standard |
| PLA-CF | ●●○○○ | ●●●●○ | ●●○○○ | No | Fine | Good | plus 35 percent |
| PETG | ●●●○○ | ●●○○○ | ●●●○○ | Shade | Yes | Good | plus 15 percent |
| PETG-CF | ●●●○○ | ●●●○○ | ●●●○○ | Shade | Yes | Good | plus 35 percent |
| ASA | ●●●○○ | ●●●○○ | ●●●○○ | Yes | Yes | Good | plus 25 percent |
| ABS | ●●●○○ | ●●●○○ | ●●●○○ | Shade | Yes | Good | plus 25 percent |
| ABS-GF | ●●●○○ | ●●●●○ | ●●○○○ | Shade | Yes | Fair | plus 35 percent |
| TPU | ●○○○○ | ●○○○○ | ●●●●● | Yes | Yes | Fair | plus 40 percent |
| Polycarbonate | ●●●●○ | ●●●●○ | ●●●●○ | Shade | Yes | Good | plus 40 percent |
| Carbon-fibre nylon | ●●●●● | ●●●●● | ●●○○○ | Yes | Absorbs some | Good | plus 60 percent |
| Glass-fibre nylon | ●●●●○ | ●●●●○ | ●●●○○ | Yes | Absorbs some | Fair | plus 60 percent |
| PET-CF | ●●●●● | ●●●●● | ●○○○○ | Yes | Yes | Good | plus 60 percent |
Heat, strength and impact are relative rankings on a five-point scale, taken from the filament maker's published material levels. Actual numbers depend on the part's geometry, wall count and infill, which is why every quote names the material and the settings. Stocked today: PLA in every colour and PETG in black and white. Every other material is ordered in for your job, which adds 3 to 5 business days and nothing to the quote beyond the material's own price.
What to expect from the print
Models are built in Fusion to 0.01 mm. Printed parts typically land within ±0.2 mm on features under 100 mm, and within ±0.3 mm above that. Where the fit is critical, a bore, a snap, a thread, a sliding face, Northpoint 3D prints a small test coupon first and tunes the model to the measured result, so the full part comes out right the first time. Every finished part is measured against the model before it leaves.
In: STL, 3MF, STEP, OBJ and Fusion F3D. Out: STL and 3MF with every design job, STEP or the Fusion file for $25 more. Files are checked for holes, flipped faces and wall thickness before they are quoted, and repaired for $20 if they need it.
Standard is as printed with supports removed and edges cleaned. Sanding, priming and painting, vapour smoothing on ABS, and brass inserts are quoted per part.
Not sure which one? Say what the part is, where it lives, and whether it gets hot, wet or loaded. The quote comes back inside 24 hours with the material named and the reason.
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