Specialty

TPU: full cost overview

TPU is rubber in filament form — flexes, bounces, and resists abrasion. Shore 95A is the most common; softer 85A exists but prints painfully slow. Direct-drive extruders are practically mandatory; Bowden setups jam constantly. Pick TPU for cases, gaskets, watch bands, shoe soles.

Specs

Typical price: ~$30.00/kg
Print temperature: 220–240 °C
Bed temperature: 40–60 °C
Enclosed chamber: Optional
Food-safe: No
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

When to use

• Phone cases and protective covers
• Gaskets, seals, vibration dampers
• Shoe soles, sandal straps, watch bands
• Tires, treads, anything that flexes

When NOT to use

• Rigid parts requiring stiffness
• Fast prints (TPU is inherently slow)
• Bowden-extruder printers
• Parts with sharp edges or thin walls

How to print well in TPU

TPU is the real test of your extruder. Direct drive is practically mandatory — Bowden works in some cases with minimal retraction (1-2 mm) and slow speed (20-30 mm/s) but skips constantly. Nozzle 220-240 °C, bed 40-60 °C, no enclosure needed. Slow speed: 20-40 mm/s on direct drive, half that on Bowden. High cooling (80-100%) — TPU doesn't delaminate easily. Shore 95A is the most common flexible (phone cases, gaskets); 85A is softer and even slower to print. Don't store it open: TPU absorbs moisture and becomes brittle — dry it at 50 °C for 4-6 h before long prints.

Typical cost in practice

Shore 95A TPU in the US runs $25-35/kg from Hatchbox, Polymaker and eSun, and $40-55/kg in premium (Polymaker PolyFlex TPU95). For a 30 g flexible part (phone case, gasket), filament cost is $0.75-1.05. The hidden cost is print time — TPU prints 2-3× slower than PLA, so amortization scales proportionally. Use TPU for parts that need to bend (cases, anti-slip feet, drone suspensions, straps); don't use it for rigid structural parts — it will flex where you don't want it to.

Sample calculation

For a 50 g part on a Bambu Lab A1, 6 h print time and 8% failure rate. Currency follows your selection at the top.

Filament$1.50
Energy$0.14
Amortization$0.15
Failures (8%)$0.14
Unit Cost$1.93
Final Consumer Price (3× / 6% / 2%)$8.41

Best printers for TPU

These models in our catalog handle TPU reliably out of the box — picked by enclosure, hotend temperature and drive system, not marketing.

TPU head-to-heads

PVA

~$55.00/kg · 180–210 °C

Wood

~$35.00/kg · 190–220 °C

Silk

~$30.00/kg · 210–230 °C