SLS nylon printing

SLS 3D printing in Sydney

We print SLS parts on a Formlabs Fuse 1 in our Sydney workshop. A laser fuses glass-filled nylon powder one thin layer at a time, and the loose powder around each part holds it up as it prints. Nothing needs supports, so there are no marks to sand off.

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Printed in Sydney, usually within 1–3 business days, and shipped Australia-wide.

Inside an SLS printer. Heaters keep the powder just below melting, the laser fuses each slice, and the bed drops one layer at a time.

How SLS works

An SLS printer keeps a chamber of nylon powder just below its melting point. A recoater spreads a 0.11 mm layer of powder across the bed, and a laser traces the slice of every part in that layer, fusing the grains to each other and to the layer below.

Then the bed drops, more powder goes on and the laser draws the next slice. A full build is a few thousand layers, and anything the laser didn't touch stays loose.

Brushing loose nylon powder off an SLS printed part at the Fuse Sift — Brushing the loose powder off before the parts are blasted.

Why nothing needs supports

Nylon melts at about 180 °C but doesn't set until it cools to about 150 °C. The printer holds the whole chamber in that gap until the build is done, so each new layer stays flat while the loose powder around it carries its weight. Overhangs, and even parts nested inside other parts, print with nothing holding them up but powder.

That's how SLS prints working hinges and chains, closed channels and fine lattices. The surface is a fine sandy matte rather than a shine, so if a part is mostly for show, resin will look better for the money.

The loop the printer repeats for every layer: spread, heat, laser, drop.

One layer at a time

The printer repeats this loop for every layer. After the last one, the chamber cools slowly before we open it, because a part that cools unevenly warps.

One part and a full chamber take a similar time to heat and cool, so a full build shares that cost across every part.

Packing a build

Heating and cooling the chamber takes about as long for one part as for forty, and the cooling alone can take half as long as the print. So we fill every build, leaving at least 5 mm of powder between parts.

That's why SLS gets cheaper per part as your order grows. On the quote page, the rate per gram drops as you add more SLS parts.

Gloved hands breaking printed parts out of the powder cake at the Fuse Sift — Breaking the parts out of the powder cake by hand.

Getting the parts out

Once it has cooled, the whole block comes out in one piece. We break the parts out by hand and brush off the loose powder, which is sieved and reused in the next build.

Every part is then media blasted to clear powder from holes and corners and even out the surface.

What Nylon 12 GF is like

Nylon 12 GF is nylon with glass mixed through it, which makes it stiff and helps it keep its shape when warm. It isn't stronger than PLA when pulled, but it stays rigid near heat and is nearly as strong standing up as lying flat.

It snaps rather than bends, so keep clips and load-bearing ribs at a sensible thickness.

Nylon 12 GF, from the Formlabs data sheet
Property	Figure	What it means
Tensile strength	38 MPa	About the same as PLA
Stiffness (tensile modulus)	2,800 MPa	Rigid; it won't flex much
Stretch before breaking	4% flat, 3% standing up	Snaps rather than bends
Heat under load	113 °C at 1.8 MPa, 170 °C at 0.45 MPa	Fine beside a motor or in a hot car
Impact (notched Izod)	36 J/m	Takes knocks better than standard resin

Jigs, fixtures and mounts

Nylon 12 GF is a good choice for jigs, fixtures and mounts. It's stiff, so parts hold their position, and it won't soften next to a warm motor.

Finished black SLS nylon parts from one build: a lattice, a drone frame, a turbine, chainmail and model spaceships — Parts from a single SLS build.

Designing a part for SLS

Keep walls at least 1.5 mm thick, and give anything hollow a couple of escape holes so we can clear the loose powder out. Large flat parts can warp as they cool, and a few ribs underneath help keep them flat.

The table below has the sizes we recommend.

Design guide for SLS
Feature	Recommended
Wall thickness	1.5 mm, and never under 0.6 mm
Pins	At least 1 mm across
Holes	At least 1.5 mm across
Escape holes in a hollow part	Two or more, each at least 3.5 mm across
Gap between separate parts that fit together	0.5 to 0.7 mm
Gap for parts printed already assembled	0.6 mm
Raised text	4.5 mm tall, about 1 mm proud
Engraved text	3 mm tall, about 1 mm deep

Example price

A real quote from our quote page. Your price depends on your part's size, material and settings, so upload your file for an exact price.

Drone frame

$36.92

for 1 part

Material: Nylon 12 GF, black
In bulk: $527.81 for 50, which is $10.56 each with the 8% bulk discount

Includes the one-off setup charge. Standard shipping $9.95 Australia-wide, free on orders of $50 or more. Quoted in October 2026; prices can change.

Material

Nylon 12 GF
Stiff, heat-resistant glass-filled nylon
Nylon 12 GF is a glass-filled SLS nylon: about 50% stiffer than standard Nylon 12, with a heat deflection temperature of 113 °C. Suitable for rigid structural parts, jigs, fixtures and parts exposed to heat. Thin or delicate features are more prone to breaking than in unfilled nylon.
Colours:BlackDark Gray

Colours shown on the quote page are the ones in stock today.

Specifications

Printer: Formlabs Fuse 1
Maximum part size: 165 × 165 × 300 mm
Material: Nylon 12 GF (glass-filled nylon)
Layer height: 0.11 mm
Supports: None needed
Accuracy: ±0.5%, or ±0.3 mm on small parts
Finish: Media blasted, fine matte texture
File formats: STL, STEP, OBJ, 3MF, GLB and GLTF, up to 50 MB

SLS, resin and FDM compared

Not sure this is the right method? Upload your file and every method shows a starting price, so you can weigh them up.

	SLS 3D Printing	Resin 3D Printing	FDM 3D Printing
How it builds	A laser fuses nylon powder	A laser hardens liquid resin	A hot nozzle lays down melted plastic
Layer height	0.11 mm	0.1 mm	0.2 mm, down to 0.12 mm
Supports	None	Thin supports, leaving small marks	Only under steep overhangs
Surface	Fine sandy matte	Smooth, layers hard to see	Visible layer lines
Strength by direction	Nearly the same every way	The same every way once cured	Weakest across the layers
Handles heat	Well, 113 °C under load	Poorly, in standard resin	54 °C (PLA) to 92 °C (ASA) under load
Accuracy	±0.5%, at least ±0.3 mm	±0.5%, at least ±0.2 mm	±0.5%, at least ±0.5 mm
Largest part	165 × 165 × 300 mm	335 × 200 × 320 mm	400 × 400 × 400 mm
Best for	Working parts, moving assemblies, short runs	Display models, fine detail, mould masters	Low-cost prototypes, big parts, jigs

SLS 3D Printing questions

Does SLS printing need support structures?

No. The loose powder around the part holds it up while it prints, so there's nothing to remove afterwards and no support marks.

What is Nylon 12 GF?

Nylon 12 GF is a glass-filled SLS nylon: about 50% stiffer than standard Nylon 12, with a heat deflection temperature of 113 °C. Suitable for rigid structural parts, jigs, fixtures and parts exposed to heat. Thin or delicate features are more prone to breaking than in unfilled nylon.

What colours can I get?

Grey or black. The quote page shows which of the two is in stock today.

How big can an SLS part be?

Up to 165 × 165 × 300 mm. We check your part in every orientation, so a long part that fits standing on end is fine. For anything bigger, split your model into pieces and upload them separately.

How is SLS 3D printing priced?

By the weight of the part, at a rate that depends on its size. The more SLS parts an order has in total, the lower the rate per gram across the whole order. Upload your file to see the exact price before you pay.