From the Maker’s Bench
Insights from our network of 3d print operators and designers.
For most printers, buy a 95A TPU. Every TPU job our makers have printed for Intagly customers has been 95A. OVERTURE TPU is our all-round pick. If you run a fast machine like a Bambu Lab or Creality K1, get SUNLU’s high-speed 95A instead. Only go softer, to an 85A spool, if your printer has a direct-drive extruder and you’re happy to print slowly. Whichever you buy, dry it first: wet TPU causes most of the stringing and popping that gets blamed on the brand.
| Pick | Spool | Hardness | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall | OVERTURE TPU | 95A | Dried 24 h and vacuum-sealed at the factory | Check price |
| Best for fast printers | SUNLU High Speed TPU | 95A | Rated for 80–120 mm/s | Check price |
| Best for Creality printers | Creality TPU | 95A | Made for Creality’s direct-drive extruders | Check price |
| Softest | Siraya Tech Flex TPU | 85A | High-flow soft TPU, ISO 10993 tested | Check price |
| Tightest tolerance | Comgrow TPU | 95A | ±0.02 mm diameter | Check price |
| Best looking | YOUSU Silk TPU | 95A | Silk shine without polishing | Check price |
TPU is a small slice of Intagly orders. The jobs are telling, though: nearly all of them are parts that have to bend or seal. Think watch and bracelet bands, retention straps, feet and bumpers for equipment, PC grommets, gaskets, and shoe and doll-shoe prototypes. If your project looks like one of those, TPU is the right material. If it just needs to be tough, PETG is easier to print (see our PETG filament guide).
The number is Shore hardness. Lower is softer.
| 95A | 85A | |
|---|---|---|
| Feels like | A firm phone case or a skateboard wheel | A rubber eraser or a soft watch strap |
| Printer | Direct drive is best; many Bowden printers manage it slowly | Direct drive only. In a Bowden tube it buckles. |
| Speed | Moderate; high-speed blends go much faster | Slow |
| Good for | Cases, bumpers, feet, gaskets, grommets | Straps, grips, soft seals, anything you squeeze |
If you’re not sure, buy 95A. It’s far more forgiving, and most parts people think need to be “soft” work fine at 95A with thinner walls or lower infill. That’s why every TPU part our makers have shipped so far has been 95A.
Who it’s for: a first TPU spool on almost any direct-drive printer.
What you get: OVERTURE dries every spool for 24 hours before packing it and ships it vacuum-sealed in a resealable foil bag, so it’s ready to print and easy to keep dry afterwards.
Starting settings: 220–235 °C nozzle, bed off or 40 °C, about 20–30 mm/s.
Skip it if: you want a soft, squishy part. Go to the 85A pick.
Who it’s for: Bambu Lab, Creality K1 and other fast printers, where standard TPU makes you slow the whole machine down.
What you get: a 95A blend SUNLU rates at 80–120 mm/s, three times their standard TPU, with ±0.03 mm diameter tolerance. It ships vacuum-sealed.
Starting settings: SUNLU’s own: 210–230 °C nozzle, 50–60 °C bed. Start at the low end of the speed range and work up.
Skip it if: your printer is Bowden-fed and slow anyway. You won’t use the speed.
Who it’s for: Ender, K1 and other Creality owners. It’s made for Creality’s direct-drive extruders.
What you get: a glossy, wear-resistant 95A TPU that Creality pitches for seals, shoes and phone cases.
Starting settings: 225 °C nozzle, 50 °C bed, 20–30 mm/s.
Skip it if: you’re not on a Creality printer. Any 95A pick here works.
Who it’s for: straps, grips and soft seals where 95A feels too stiff.
What you get: a high-flow 85A that Siraya says prints faster than typical 95A, tested to ISO 10993 biocompatibility protocols. It’s packed in a resealable aluminum bag with up to 3 years of shelf life.
Starting settings: 220 °C nozzle, 50 °C bed, slow first layers, short retraction.
Skip it if: your printer is Bowden-fed. Siraya itself recommends direct drive, and 85A jams in the tube.
Who it’s for: anyone who’s fought under-extrusion from wobbly filament diameter.
What you get: ±0.02 mm diameter tolerance, the tightest on this list.
Starting settings: Comgrow’s own: 210–230 °C nozzle on a direct-drive printer.
Skip it if: you only have a Bowden printer. Comgrow lists direct drive as a requirement.
Who it’s for: phone cases, bags and wearables where the shine matters.
What you get: a silk finish straight off the printer, no polishing. YOUSU says it works on well-tuned Bowden machines as well as direct drive.
Starting settings: 225–235 °C nozzle, 50 °C bed, about 18–25 mm/s.
Skip it if: you’re printing gaskets or hidden functional parts. You’re paying for a finish nobody sees.
Both print 95A TPU well. What trips people up is the feeder. Our advice: feed TPU from the external spool holder rather than the AMS or AMS lite, and start from Bambu’s TPU profile. A high-speed 95A like SUNLU’s lets you keep more of the machine’s speed. 85A is possible on the A1’s direct-drive head but slow; we’d stick to 95A on Bambu machines.
The extruder matters more than the brand. A direct-drive extruder (motor on the print head) pushes filament only an inch or two to the nozzle, so soft TPU has nowhere to buckle. A Bowden printer pushes it through nearly two feet of tube, which works for 95A at low speed and fails for 85A. If you’re buying a printer partly for TPU, buy direct drive. See our best 3D printers under $300 guide.
| Setting | 95A starting point | 85A starting point |
|---|---|---|
| Nozzle | 210–235 °C | 215–225 °C |
| Bed | 40–60 °C (PEI or glue stick) | 40–50 °C |
| Speed | 20–30 mm/s (high-speed blends: the maker’s range) | 15–20 mm/s |
| Retraction | Short: 0.5–2 mm on direct drive | Minimal or off |
| Cooling | 30–50% after layer 2 | 30–50% after layer 2 |
| Infill | 10–20% for flexible parts, more for firm | 10–20% |
Two things fix most TPU failures: dry the spool, and slow down. If the extruder clicks or the filament piles up behind the gears, you’re going too fast.
TPU pulls moisture out of the air. Wet TPU hisses and pops at the nozzle, strings badly and prints weak, rough walls. We use a Sovol SH02 dry box. It holds two spools, heats from 40 to 70 °C, has a one-touch TPU setting, and feeds filament straight to the printer through the lid, so the spool stays dry while it prints. Even switched off, it seals well enough to work as storage.
TPU starter kit
The spool and the dry box we’d buy together: OVERTURE TPU 95A + Sovol SH02 filament dry box.
Add both to your Amazon cartAmazon shows both items for you to confirm before anything is added. Or check the Sovol SH02 on its own.
Going by what our customers order: watch and bracelet bands, retention straps, equipment feet and bumpers, grommets and gaskets, phone cases, and shoe or doll-shoe prototypes. For gaskets, print 95A with 100% infill so it seals instead of squishing flat.
Not sure TPU will work for your part? Have one of our makers print it first, then decide whether to buy a spool.
For a first spool, OVERTURE 95A: it arrives dried and feeds reliably. On a fast printer, SUNLU’s high-speed 95A. For a softer 85A part, Siraya Tech Flex.
Hardness. 95A is firm-flexible like a phone case and prints on most printers. 85A is soft like a rubber strap and needs a direct-drive extruder and slow speeds.
Yes. Our advice: feed it from the external spool holder rather than the AMS lite and start from Bambu’s TPU profile.
Almost always, unless the spool came out of a sealed bag that day. Dry it in a filament dryer before printing and store it sealed.
95A on a direct-drive printer is not much harder than PETG once it’s dry and you slow down. 85A takes patience.
| Pick | Spool | |
|---|---|---|
| Best overall | OVERTURE TPU 95A | Check price |
| Best for fast printers | SUNLU High Speed TPU 95A | Check price |
| Best for Creality printers | Creality TPU 95A | Check price |
| Softest | Siraya Tech Flex 85A | Check price |
| Tightest tolerance | Comgrow TPU 95A | Check price |
| Best looking | YOUSU Silk TPU 95A | Check price |
| Dry box we use | Sovol SH02 | Check price |
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