MetalFil™ Ancient Bronze is filled with approximately 80% bronze powder. The high bronze content in MetalFil™ Ancient Bronze makes 3D printed objects nearly indistinguishable from genuine bronze casted objects. MetalFil™ Ancient Bronze can be post-processed by polishing or with various patina/rust effects.

MetalFil™ Ancient Bronze is a PLA (polylactic acid) composite filament.

Unique features

• Very high bronze-filling of 80% (gravimetrically)
• Real bronze look, heavyweight, and “cold” bronze metal feel
• Approximately 300% heavier than PLA (density of 3.5 g/cc)
• Compatible with full metal, PEEK, and PFTE hotends
• Compatible with direct drive and Bowden style extruders
• Compatible with ≥ 0.4mm hardened nozzles with retraction settings enabled
• Easy to post-process
• MetalFil™ can be brushed, sanded, polished, waxed, coated and patina post-processed

Applications

• Aesthetics, design, and art
• Figurines and miniatures

MetalFil™ - Ancient Bronze is an incredible new metal-filled PLA-based filament with approximately 80% of gravimetric bronze filling. This incredible high filling with bronze powders enables every FDM 3D printer user to 3D print bronze objects which are almost indistinguishable from genuine bronze.

Post processing MetalFil™ - Ancient Bronze

Brushing and/or sand grinding Once printed MetalFil™ - Ancient Bronze objects can very easily be brushed with a brass brush or sanded with a fine grid sandpaper. By brushing and/or sand grinding your printed object you will brush/shine up the high concentration of bronze powders.

Build-in white polish feature After being brushed and/or sanded MetalFil™ - Ancient Bronze will reveal its white polish feature. A very thin white layer/haze on your object will now allow you to easily polish your 3D print into a beautiful bronze object. 

Professional polishing with a rotary tumbler Post processing a MetalFil™ - Ancient Bronze 3D printed object with a rotary tumbler will make your FDM 3D printed object indistinguishable from genuine bronze casted objects.

Patina post processing You can create several patina effects on MetalFil™ - Ancient Bronze printed objects in just one day time. With an ammonia and soda treatment you can easily create a beautiful ancient blue weathering effect on your bronze object.

Waxing and coating After every above mentioned post-processing measure you can always wax or coat your printed object to get an incredible shine effect.  Waxing can be done with products such as beeswax and for coating products such as XTC-3D work well..  

Abrasiveness Please be aware that MetalFil™ filaments contain a very high concentration of metal powders, which have an abrasive nature. These metal powders will accelerate the nozzle-wear of brass nozzles, much faster than unfilled filaments. We recommend to use nozzles from stainless steel or other hardened alloys.

Nozzle cleaning When printing with filled/composite filaments it is recommended to clean your nozzle immediately after printing by feeding 15-20cm PLA filament through your nozzle. This will make sure that any potential fillers are flown out of your nozzle. It is even better to use glow in the dark PLA as the extremely hard phosphorous particles are much more likely to scrape out residual waste from your nozzle.