GlobalFSD Leaps Across the Pond, Bringing Filament Sampling to US Soil

With the growing number of filament manufacturers and filament brands coming to market over the past few years comes an uncertainty of which to choose from for that important 3D printing project you may have planned. 3D printer filament is to a 3D printing project what paint brushes and paint are to a painter’s toolkit. Buy and use the wrong filament and your project just won’t come out the way you intended.

This is one of the main reasons why GlobalFSD (Global Filament Sample Depot) has become so popular in Europe over the course of the past year or so. The company, which is based in the United Kingdom, allows customers to purchase samples of close to 100 different filament types from manufacturers spanning the globe. These filaments are available in 5-10 meter lengths and are priced starting at just £0.95 ($1.45). Customers can add as many different samples to their cart as they wish, and then have them all delivered to their doorstep in one incredibly exciting package.

This unique process allows for designers, hobbyists, and companies looking to create rapid prototypes to easily determine which filaments will work best for them. Whether it is a glow-in-the-dark filament, one that exhibits wood-like properties, or a conductive material, GlobalFSD literally has just about everything you can imagine within the filament world.

One of the downsides to GlobalFSD, since its inauguration, has been the fact that they have solely been based in Europe, meaning that shipments to customers in the United States were quite pricey. This limited their customer base significantly, and inhibited them from truly becoming a “global” filament sampling depot like they claimed. Now, however, the company tells 3DPrint.com that today they have officially launched a new United States-based office, which allows them to ship directly from the US, thus greatly reducing shipping costs to customers in this country, as well as to Canada, Mexico, South America, and other parts of the Western hemisphere.

“We are meeting amazing customer demand to support the very large US maker community from their experience visiting our first site,” Hassan Al-Fattal of GlobalFSD tells 3DPrint.com. “Our focus is to make specifically (but not exclusively) SPECIALTY European 3D filaments especially available to the US, Canada & South America, while significantly reduced shipping costs across the US with a sample of the AMAZING Biofila Linen or Biofila silk from the German manufacturer twoBears FREE with every order (only until stocks lasts).”

The new website for this part of the world has officially launched today, and can be found at GlobalFSDUSA.com. It should be interesting to see how quickly GlobalFSD catches on in the United States, as it has grown tremendously well in Europe. The idea that anyone can now purchase very affordable filament samples from anywhere in the world is one which definitely helps individuals and companies who own FDM/FFF-based 3D printers but don’t want to spend a ton of money trying to determine the filament that is best for them.

Have you Used GlobalFSd for Filament samples before?  Let us know your thoughts on this move in the GlobalFSD USA forum thread on 3DPB.com