3D Printing Filament Trends & Stats for April 2015 & a New Filament Database is Launched

As 3D printing filament options continue to expand for the FDM/FFF desktop 3D printer market, consumers are beginning to have a more difficult time trying to figure out exactly which filaments are worth spending money for, and which simply are not worth their time. 2015 is building to be a year of new materials within the space, with various composite plastics being released with plenty more on their way to market.

Last month, GlobalFSD (Global Filament Sample Depot) released their inaugural Filament Trends & Stats report, revealing some of the month’s top sold samples, along with some additional trends and sales details. Today the May 2015 report was released, showing several changes from last month.

11 New Filaments Now Available to Purchase in 5-10 Meter Samples

For those of you unfamiliar with GlobalFSD, they allow consumers to purchase small samples of various filaments at prices starting under $2.00. This provides individuals and companies the option to try out some of the most popular and new filaments on the market without having to fork over a ton of money for an entire 1KG spool of the material. This month saw 11 new filaments added to the marketplace, all of which are now available for sampling.

Four new materials from FormFutura have been made available, including ClearScent, EasyFill HIPS, HDglass™ Clear, and HDglass™ Red. At the same time, three new materials were added from taulman 3d, including BLUprint, Alloy 910, and PLAdium. Kai Parthy CC Prodcuts went ahead and made two of their latest filaments available for sampling on the marketplace as well. These included MOLDLAY and BendLay Flex. For those interested in conductive filaments, Graphene 3D Lab‘s Conductive Graphene filament is also now available for sampling as well as Proto-Pasta‘s Conductive PLA.

Top Single Color Filament Samples Sold
For the month of April, the three top single color filaments sold on the GlobalFSD marketplace were as follows:

• HDglass™ by FormFutura
• Magnetic Iron by Proto-Pasta
• Crystal Flex™ by FormFutra

Top Filaments of Multiple Colors Sold

• FilaFlex by Recreus
• Glow in the Dark by Reprapper Tech Ltd
• SemiFlex by Fenner Drives

Statistics

• GlobalFSD had 78 orders placed for the month, compared to 61 last month.
• There were a total of 504 filament samples sold, compared to 329 last month.
• The average order placed by customers consisted of 6.46 filament samples per order, compared to 5.39 last month.
• GlobalFSD had 60 new customers place an order, with 15 repeat customers placing orders, compared to 43 and 18, respectively, last month.
• The country of Greece saw their very first order placed on the site.
• The top selling manufacturer this month was FormFutura, followed closely by taulman 3D and Reprapper Tech Ltd.

Launch of the Filament Database

GlobalFSD has also announced the launch of the Filament Database.

“The filament database has come about as several customers and a few 3D printer guys and girls have said that it may be a good idea to document actual filament characteristics, settings etc,” Tim Kay, co-founder of GlobalFSD, tells 3DPrint.com. “We have three very proficient guys testing and uploading samples in the coming days and continuing until eventually we have tested all the filaments in the store. Visitors can then sort the database to choose filaments based on the features and qualities, documented by GFSD.”

The filament database, which is entirely free to use, should become quite the useful tool for those individuals looking to find the filaments just right for the projects they intend to print.  This should save both time and money why investigating and purchasing new filaments.

What do you think about this month’s stats? Does anything surprise you? Have you given GlobalFSD a try yet? Discuss in the GlobalFSD forum thread on 3DPB.com.