Filament library

TPU print settings

The flexible one — rubbery, bouncy, nearly indestructible.

TPU prints parts that bend, grip, and bounce back: phone cases, gaskets, wheels, bumpers, straps. Once printed, TPU parts are almost impossible to break — the material absorbs abuse that would shatter anything else on this list.

Its difficulty is overstated on modern hardware. On a direct-drive printer, TPU is simply slow. The three rules: dry it, print it slow, and go easy on retraction. Break any of them and TPU reminds you immediately.

Difficulty

Moderate

Best for

Phone cases, gaskets, grips, wheels, straps, feet, anything that flexes.

Skip it for

Rigid structural parts, anything needing supports, bowden printers in a hurry.

Starting settings

Nozzle temperature220–240 °C
Bed temperature40–60 °C
Print speed20–30 mm/s to start; direct-drive can go faster once tuned
Cooling fan50–100%
RetractionMinimal or off — flexible filament buckles when yanked

Drying

55 °C for 6–8 h — Effectively mandatory — TPU absorbs moisture faster than any common filament and prints bubbly, rough, and weak when wet.

New to drying? Read how to dry filament first.

Bed adhesion

Grips the bed easily — sometimes too well. Moderate bed temps and a clean plate suffice; some users add glue stick as a release layer for large flat parts.

Mistakes to skip

  • • Skipping the drying step — wet TPU is the #1 reason people declare it unprintable.
  • • Printing at PLA speeds and jamming the extruder with buckled filament.
  • • Adding supports — they weld to the print and can't be removed cleanly from rubber.

Common questions

Can a Bambu A1 / P1S print TPU?

Yes — they're direct-drive, which is the right architecture for flexibles. Feed TPU from the external spool holder rather than the AMS (the AMS multi-material system and soft filament don't mix), keep speeds moderate, and dry the spool first.

What does 95A shore hardness mean on TPU?

It's the squishiness rating — lower is softer. 95A is the standard and the right first TPU: clearly rubbery but stiff enough to feed reliably. 85A and below print lovely soft parts and are genuinely hard to push through an extruder.

How do I control how squishy the part feels?

Mostly in the slicer, not the filament aisle: infill percentage is the firmness dial. The same 95A model prints like a stress ball at 10% infill and like a shoe sole at 50%. Wall count matters too — more walls, firmer part.

Not sure TPU is the right call for your project? TheFilament Pickerdecides in five questions — and thecost calculatortells you what each print costs.