MJF PA12-W: Why White Parts Matter in Production

MJF PA12-W, Now Available at Stratasys Direct 

In medical manufacturing, materials choices are rarely aesthetic. Color, surface finish, and consistency all play functional roles – supporting visual inspection, cleanability and alignment with clinical environments. For decades, white plastics have been the standard across medical devices, laboratory equipment, and surgical tools. Yet producing durable, production-grade white parts using powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing has remained a challenge. 

At Stratasys Direct Manufacturing, we see white specified again and again in medical applications — not as a design preference, but as a functional requirement tied to inspection, cleanliness, and clinical use. MJF PA12W expands what production additive manufacturing (AM) can reliably deliver for medical manufacturing. 

Why White Is a Functional Requirement in Medical Manufacturing 

In medical settings, white parts serve a purpose beyond appearance.  They make contamination easier to detect, support visual inspection, and reinforce expectations around cleanliness and sterility – particularly for patient-facing and regulated applications. 

For years, MJF has followed the Henry Ford motto, “Any color the customer wants, as long as it’s black.”  Black PA12 enabled MJF to scale rapidly across industrial applications, delivering strong, repeatable, isotropic parts at production volumes.  

But with medical manufacturing, color is not optional. As adoption of additive manufacturing continues to expand into healthcare, laboratories and clean-room environments, the need for production-grade white material becomes increasingly important.  

Introducing MJF PA12W

MJF PA12-W is a white pigmented polyamide 12 material designed for MJF technology. At its core, it retains the same base chemistry that has made PA12 a workhorse thermoplastic in production environments -- strength, toughness, and dimensional stability – while delivering a clean white base color directly out of the build.  

At Stratasys Direct, material availability is intentional. We added PA12W to our growing material portfolio to address real-world customer needs, particularly within medical and regulated manufacturing environments where white parts are needed and post-process coloring is not practical.

Equally important is what PA12-W is not. It is not a cosmetic resin designed for ultra-smooth, high-gloss finishes straight off the printer. It is not intended to replace SLA or PolyJet materials where surface aesthetics are the primary requirement. PA12-W is a production thermoplastic, optimized for performance, durability, and repeatability – ideal for medical applications.

Designed With Medical Applications in Mind

MJF PA12W was developed with medical applications in mind. This material was tested by HP and has passed multiple biocompatibility tests including cytotoxicity, irritation, sensitization, hemolysis, acute systemic toxicity, and muscle implantation testing. These results support the use of PA12-W in non-permanent implant medical and laboratory applications where short-term contact with the body may occur.

It is important to note that biocompatibility testing is both application and process-dependent. While the results provide confidence for many use cases, they don’t imply blanket biocompatibility for all medical applications. Final material selection and validation should be performed based on intended use, contact duration, and regulatory pathway.  

Biocompatibility Results

For medical manufacturers, the availability of white, production-grade MFJ material with demonstrated biocompatibility testing represents a meaningful expansion of what powder bed AM can support.