The 3D Printing Numbers
3D printing spec sheets mix real engineering numbers with marketing ceilings, and the two get treated as
interchangeable constantly. This page is the normalized reference: nozzle and bed temperatures by material,
drying parameters, the nozzle-size-to-layer-height math, the print-speed marketing-vs-reality gap, bed
types, kinematics classes, auto-leveling types, and hotend temperature ceilings — each sourced against
manufacturer TDS sheets or published printer specs, with a source column on the core table.
The one thing to know: A printer advertised at "600mm/s" is quoting the stepper motor/firmware ceiling, not a sustained quality print speed — real-world quality-checked speeds on the same machines typically run 100–300mm/s depending on part geometry, acceleration, and how much ringing/artifacting you'll tolerate.
Filament material reference table
| Material | Nozzle temp | Bed temp | Enclosure needed? | Shrinkage/warping | Strength vs brittleness | Moisture sensitivity | Food-safety caveat | Fume/ventilation notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLA | 190–220°C | 50–60°C | No | Low warping | Rigid but brittle under impact; lowest layer-adhesion strength here | Low (slowest to absorb, still matters over months) | Base resin is FDA food-contact-listed, but a printed part is not food-safe (layer lines, nozzle alloy, hygiene) | Low; general room ventilation is fine | Prusament / Polymaker / Bambu Lab PLA TDS |
| PETG | 230–250°C | 70–85°C | No (mild warping only) | Low–moderate | More impact resistance and layer adhesion than PLA | Moderate–high; noticeable stringing/popping after weeks of open-air storage | Some food-grade resins exist; printed parts are still not certified food-safe | Low–moderate; cross-ventilate for long sessions | Bambu Lab / Polymaker / Overture PETG TDS |
| ABS | 220–250°C | 95–110°C | Yes, strongly recommended | High warping/shrinkage | Higher heat resistance and toughness than PLA; can delaminate if underheated | Low–moderate; drafts hurt warping more than moisture hurts quality | Not food-safe as a finished print | Emits styrene — active exhaust or filtered enclosure recommended | Polymaker / Overture ABS TDS + FDM ventilation guidance |
| ASA | 235–255°C | 95–110°C | Yes, strongly recommended | High (slightly less than ABS) | ABS-like strength plus UV/weathering resistance | Low–moderate | Not food-safe as a finished print | Similar to ABS — active exhaust/filtration recommended | Polymaker / Overture ASA TDS |
| TPU (95A) | 220–235°C | 40–60°C | No | Low warping | Flexible/elastomeric — resists impact by flexing, not a rigid-strength comparison | Moderate; wet TPU bubbles and flexes inconsistently | Not food-safe as a finished print | Low; slow print speed (~20–40mm/s) also limits heat output | SUNLU / Polymaker TPU95A TDS |
| PLA+ | 200–225°C | 50–65°C | No | Low warping | Better impact resistance than standard PLA; still more brittle than PETG | Low, but formulation varies more by brand — check the specific spool | Same as standard PLA — not food-safe | Low, same as standard PLA | eSun / SUNLU PLA+ TDS (not a standardized formulation) |
| PC (Polycarbonate) | 260–310°C | 110–140°C | Yes, required | High warping/shrinkage | Highest impact and heat resistance of this table; very rigid | High — quick to bubble/weaken if printed wet | Not food-safe as a finished print | Needs strong exhaust; requires an all-metal high-temp hotend | Polymaker / Overture PC TDS |
| Nylon (PA) | 240–270°C | 70–100°C | Yes, recommended | High warping/shrinkage | Excellent impact resistance and layer adhesion — among the toughest here | Very high — the most hygroscopic material in this table, absorbs within hours | Not food-safe as a finished print | Low visible fumes but needs reliable ventilation for long high-temp sessions | Polymaker PA6/PA12 / Overture Nylon TDS |
Ranges are aggregated across major manufacturer TDS sheets (Prusament, Polymaker, Bambu Lab, Overture, eSun, SUNLU) — always defer to the specific spool's own printed spec first.
Drying temperatures and times by material
| Material | Dry temp | Dry time | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLA | 40–45°C | 4–6 hrs | Lowest priority to dry, but cold/humid climates still benefit occasionally |
| PETG | 60–65°C | 6–8 hrs | Do not exceed ~70°C — approaches PETG's glass transition (68–81°C depending on brand) |
| ABS/ASA | 60–70°C | 4–6 hrs | Less moisture-sensitive than PETG/nylon; drying mainly helps surface finish |
| TPU | 50–60°C | 6–8 hrs | Lower temp than PETG — TPU deforms more easily under heat while soft |
| PC | 70–80°C | 8–10 hrs | High moisture sensitivity; skipping this step commonly causes bubbling |
| Nylon (PA) | 75–90°C | 8–12 hrs | The most hygroscopic material here — dry immediately before printing, not hours ahead |
Source: manufacturer drying guidance aggregate (Bambu Lab, Polymaker, Overture TDS documentation), cross-checked against community drying-tool consensus figures. Full explainer: Why Does My Filament Need Drying?
Print-speed marketing vs realistic quality speed
| Advertised spec | Realistic quality-checked speed | Note |
|---|---|---|
| "600mm/s" printer (typical marketing headline) | 100–300mm/s depending on geometry, acceleration limits, and how much ringing/artifacting you'll tolerate | The advertised figure is the stepper/firmware travel-speed ceiling, achievable mainly on non-printing travel moves or simple geometry, not sustained quality outer walls |
| "250mm/s" mid-tier bedslinger | 80–150mm/s for clean outer walls; higher for infill/inner walls | Outer-wall quality speed is always lower than infill speed on the same machine |
| CoreXY vs bedslinger at the same firmware ceiling | CoreXY typically holds visible quality 20–40% higher than a bedslinger at the same nominal speed | Because only the lightweight print head moves in X/Y on CoreXY — the bed doesn't have to accelerate the part's mass |
Full breakdown: Is "600mm/s" Real?
Nozzle size → layer height & speed relationships
| Nozzle size | Usable layer height range | Relative speed at same quality | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.2mm | 0.08–0.16mm (max ~0.75× nozzle diameter) | Slower — smaller nozzle diameter limits volumetric flow rate | Highest fine-detail resolution; higher clog risk |
| 0.4mm (standard) | 0.12–0.32mm typical (0.2mm most common default) | Baseline reference speed for most sliceable profiles | The default nozzle on the overwhelming majority of consumer printers |
| 0.6mm | 0.16–0.48mm | Meaningfully faster at the same quality due to higher volumetric flow | Common upgrade for large, less-detailed functional prints |
| 0.8mm | 0.24–0.6mm | Fastest of this table for bulk material deposition | Loses fine surface detail; used for rapid-prototyping large parts |
Standard rule of thumb: maximum layer height ≈ 0.75–0.8× nozzle diameter; minimum is limited by the printer's Z-axis resolution, not the nozzle. Full explainer: What Nozzle Size Should I Use?
Bed surface types
| Bed type | Adhesion behavior | Note |
|---|---|---|
| PEI Textured (spring steel) | Strong first-layer grip without glue; releases with a slight flex once cooled | Slightly telegraphs texture onto the print's bottom surface finish |
| PEI Smooth (spring steel) | Strong grip; releases cooled, glossy bottom finish | Marginally less forgiving on first-layer height than textured |
| Glass (with adhesive/glue stick) | Very glossy finish; needs glue stick/hairspray for reliable adhesion on most materials | No magnetic quick-swap; heats/cools slower due to thermal mass |
| Bare/Coated Aluminum | Variable — usually needs added adhesive for PETG/ABS | Common as a cheap OEM bed rather than a chosen upgrade |
Kinematics classes
| Class | Realistic speed | Footprint | Quality at speed | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedslinger (Cartesian, moving bed) | Lower realistic quality speed — the bed's mass must accelerate on the Y-axis | Larger footprint relative to build volume (bed travel space needed) | Good at moderate speeds; visible ringing/wobble increases faster with speed than CoreXY | Simplest, cheapest, most repairable/modded kinematics class |
| CoreXY (stationary bed, moving gantry) | Higher realistic quality speed — only the lightweight toolhead accelerates | More compact footprint for the same build volume | Better high-speed quality due to lower moving mass | More complex belt routing; now common in enclosed consumer printers |
| Delta (parallel-arm, circular bed) | Can be very fast on tall/light toolheads | Tall, narrow footprint; typically cylindrical build volume, not fully rectangular | Excellent Z-speed; calibration (tower geometry) is more involved than Cartesian/CoreXY | Now a niche/enthusiast category for tall prints |
Full comparison: Bedslinger vs CoreXY
Auto-leveling types
| Type | How it works | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Manual (4-point knob) | Physically adjust bed corner screws using paper/feeler-gauge gap | No sensor — fully manual, common on the cheapest printers |
| Inductive/mechanical probe (deployable, e.g. BLTouch-style) | Probe deploys, taps a grid of points, firmware builds a compensation mesh | Compensates for a slightly imperfect bed, not a genuinely warped/loose frame |
| Load-cell (strain-gauge nozzle sensing) | The nozzle itself senses contact force at each probe point — no separate probe to crash or misalign | Used on Prusa MK4-class machines; considered one of the more reliable implementations |
| LiDAR/camera-assisted | Combines mesh leveling with first-layer visual inspection for spaghetti/adhesion failure detection | Adds print-monitoring value beyond leveling alone; proprietary on the printers that ship it |
Hotend temperature ceilings
| Hotend type | Safe temperature ceiling | Note |
|---|---|---|
| PTFE-lined heat break | ~240–250°C safe ceiling (PTFE degrades above this) | Standard on many budget printers; fine for PLA/PETG, risky for ABS/ASA/nylon/PC |
| All-metal heat break | ~300°C+ safe ceiling depending on hotend model | Required for reliable nylon/PC printing; needs retraction/cooling retuning after installing on a printer that shipped PTFE-lined |
Build-volume classes
| Class | Note |
|---|---|
| Compact (≤ 180mm cube) | Common on affordable CoreXY minis; check your model's bounding box before buying, this is the tightest class here |
| Standard (~220×220×250mm) | The most common consumer build volume across both bedslinger and CoreXY classes |
| Large (~300mm+ per axis) | Needed for large single-piece prints; frame rigidity becomes harder to maintain at speed as size grows |
Caveats — read before citing a number
- Formulation varies by brand. "PLA" or "PLA+" is not one fixed recipe — pigments and additives shift the ideal nozzle window by up to 15–20°C between brands.
- Advertised top speed is a firmware ceiling, not a quality-checked speed. See the speed table above and our full explainer.
- None of these materials are certified food-safe as a finished 3D-printed part, regardless of the base resin's food-contact status — layer lines and hygiene make printed parts unsuitable for direct food contact without a certified food-safe finishing process.
- Ventilation guidance here is general, not medical advice. We report manufacturer fume/ventilation notes, not air-quality science — use active exhaust/filtration for ABS/ASA/PC and consult your printer/filament manufacturer's safety documentation for extended or enclosed use.
- Specs get revised. Manufacturers update TDS sheets; this dataset reflects the aggregated ranges as understood as of the version date below.
Methodology & versioning
Version 1.0 — published July 30, 2026. Figures are aggregated from filament manufacturer TDS sheets (Bambu Lab, Polymaker, Prusament, Overture, eSun, SUNLU) and printer manufacturer published specifications (Creality, Elegoo, Bambu Lab, Prusa), cross-checked against community drying-tool and print-profile consensus data. We do not operate our own print farm; this is a normalized specs reference, not a lab result. Corrections: if a manufacturer updates a spec or we find an error, this page and the CSV below are updated in place and the version/date bumped — see How We Evaluate for our full editorial policy.
License: CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution.
How to cite: Filament Lab, "The 3D Printing Numbers" (v1.0, July 30, 2026), https://filament-lab.pages.dev/filament-numbers/.
Machine-readable download: the full material table is available as CSV at /filament-numbers.csv (version-pinned copy: /filament-numbers-v1.0.csv), and a condensed digest is maintained in /llms-full.txt.
This page is general spec reference information, not a health, safety, or food-contact certification for any specific product.
Frequently Asked Questions
A normalized reference table of the specs that actually decide 3D print quality — nozzle and bed temperature ranges per material, drying temperatures/times, nozzle size to layer height relationships, kinematics classes, bed surface types, auto-leveling types, hotend temperature ceilings, and build volume classes — each sourced against filament manufacturer TDS sheets or printer manufacturer specs, not marketing copy.
Because pigments, additives, and each manufacturer's specific polymer blend shift the ideal window — the same nominal material (e.g. PLA) can need a 15–20°C different nozzle temperature between two brands. The ranges in this table are aggregated across major manufacturer TDS sheets; always check the specific spool's own printed temperature first.
It's a firmware/motion-system ceiling, not a quality-checked sustained print speed. Realistic quality-checked speeds for clean outer walls on the same class of machines typically run 100–300mm/s depending on part geometry, acceleration limits, and how much visible ringing you'll accept. See our full breakdown in Is "600mm/s" Real?
Not every print, but any spool left unsealed for more than roughly one to two weeks in a normal-humidity room should be dried before use, and PETG, nylon, TPU, and PC are the most sensitive of the common materials. PLA is the least sensitive but not immune over long periods. See Why Does My Filament Need Drying?
No. This table normalizes typical ranges across major manufacturers so you can sanity-check a claim quickly. The authoritative source for any specific spool or printer is always that product's own TDS or manufacturer specification page.