The default prototype material — stiffest of the commodity plastics, crispest detail, least shrink, lowest price. Underrated by people who haven't measured it.
PLA gets dismissed as the beginner's plastic, which suits us fine: it's the stiffest commodity material we run, holds the crispest detail, and shrinks so little that parts measure closer to CAD than anything else on the floor. If your part lives indoors and isn't carrying real load, PLA is usually the honest answer — at $0.099 a gram, GST included.
We run name-brand spools on enclosed CoreXY machines, so the PLA you get is dense, dimensionally consistent and clean off the plate — not the stringy hobby-print stereotype.
Fit checks and prototypes that need to measure like the CAD
Sharp detail — text, logos, fine features
Stiff, flat parts: enclosures, trays, mounts, desk hardware
Painting and finishing — sands cleanly, takes primer well
Softens around 55 °C — no cars in the sun, no parts near heat
Brittle under sustained load or impact compared with PETG
Creeps under constant stress — don't use it for clamps left tight
UV slowly dulls colour outdoors — use ASA outside
PLA holds our general ±0.25 mm tolerance with the most headroom of any material, so it's the right choice for trial fits before committing a batch in an engineering plastic.
It bridges and overhangs better than almost anything — past 50° we still add supports, but PLA's witness marks sand away fastest.
For looks, PLA Matte hides layer lines on display parts; PLA-CF adds carbon stiffness for jigs that must stay dead flat indoors.
Print today's revision cheap, measure it, change the CAD, repeat — most customers iterate in PLA, then ship in PETG.
Concept models, architecture massing, product mockups — crisp edges and clean faces, in matte if it's being photographed.
Organisers, brackets, stands, enclosures — anywhere stiffness matters more than heat or weather.
Indoors, often yes — it's stiffer than PETG and ABS. Its limits are heat (55 °C), impact, and sustained load. If the part bolts to something and carries force all day, step up to PETG or PA-CF.
PLA shrinks the least of any material we run, so it sits most comfortably inside our ±0.25 mm general tolerance. For critical bores, model 0.2 mm under and drill to size.
Briefly. UV dulls it and summer heat softens it. For outdoor parts, PETG handles weather and ASA handles full sun.
Upload an STL, STEP or 3MF, pick PLA in the configurator, and the price reprices live — GST included, dispatch date shown before you pay.