LayFilaments new version of their now classic wooden filamnet - LAYWOOD-FLEX. German inventor Kai Parthy is back with another interesting strand. His latest work has given the additional property of flexibility to his wood filament, Laywoo-D3. Laywood -Flex brings the flexibility of tree branches to 3D printable filament, without being rubbery.

Main features

• No (or minimal) deformation
• Rough or smooth surfaces that can be sanded
• 3D printable tree rings are possible (185 to 255°C), depending on temperature and printing speed. The elasticity will be greater on the darker layers
• Adheres well to ABS paint on cold decks or blue tape.
• Print directly on capton tape with platform at 50°C.
• Contains approximately 35% recycled wood and harmless binders made of copolyesters.
• Nozzle: 0.5mm.

Otherwise, Laywood prints are quite stiff with high tensile strength and tend to break faster, but Laywood-Flex has higher elasticity with slightly lower tensile strength.

As Kai points out: "More than 2 years have passed and more filaments have been developed in my garage and I wanted to go back to LAYWOOD(TM) again, making it better or more flexible as some types of wood in real nature are also flexible. So I added some flexibilisers and I obtained an adequate result which is in summary a thermoplastic composite polymer, made with harmless ingredients."