PLA 3d printer filament is made out of vegetable derives raw materials – most commonly cornstartch. PLA is fully biodegradable under certain conditions. Normally it would not degrade during the normal day to day usage.

PLA has a low shrinkage and low melt temperature. These positive features come with slight downside of the lower glass transition temperature that is around 60C. Thus it is not advisable to leave in the direct sunlight or closed car for an extended period of times.

In terms of durability PLA is more fragile than some of the other plastics such as ABS, ASA and others. So if you are looking to print mechanical parts you better off with engineering plastics.

Low shrinkage and melting temperature results in the easiest printing conditions from all of the 3D printer filaments. When printing with PLA in most of the cases you can get away without even a heated bed. The layer height can be as low as 50 microns and as thick or even thicker than 500microns.

Since it is the most popular plastics it comes in all sorts of colours and flavours such as – translucent and solid colours, carbon fiber filled and or glow in the dark. Pretty much you name it and it exists.

Recommended printing temperatures – Nozzle 180-210C and bed room – 65C with cooling on.

At Aurarum we manufacture over 15 different colours in PLA.