Prusament PLA Lightweight: 65% lighter than regular PLA. Perfect choice for aircraft, cosplay, and more.

We keep expanding the Prusament portfolio with new, exciting materials! Prusament PLA Lightweight is an actively foaming PLA designed for prints where low mass matters. In the nozzle, heat activates additives that expand the extruded polymer, allowing the same spool mass to produce substantially more printed volume than conventional PLA. This means it is possible to print 2-3 times more models from one spool than from the same weight of regular PLA.

This material offers up to 65 % lower weight than regular PLA, making it suitable for RC models, drones, costume parts, floaters, and other applications where every gram counts.

Prusament PLA Lightweight Coral Orange

What is it good for?

Before we dive deep into the material’s physical properties and printability, let’s make a brief introduction to this unique Prusament. As we already said, the material has a foaming structure. Imagine the printing process of this material as a miniature version of expanding foam commonly used at construction sites. The filament rapidly expands when heated, resulting in a very light and foamy structure of the print. This offers several very interesting applications. The obvious use is in everything that needs to be lightweight, for example, every model designed to fly (parts of RC aircraft, balloons, hovercraft, drones). Just look at the beautiful RC model of the Shark airplane scale 1:8 v5.0 by SHARK AERO right above.

Soda Can Thermos by LoboCNC

But a material with a high number of air pockets is useful in making thermal insulation for various specific applications (bottle sleeves, thermal box insulation inserts, etc.), or as a floater, as it floats almost as well as polystyrene.

Oil Tanker Ship by GAFFER7773_ZA and Raft by TedGhast

And the lightweight properties are also great for making cosplay props and costume parts, as they are much more comfortable to wear.

Ripper Mask – Borderlands 4 by Borderlands

Appearance

One of the most distinctive characteristics of PLA Lightweight is its highly attractive surface finish. Printed parts have a matte, finely textured appearance that helps hide layer lines. The effect is similar to certain wood-filled filaments: the surface looks less glossy and resembles an SLS 3D print.

The foaming process also changes the printed color. While the fresh spool contains vibrant colors you know from the regular Prusament PLA portfolio, the print itself turns into a paler tone. The foamy structure causes this, and it varies with the nozzle temperature – more foaming generally produces a paler shade. So, while the Prusament PLA Lightweight Galaxy Black filament may look the same as the regular Prusament PLA Prusa Galaxy Black on the spool, the final print gets a dark grey, concrete-like appearance.

Comparison of Prusament PLA Lightweight (left) and Prusament PLA (right) structure under microscope

Foaming properties

The foaming factor gets stronger with increasing nozzle temperature. When printing with a standard profile on Prusa printers, the foaming factor starts at 215 °C, where it’s barely noticeable, and reaches its maximum at 235 °C. At this temperature, the extruded filament is lightest, and the color is palest. Increasing the nozzle temperature further does not produce a meaningful additional reduction in weight, but it can reduce surface quality and increase the risk of material degradation. Do not exceed 250 °C! Beyond this temperature, the material may emit potentially dangerous fumes.

The image above illustrates how the color changes based on the temperature. The bottom, most vibrant color, was printed at 215 °C. The topmost was printed at 250 °C.

There is one important consequence of active foaming: increased nozzle ooze. As the material expands, it is more likely to leak from the nozzle during travel moves, which can create stringing. This is something that all lightweight filaments do. The result is noticeable stringing, which can be easily removed with a hobby knife or just by hand. In suitable models, it can also be reduced substantially through slicer settings and print planning.

Pro tip: You can print the models without visible stringing (depending on geometry) by using the “Avoid crossing perimeters” function with a maximum 40 mm detour in PrusaSlicer and by printing just one model at a time. This significantly mitigates the stringing. And for small models, you can use sequential printing.

Printing setup

Our PrusaSlicer profile for Prusament PLA Lightweight is optimized for a reliable balance between temperature, mechanical strength, and foaming properties. However, if you wish to unlock the full potential of this filament and experiment with temperatures, we recommend printing a calibration cube first to find the correct extrusion multiplier value. Our default profile is set to 230 °C with an extrusion multiplier of 0.45. At different temperatures, you’ll need to adjust the extrusion multiplier accordingly to the foaming factor. Here’s how it works:

At 235 °C, where foaming is most significant, set the extrusion multiplier to the lowest value. Otherwise, the print would suffer from overextrusion. On the other hand, printing at 215 °C with the extrusion multiplier set to 0.45 would lead to underextrusion. There, you should increase the extrusion multiplier.

To find the exact value suitable for your printer, we recommend printing a small hollow cube with a 0.4 mm nozzle, set 0 infill, 0 top layers, and just 1 perimeter. Measure the wall thickness with a caliper: If the value differs from 0.45 – 0.5 mm, adjust the extrusion multiplier and repeat the process. Once you find the exact value, you’re good to go for printing any model you wish.

Just in case, here are default settings for the 230 °C profile:

Nozzle temperature: 230 °C
Heatbed temperature: 60 °C
Retractions: Off
Extrusion multiplier: 0.45
Recommended print sheet: smooth PEI / Satin
Recommended nozzles: stock brass 0.4 or 0.6 mm (both high-flow and non-high-flow)
Supported printer profiles: CORE One+, CORE One+ (gen 2), CORE One L+, MK4S

Prusament PLA Lightweight Natural

Drying

The Prusament PLA Lightweight is hygroscopic and requires drying and storing in a dry place (you can use the USS Drybox). The filament can be dried for 5 hours at 55 °C.

Color and price

Prusament PLA Lightweight Chocolate Brown

We are launching Prusament PLA Lightweight in five colors: Army Green, Chocolate Brown, Galaxy Black, Natural, and Coral Orange. Again, all these colors get an attractive lighter tone when printed. For example, the Prusa Galaxy Black turns a concrete grey.

You can get 1kg for 56.99 USD / 59.90 EUR (VAT incl.).

Prusament PLA Lightweight Army Green

More models from one spool

The Prusament PLA Lightweight is not an everyday material like Prusament PLA. It requires a little bit of tweaking and post-processing. However, if you learn how to print it properly, it will surely become one of your favourite materials. Here, we have two more reasons to think that: First, the material consumption is significantly lower. You can print 2-3x more models from one spool compared with regular Prusament PLA. This might actually save you some money. And second, the rough matte surface and subtle colors look great in interior design, where a visible 3D-printing structure is not desired.

How do you like this new material? We hope to see some cool lightweight creations from you! Whether it’s RC aircraft, floaters, thermal insulation parts, or some design components, let us know in the comments what you plan to use it for.

Happy printing!