Flexible by design — grips, seals, bumpers
TPU 3D printing
TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) is the odd one out: a printable rubber. Parts come off the machine bendy, grippy and nearly indestructible — you can throw a TPU part at a wall, fold it in half, run it over, and it carries on. Its trick is elasticity; its price is precision. It suits parts designed to deform: seals, feet, bumpers, straps, grommets and protective covers.
- Typical hardness
- Shore 95A
- Character
- Elastic, abrasion-proof
- Outdoors
- Good — handles weather well
- Relative cost
- Medium-high
Where TPU wins
- Elastic: bends, stretches and recovers instead of breaking — effectively unbreakable in normal handling
- Outstanding abrasion resistance: feet, rollers and wear pads last
- Grips: excellent for anti-slip pads, tool grips and phone-case-like covers
- Damps vibration: camera mounts, machine feet, drone parts
- Handles oils, greases and weather better than the rigid everyday materials
Where it lets you down
- Dimensional precision is the worst of the common materials — flexible filament prints slowly and less accurately
- Not for rigid structures: a TPU bracket is a hinge
- Fine detail and sharp corners come out rounded
- Printed seals seal against gentle compression, not pressure — it is not a hydraulic gasket material
What gets printed in TPU
- Gaskets, grommets, plugs and dust caps
- Machine feet, bumpers, corner protectors, anti-vibration mounts
- Straps, belts (non-critical), pull handles and flexible hinges
- Protective covers and sleeves for tools and electronics
When to choose something else
If the part must hold its shape under load, any rigid material beats TPU — PETG for general work, nylon for serious work. If it must seal against real pressure, a printed part is the wrong answer entirely; buy the proper seal. And precise press-fits in TPU are a fight: design in the squish instead.
How it prints — and why that shows in the price
TPU prints slowly — often two to three times PLA's print time for the same part, which shows in the price. Supports are hard to remove cleanly, so geometry that avoids them quotes better. Tell us the squish you need: hardness and wall structure let us tune how firm the printed part feels.
Worth reading next
Get a part quoted in TPU
Upload a file for a guide price in seconds — or describe the part and where it lives, and we will confirm the material choice with the estimate.