A new 3D printing material: Alumide

February 23, 2010

From today until the 14th of March we will be offering you Alumide as a 3D printing material. If enough people like it (and buy it) we will then decide to keep it for you. Whystler, Chris and many others have been asking for Alumide in the forums so here it is.

Below you can see the models: Sports Vigilante by Admiral Duck Sauce, 3 Tealight Lanterns by Whystler, Ball Bearing by DeLaVega(it works well in the material) and Gyro the cube by Virtox.

Alumide is White, Strong & Flexible with Aluminum dust mixed in. The material looks space aged and has a higher heat resistance than regular plastics. Its melting temperature is above 172 Celsius. It costs $1.59 per cubic centimeter (plus $1.50 startup costs per model). The material is brittle and less flexible than White, Strong & Flexible. We intended it to be a good Maker material for projects such as Arduino cases and RC Helicopters, but after testing it and seeing it, the material would seem to be fun for all sorts of other models also. The pictures below are for Bill’s Arduino case model.

It feels smoother than White, Strong & Flexible and up close looks like it came from space. It could be part of a meteorite or a chunk of alien technology that fell off of a spaceship. And Alien technology for $1.59 per cubic CM, that's a bargain. Update: as per Kristopher’s request, we’ve created a material page for Alumide here.