Full Description

Strong, Highly Ductile SLS Material for Durable, Flexible Parts

Formlabs Nylon 11 Powder is a strong, highly ductile bio-based SLS material designed for parts that need to withstand impact, repeated flexing, vibration, and everyday wear. Its combination of 40% elongation at break, 71 J/m notched Izod impact strength, and 49 MPa tensile strength makes it an excellent choice for functional prototypes and low-volume end-use parts where toughness and flexibility are more important than maximum stiffness.

Nylon 11 Powder is particularly well suited for snap fits, clips, hinges, thin-walled components, enclosures, ducts, orthotics, prosthetics, jigs, fixtures, and impact-resistant functional parts.

Key Benefits

• High Ductility – 40% elongation at break allows parts to flex rather than fracture.
• Excellent Impact Resistance – 71 J/m notched Izod impact strength helps parts withstand drops, impacts, and repeated use.
• Strong and Flexible – 49 MPa tensile strength provides durability while maintaining flexibility.
• Fatigue Resistant – Well suited for parts subjected to repeated bending, vibration, and mechanical cycling.
• Thin-Wall Capability – Ideal for lightweight housings, ducts, shells, clips, and other flexible geometries.
• Biocompatible Material – Formlabs identifies Nylon 11 Powder for skin-contact and mucosal-membrane-contact applications.
• Environmental Stability – Printed parts absorb very little moisture and offer resistance to light, heat, and chemicals.
• Support-Free SLS Printing – Powder-bed printing eliminates the need for traditional support structures.

Recommended Applications

Impact-Resistant Prototypes

Create functional prototypes that can withstand drops, impacts, vibration, and repeated handling without becoming excessively brittle.

Snaps, Clips, Hinges & Living Mechanisms

Nylon 11's high elongation and flexibility make it especially well suited for clips, snap-fit components, hinges, and parts that repeatedly flex during use.

Thin-Walled Ducts & Enclosures

Produce lightweight housings, ducts, speaker shells, wearable components, and other thin-walled geometries that benefit from flexibility and impact resistance.

Jigs & Fixtures

Use Nylon 11 for durable manufacturing aids and fixtures where toughness and resistance to repeated handling are important.

Orthotics & Prosthetics

The combination of lightweight strength, flexibility, and durability makes Nylon 11 suitable for custom orthotic and prosthetic components. For regulated or patient-contact applications, the finished part and complete manufacturing process should be validated for the intended use.

Low-Volume End-Use Parts

Produce custom and low-volume components with production-grade mechanical performance without investing in injection molds or other conventional tooling.

Material Specifications

Designed to Bend Instead of Break

One of Nylon 11's biggest advantages is its exceptional ductility. With 40% elongation at break, it can accommodate significant deformation before failure. Its 71 J/m notched Izod impact strength also gives it excellent resistance to sudden impacts.

Compared with standard Nylon 12, Nylon 11 offers substantially greater flexibility and impact resistance, making it the better choice when a part needs to bend, flex, absorb impact, or withstand repeated mechanical movement.

Nylon 11 vs. Nylon 12

Choose Nylon 11 when flexibility, impact resistance, and durability under repeated deformation are priorities.

Choose Nylon 12 when you need a more rigid, dimensionally stable general-purpose SLS material with higher stiffness and better performance under sustained heat and load.

Printer Compatibility

Nylon 11 Powder is compatible with:

• Formlabs Fuse 1
• Formlabs Fuse 1+ 30W

Formlabs recommends printing Nylon 11 in an inert atmosphere, particularly on the Fuse 1+ 30W, to achieve optimal material performance and reduce powder degradation. A 30% powder refresh rate is recommended for standard printing.

Post-Processing

Nylon 11 SLS parts are depowdered and finished using the Fuse Series workflow. Formlabs recommends the Fuse Sift powder recovery system and media blasting for post-processing.

Because SLS does not require traditional support structures, complex geometries, internal channels, thin walls, and interlocking assemblies can be produced without manually removing support material.

Design Considerations

Nylon 11 is particularly well suited to flexible and impact-resistant geometries, but its higher ductility can also affect part design.

For integrated assemblies, allow appropriate clearance between mating components. Large cross sections printed in the XY plane can also have an increased tendency to warp, making proper part orientation and design practices important for large components.

Why Choose Formlabs Nylon 11 Powder?

Formlabs Nylon 11 Powder provides a unique combination of strength, flexibility, impact resistance, and durability for SLS 3D printing. It is an excellent material for parts that need to survive real-world mechanical use rather than simply reproduce a rigid prototype.

From functional prototypes and manufacturing aids to clips, hinges, enclosures, orthotics, and low-volume end-use components, Nylon 11 delivers the flexibility and toughness needed for demanding applications.

If your application needs to bend, absorb impact, or withstand repeated flexing, Nylon 11 is one of the strongest choices in the Formlabs Fuse SLS material lineup.