3D printing glossary

ABS is a strong, heat-resistant 3D printing filament that warps easily and needs an enclosure and good ventilation.

ASA is a UV-resistant, heat-tolerant 3D printing filament similar to ABS, made for outdoor parts.

Carbon fibre filament is plastic filled with short carbon fibres for stiffness, and it wears out soft brass nozzles.

CoreXY is a printer design where two motors and a belt loop move the print head in X and Y while the bed moves up and down, allowing faster printing.

An enclosure is a closed housing around a 3D printer that keeps the air inside warm and steady, which helps materials like ABS and ASA print without warping.

Filament diameter is the thickness of the filament strand, usually 1.75 mm or 2.85 mm, and it must match what your printer's extruder and hotend are built for.

A heated bed is a build plate that warms to a set temperature so the first layers stick and the part cools evenly, which helps most materials print well.

Hygroscopic filament absorbs water from the air, which causes bubbles, rough surfaces and weak prints until you dry it.

A multi-material system feeds several filament spools to one printer so it can switch colours or materials during a print, at the cost of purge waste.

Nozzle temperature is how hot the hotend runs to melt filament, and each material has its own range that you set in your slicer.

Nylon (polyamide, PA) is a tough, abrasion-resistant 3D printing filament that absorbs moisture and warps.

PETG is a tough, moisture-resistant 3D printing filament that handles more heat than PLA and warps very little.

PLA (polylactic acid) is the easiest and most common 3D printing filament, but it softens in heat.

PLA+ is PLA modified with additives to make it tougher and less brittle, but the recipe differs by brand.

Price per kg is a filament's listed price divided by its net weight in kilograms, which lets you compare spools of different sizes fairly.

Shore hardness measures how soft or hard a rubber-like plastic is, and it is the number to check when buying TPU.

Spool weight is the net weight of filament on a reel, such as 1 kg, and it differs from the weight of the empty reel or the full spool.

Stringing is when thin strands of plastic are left between parts of a print, caused by melted filament oozing while the nozzle travels.

TPU is a rubbery, flexible 3D printing filament used for grips, seals and cases, and it needs slow, careful printing.

Warping is when a print's corners lift off the bed as the plastic cools and shrinks, most often with high-temperature materials such as ABS and ASA.