Today, Shapeways is proud to debut our newest and highest quality nylon material offering: our new Premium Strong & Flexible nylon plastic. We’re excited to introduce this upscale finish to our Strong & Flexible nylon, our most popular and versatile material.
This finish will elevate your designs by offering a smoother, glossier surface. Premium Strong and Flexible is perfect for functional parts like phone cases and interlocking mechanisms to jewelry, art, and home decor that are designed to be durable, yet soft to the touch.
Design by Kasia Wisniewski
Premium is finished with a multi-step tumbling, polishing and dyeing process to create a consistent color and surface finish, while removing the grainy feel and layered look of 3D printed parts. Although it is available in both Black and White, we recommend Black for products you’ll carry or wear, like necklaces, rings, bracelets, phone cases, money clips, keychains, eyeglasses, and other personal accessories.
Design by Michiel Cornelissen
As a designer or shop owner, this new finish will empower you to deliver on your most discerning customers’ expectations – to design products that equal injection-molded finishes. The added smoothness and eggshell sheen of Premium will meet the quality expectations of high-end consumers, enabling you to offer unique, customized products with a finished look and feel.
Premium Strong and Flexible was developed in response to your demand for top-quality wearable and touchable products, in collaboration with members of the Shapeways community. Your feedback has been invaluable through this development process. We are proud to deliver this next-generation offering as a result of your generous participation.
To try out Premium on your own designs, upload here.
To find out how to help Shapeways test future product developments, click here.
Very excited by this ! It’s a lot more expensive, but I can’t wait to try out this new finish. Thanks SW for continuing to develop your materials and quality 🙂
Is it printed then dyed? Does the black wear off?
Or does it use black all the way through?
Hi Cosmo! The plastic is dyed after the polishing process is used. Strong & Flexible plastic always starts out white. When polished with the Premium process, the surface has a higher sheen, which makes the color appear less matte and dark (though the feeling is smooth, almost velvety) — something to keep in mind when designing for the material.
Does Premium treatment alter the size and form of prints?
How much material and detail is lost in the process. If we have inset details, are these lost.
What is the minimum detail and wall thickness for this material?
Good it is not about this article, it’s awesome! Your thoughts and approach are definitely making me think in a different way. And I do like it!