For the most part, Protopasta filaments are fancy. We love making special things, but sometimes you just want basic PLA that you can rely on.
This month's exploration expands on our Premium Basic PLA offering which currently only consists of Black, White, and Natural. We're adding Opaque Grey, Red, Yellow, and Blue for more variety. These are clean, classy PLA colors made-from-scratch in our Washington shop.
So where's the exploration?
First, we designed pre-mixed color concentrates. For example, gray concentrate is made from a mixture of white and black. If you try to make a single color like gray without pre-mixing black and white, you get inconsistent color. One way to avoid this inconsistency is to pre-mix all of the pellets. We do this often and the result is exceptional. It's also inefficient. For these new opaque PLA colors, we made a pre-mixed concentrate for more efficient production.
Second, we were able to acquire a high quality post-industrial supply of recycled PLA without color. I didn't lead with these being recycled because being recycled isn't the main point, it's a nice to have that doesn't reduce the quality. Recycled content will vary, but being a natural color and the same grade as our new material, you won't know the difference when printing. If you value recycled, you got it! Either way, you get uncompromised quality.
On the topic of recycling, these all ship on our new plastic spools. Not only are they recyclable #5 plastic, but they look great, are more durable, and are more straight-forward to use.
Finally, we tuned for the level of transparency by measuring transmissivity distance (TD). Until recently, I hadn't specifically tuned for TD value, but I wanted to add value with an intentional result that leaves room for blending with HueForge or similar if that's your thing. The TDs are ~2.5-4.5 for a fully saturated look.
How did such a simple product get so complicated? Well, having full control of the result has it's benefits. We hope you appreciate the result!
Take care and enjoy the pasta,
Alex and the Protopasta Team
Missed out? Join us next time by subscribing to Endless Exploration by December 31st for our January shipment or browse our newest releases. Know a group of people who'd like to make filament colors with us or need a custom filament for your business? Contact us.
I can't wait to see what you print with these. Whatever you make, I hope you are inspired by these fun filaments! Tag Protopasta to show us what you make!!!
Looking for more models to print? Browse our models on you favorite model platform with the links below.
More about Protopasta
Protopasta is 100% made in the USA by Protoplant Inc. Founded in 2013 by engineers, Dustin and Aaron Cram, we control every step of the process with in-house made machinery and materials. We’re a small team with a passion for making things, just like you! We’re here because of you. We’re here for you. Thank you for choosing Protopasta!