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Alloy PLA
$23.95
1.75 mm diameter · 1 kg net filament per spool
Alloy PLA gives prints the sheen of cast metal — gunmetal, steel and bronze-style finishes — while printing as easily as standard PLA. Metal looks without metal-filled prices or nozzle wear.
Printing & drying
- Material
- PLA
- Diameter
- 1.75 mm
- Spool
- 1 kg net
- Nozzle
- 190–230°C
- Bed
- 35–65°C
- Printing speed
- < 300 mm/s
- Part cooling
- High
- Enclosure
- Not required
- Nozzle type
- Standard brass
- Drying
- 50 ± 5°C for 8h
These are typical working ranges for orientation. The label on the spool you receive is authoritative for that batch. More detail in the storage and drying guide and the troubleshooting guide.
Shipping
- Packed and dispatched from Sydney, Australia.
- Every spool ships sealed with desiccant.
- Tracking is provided on every order.
- Buying more than a few spools? Bulk Orders gets you a quote and a supply plan.
Current delivery timeframes are on the Shipping & Returns page.
Returns & warranty
- Backed by the Australian Consumer Law.
- Spool faults are a product fault, not a settings problem. Contact us with your order number and photos.
- Not sure whether it is the spool or the printer? The five-minute triage tells you which half is at fault.
Full terms on the Shipping & Returns page.
Material details
Alloy PLA carries metallic pigments and fine reflective particles that give a satin cast-metal lustre straight off the plate. Props, hardware-style prints and industrial décor pick up a convincing worked-metal character with no paint at all — and unlike true metal-filled filaments, it keeps normal PLA weight, normal PLA price and normal PLA printability.
What Alloy PLA is good for
There is an important distinction here. Metal-filled filaments carry actual powdered metal: they are heavy, brittle, expensive, and hard enough on a nozzle to need hardened steel from the first metre. Alloy PLA is a metal-look material — the appearance without the penalties. For props and décor, which is where most people want a metal finish, that is the better trade.
How Alloy PLA prints
The manufacturer’s published window is a nozzle at 190–230 °C and a bed at 35–65 °C with adhesive, at speeds up to 300 mm/s — the same envelope as Core PLA, which is the point of choosing a metal-look material over a metal-filled one. No enclosure, high part cooling, standard brass nozzle.
The finishing trick worth knowing costs nothing: a light dry-brush of darker acrylic into the recesses, wiped back off the high points, reads instantly as tarnish and weathering. On a prop it turns a good metallic surface into a convincing one, and it takes minutes.
What Alloy PLA will not do
Read this before you buy it for the wrong job
It looks like metal and weighs like plastic. At 1.24 g/cm³ a print in this material is as light as any other PLA, so a prop that reads as cast bronze feels weightless in the hand. For a display piece that is usually fine; for something someone will pick up expecting metal, weight the base.
It is also PLA for heat and sun: heat deflection at 55 °C and Vicat softening at 58 — the lowest of any PLA here bar the silks — and no UV resistance. A prop left in a hot car will deform, and outdoor hardware will fade over a season.
If the piece has to survive rather than impress, the range goes elsewhere:
- PLA+ — tougher props
- ASA — outdoor hardware
- Silk PLA — brighter metallic gloss
- Matte PLA — the best base for paint
The Materials Guide sets the decorative PLAs side by side with the published numbers.
Every colour, one material
Every Alloy colour is the same polymer with the same settings — only the metallic pigment changes. Because they share a profile, a prop built from several pieces in different alloy tones will finish consistently. Each colour is its own tile in the store, so what you click is what arrives.
3 colours in this material
Printer compatibility
Alloy PLA is 1.75mm 3D printer filament on a standard 1 kg spool, so it runs on any FDM printer that takes 1.75 mm — Bambu Lab, Prusa, Creality, Elegoo, Anycubic and the rest. Standard brass nozzle, no hardware change, and it feeds through an AMS or other multi-material unit like any unfilled PLA. The spool label states a diameter tolerance of ±0.02 mm, and the filament tip is secured before packing so the spool does not tangle mid-print.
- Bambu Lab
- Prusa
- Creality
- Elegoo
- Anycubic
- Sovol
- Any 1.75 mm FDM printer
Storage, drying and shelf life
Alloy PLA absorbs moisture at about the rate plain PLA does. The symptom that matters here is surface: a damp spool prints rough, and a rough surface scatters light instead of reflecting it, which flattens the metallic lustre into a dull grey.
Every spool ships sealed with desiccant. Keep it that way between prints and drying will not come up. If a spool has been open through a humid season, the manufacturer’s figure is 50 ± 5 °C for 8 hours in a dryer or blast oven, with storage below 20% relative humidity. The storage and drying guide covers what that looks like in practice.
Technical specifications
Preparation Before Printing
- Drying settings (blast drying oven)
- 50 ± 5 °C for 8h
- Printing & storage humidity
- ≤ 20% RH (Sealed with Desiccant)
Recommended Printing Settings
- Nozzle temperature
- 190 - 230 °C
- Bed temperature (with glue)
- 35 - 65 °C
- Printing speed
- < 300 mm/s
Physical Properties
- Density
- 1.24 g/cm³
- Melt index
- 7.8 ± 0.9 g/10 min
- Melting temperature
- 158 °C
- Vicat softening temperature
- 58 °C
- Heat deflection temperature
- 55 °C
Mechanical Properties
- Tensile strength
- 42 ± 2 MPa
- Elongation at break
- 8.2% ± 0.5%
- Bending strength
- 70 ± 2 MPa
- Bending modulus
- 2544 ± 118 MPa
- Impact strength
- 44.2 ± 3.9 kJ/m²
Manufacturer figures for PLA Metallic, from PLA Series Parameters. Test values are measured on standard samples and are for design comparison — real-world results depend on your printer, settings and model.
Common questions about Alloy PLA
Is there real metal in it?
No, and that is deliberate. Alloy PLA uses metallic pigments and reflective particles to produce the appearance; true metal-filled filaments carry powdered metal and are heavier, more brittle, more expensive and abrasive enough to require a hardened nozzle. For props and décor this gives you the look without any of that.
Do I need a hardened nozzle?
No. Standard brass is fine — there is no powdered metal to wear it. That is one of the main practical advantages over a genuinely metal-filled filament.
Will a print feel heavy like metal?
No. At 1.24 g/cm³ it weighs the same as any other PLA. If the illusion needs to survive being picked up, weight the inside of the part with sand, plaster or a steel washer.
How do I make it look more convincing?
Dry-brush a darker acrylic into the recesses and wipe it back off the raised surfaces. It reads as tarnish and wear, and it takes a few minutes. Almost every convincing metal-look prop uses some version of this.
Is it strong enough for wearable armour?
For a decorative piece, reasonably — its impact strength of 44.2 kJ/m² is mid-range for a PLA, better than Matte or Silk. But its heat deflection of 55 °C means a costume left in a car on a summer day is at real risk. Print load-bearing straps and joints in PLA+.
Does it hide layer lines?
Partly. The satin surface diffuses light more than gloss does, which softens the banding, but it is not as effective as matte or marble. Larger flat faces will still show layers at coarse heights.
How much can I print from a 1 kg spool?
At a density of 1.24 g/cm³, a 1 kg spool of 1.75 mm filament holds roughly 335 metres. Cosplay armour is usually printed thin-walled and hollow, so a spool covers more of a costume than the figure suggests.
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