Introducing 3D Printed Black Elasto Plastic : I Can't Believe It's Not Rubber - Shapeways Blog

Introducing 3D Printed Black Elasto Plastic : I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rubber

May 17, 2012

It’s squishy, it’s flexible, it stretches, it bounces, it blends, it’s 3D Printed Black Elasto Plastic!!!!!

Squishy SpringBall by Opresco

Black Elasto Plastic is our first fully flexible material! It is still in the experimental stages of development, and we are learning more about the possibilities and restrictions of this material each and every day.

Design, order and give us feedback when your model arrives at your doorstep! This material will be on trial until the July 20th, 2012, so get your orders in soon. After the trial, we will review and decide whether to introduce it permanently, whether we need to change any design rules, etc.

Flexible Design Rules.

As this material is still in its very early stages of development, we rely on your feedback to improve our design guidelines (email Nancy from the Contact Us Page with feedback). Right now, we can make the following suggestions but please be aware that these rules are flexible and subject to change as we learn more and more about this amazing material and how to design for it.

Check out our Black Elasto Plastic gallery, products available in this squishy material right now:

Elasto Plastic Products Available For Sale Now
What will you make?

Pricing for the trial period will be $2.00 per cubic centimeter with a $3.00 handling fee

Delivery time should be 2 weeks (10 working days) after payment has cleared

Black Elasto Plastic is flexible and stretchy, as the name implies, though it also has a rough, grainy surface texture. If you rub the models against another surface, you may see flakes rub off.

We must reiterate this is an experimental material, we have only had a chance to experiment with a small number of geometries and uses so we do not know exactly how it will react under all conditions. That being said we LOVE the material and think you will all have a lot of fun with it but you need to take heed of the design rules and give us as much feedback as possible so we can learn quickly together.

We are really looking forward to seeing your designs stretched to the limit.