At a Glance
In this guide, we cover the key materials, technologies, and applications behind flexible 3D printing. You’ll learn how different material types, from TPU to PolyJet™ rubber-like materials and P3™ elastomers like silicones, behave in practice. We look at how Shore hardness relates to flexibility, and how to match material performance to real-world use. We also compare Stratasys technologies including FDM®, PolyJet, and P3 DLP, explore where flexible materials are used across industries, and provide a clear framework to help you choose the right material for your application.
Flexible 3D printing is the process of producing parts using elastomeric materials designed to bend, stretch, compress, or absorb impact while returning to their original shape. It uses flexible thermoplastics and photopolymers such as TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) and other elastomeric materials with varying Shore hardness and elongation properties. Flexible 3D printing is widely used to manufacture ergonomic grips, seals, gaskets, wearables, cushioning features, and medical or dental components that require softness, resilience, or repeated flexing.
Flexible 3D printing is about producing parts that undergo large, reversible deformation – bending, compressing or absorbing impact – and recover their shape when the force is removed. Depending on the material, that can mean anything from a slight flex under load to a fully rubber-like response.
Not all flexible materials behave the same. Some are designed to simulate rubber for fit and feel. Others are built to handle repeated stress, abrasion, or mechanical use without breaking. That distinction matters early, because it affects both material choice and printing process.
Shore hardness and elongation at break are the simplest way to quantify these. Lower Shore A values indicate softer, more compliant materials. Higher values are firmer and offer more support. Elongation at break indicates how much a material can stretch before it snaps.
The key question is how the part needs to perform. If it’s about realism of grips, seals, or overmolded features, you’re usually optimizing for feel and surface quality. If it’s functional, such as protective covers, tooling, or something with repeated flex, you’re looking more at durability and consistency over time.
Flexible 3D printing materials cover a wide range of behaviors, from tough, slightly flexible plastics to soft, rubber-like materials. The right choice depends less on “how flexible” something is in isolation, and more on how it needs to perform in use, e.g. repeated bending, surface grip, sealing, or simply replicating the feel of a final product.
These materials are best understood by their performance characteristics:
Some materials offer limited flexibility, such as semi-flex photopolymers or polypropylene-based materials, but these do not provide the rubber-like behavior covered in this guide.
Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPE) is a broad category of flexible thermoplastics, while it’s also a specific type of TPE. TPU, which is used in Stratasys FDM® systems, sits within the TPE category and offers a balance of flexibility and durability.
Materials like FDM® TPU 92A offer a balance of flexibility and durability, so you might use them where performance matters more than surface finish: parts that need to withstand wear, vibration, or repeated movement.
Flexible PolyJet materials such as Agilus30, Tango and Elastico are designed to simulate elastomers with high detail and control. These materials offer different levels of softness and flexibility, allowing you to match material feel and behavior to the application. Digital material blends extend this further by allowing you to tune Shore hardness and behavior within a single part. And with multi-material printing you can combine rigid and flexible elements in a single part.
You’ll find these materials used for realistic prototypes, soft-touch features, and design validation, as well as parts that require controlled flexibility without full elastomer behavior.
Flexible 3D printing jetting resins such as TissueMatrix® and GelMatrix® extend this further into very soft, gel-like behavior. They’re used in medical simulation and training, where replicating soft tissue response is more important than mechanical strength.
Flexible materials for P3 DLP are suited to applications where behavior under load in real-world situations is important.
Not all “silicone” 3D printed parts are actually silicone.
True silicone materials, like P3 Silicone 25A, behave like molding silicone. They support compression, sealing, and repeated deformation and age over time in a way that silicone-like materials typically can’t.
This is important when moving from concept to application. If the part needs to perform under real conditions for an extended period of time, material behavior and aging matters more than appearance.
Stratasys supports flexible 3D printing across multiple technologies, each suited to a different type of application. The choice isn’t just about how soft a material is, but more about how the part needs to perform, how it will be used, and how consistent the output needs to be.
This means selecting between FDM for durable functional parts, PolyJet for high-detail rubber-like prototypes, and P3 for elastomer applications closer to production performance. Each sits in a different space in terms of durability, realism, and material behavior.
FDM is ideal for functional flexible parts, especially when your parts need durability and wear resistance.
Materials like TPU 92A don’t just flex once. They handle repeated bending, abrasion, and day-to-day wear without breaking down. That’s why you see them used for things like protective covers, ducts, seals, and end-of-arm tooling. You don’t get the highest surface finish, but you do get parts that are tough, predictable, and reliable enough to run on the workshop or production floor.
PolyJet is designed for high-detail, rubber-like ,particularly where realism and surface quality matter. Materials like Agilus30, Elastico and Tango allow you to control softness, and can be combined with rigid materials in a single build.
This makes it well suited to overmolded parts, seals, soft-touch features, and complex assemblies. You can vary Shore hardness within a part and achieve fine features that aren’t possible with filament-based systems.
PolyJet is widely used for design validation, medical models, and applications where the look, feel, and fit of the part need to closely match the final product.
The P3 DLP platform extends flexible 3D printing into true elastomer performance for real-world applications, including silicone and high-stretch materials. This is where flexible printing moves beyond simulation into parts that can behave like production elastomers.
P3™ Silicone 25A is used for low volumes or prototyping of parts that are traditionally made with moldable silicones: where long-term compression and softness under demanding circumstances are important, such as gaskets, seals, anything that needs to deform and recover predictably over an extended period of time, in humid, lower or higher temperatures. Circumstances where standard elastomers or flexible materials won’t hold up.
Elastomeric materials like Stretch 80 and IND475 are built for repeated movement. You’ll see them in soft grippers and end-of-arm tooling, where parts flex continuously.
The advantage of P3 DLP flexible materials is that rather than simply simulating rubber, you’re getting real elastomer behavior, without the need for tooling, with consistent, repeatable output, and very good surface finish.
Applications of flexible 3D printing range from custom medical orthotics to industrial vibration dampeners and automotive seals. Using flexible thermoplastics and photopolymers, manufacturers can produce components that provide impact resistance, ergonomic comfort, and complex sealing geometries. These materials also support customized consumer products such as footwear, wearables, and protective equipment, while enabling durable, repeatable production for demanding industrial applications.
What varies is the role the part plays. Some applications call for functional performance, others for realistic prototypes that validate fit and feel before committing to production. Often it's both, at different stages of the same project.
In healthcare, depending on the case, priorities may include realism, controlled softness, durability, biocompatibility, or long-term performance.
For simulation and anatomical models, very soft materials are used to mimic tissue response realistically. For functional or patient-contact components, materials must also provide mechanical reliability, elasticity, recovery and long-term performance.
Automotive applications tend to fall into three areas: prototyping and design validation, . Each has different material requirements.
Key requirements:
Prototyping and design validation focuses on how parts fit together, how they compress, and how they behave against surrounding components. Manufacturing aids and tooling prioritize durability and part protection. Final-use parts require long-term performance under wear, vibration and repeated compression.
The use of elastomer material has enabled the team at Polaris to rapidly iterate and test multiple, geometrically accurate designs for the intake duct on one of their vehicles.
In consumer products, the focus is often on user interaction and feel during prototyping and design validation, and on durability, comfort, and repeated-use performance for tooling and production parts.
Design teams often need to test how a product feels before committing to tooling, especially for parts that rely on touch, comfort, or flexibility.
Flexible materials are used for:
Key requirements:
In industrial environments, flexible materials are typically used for prototyping and validation, manufacturing aids, and final-use parts. They might be used in handling, protection, and process interaction.
For prototyping, the focus is often on validating fit, movement, compression, and interaction with surrounding components. For tooling and manufacturing aids, performance over long periods of time is important. Parts are expected to handle continuous use, which makes fatigue resistance and consistency key factors.
Typical use cases include:
Key requirements:
Flexible materials add a different set of capabilities to 3D printing. Instead of focusing only on shape and fit, you can also design for movement, contact, and real-world interaction. That includes parts that need to grip, seal, absorb impact, or flex under load.
Like rigid 3D printed parts, they help reduce tooling costs, shorten development cycles, allow for more complex geometries, and support customization or low-volume production. The difference is that the material behavior itself becomes part of the design function.
In real-world terms, the benefit isn’t just “flexibility”. It’s the ability to match material behavior to how the part is intended to perform. Whether that’s durability and repeated flex with FDM TPU 92A, controlled flexibility and multi-material design with PolyJet materials such as Agilus30, Tango, and Elastico, or true elastomer response with P3 Silicone 25A and P3 Stretch resins.
Flexible materials are often used because they can absorb energy and handle repeated stress without permanent deformation. Instead of cracking under load, they recover their shape.
FDM TPU 92A is a good example. It’s widely used for parts that need to withstand abrasion, vibration, or repeated flex, like protective covers and ducts. So, it’s suitable for functional use, not just prototyping.
End-of-arm tooling is another good example: P3 Stretch materials need to be soft enough to handle parts without damaging them, but resilient enough to do it thousands of times. That combination is what makes them suited to continuous production use.
Flexible materials allow you to design geometries that would be difficult or impossible with traditional manufacturing. This includes integrated seals, snap-fit features, soft hinges, undercuts and multi-material parts.
With PolyJet digital material blends, you can combine rigid and flexible materials in a single build, enabling overmolded-style designs without assembly. This is useful for products with soft-touch zones, grips, or layered material behavior.
Flexible materials make it easier to prototype and iterate designs that depend on movement or contact. Instead of approximating behavior, you can test it directly – whether that’s how a seal compresses and secures, how a grip feels, or how a component responds under load.
Flexible materials vary significantly in how they behave, even when they appear similar on the surface. Shore hardness gives a useful starting point, but performance in real use depends just as much on elongation, strength, and how the material is processed.
The table below compares typical characteristics across FDM flexible filaments, PolyJet rubber-like photopolymers and Digital Anatomy materials, and P3 DLP elastomers.
|
|
Material type |
Technology |
Shore Hardness
|
Elongation at Break
|
Tensile Strength
|
Appearance
|
Durability
|
Best for |
|
FDM® TPU 92A |
Flexible thermoplastic |
FDM |
~92A |
High |
High |
Matte, visible layers |
High |
Functional parts, ducts, covers, EOAT |
|
Rubber-like photopolymer |
PolyJet
|
~30A (pure); 30–95A with digital material blends |
Moderate-high |
Moderate
|
Smooth, high detail |
Moderate |
Prototypes, soft-touch |
|
|
Rubber-like photopolymer |
PolyJet
|
~26–28A |
Moderate |
Moderate
|
Smooth |
Moderate |
Flexible prototypes, gaskets |
|
|
Rubber-like photopolymer |
PolyJet |
~45A |
Moderate |
Moderate |
Smooth, soft-touch |
Moderate |
Prototypes, grips, overmoulds |
|
|
Ultra-soft photopolymer |
PolyJet |
Very high |
Low |
Soft, gel-like |
Varies |
Medical simulation |
||
|
Silicone elastomer |
P3 |
~25A |
High |
Moderate
|
Smooth, silicone |
Moderate |
Gaskets, seals, wearables |
|
|
Elastomer (high stretch) |
P3 |
~87A |
Very high |
Moderate |
Smooth, elastomer |
Moderate-High |
General-purpose elastomer parts, gaskets, flexible prototypes |
|
|
Elastomer (high stretch)
|
P3 |
~45–49A |
Very high |
Moderate |
Smooth, elastomer |
High |
Soft grippers, EOAT, repeated industrial use |
|
|
Firm Elastomer (high rebound) |
P3 |
~85–90A |
High |
Moderate–high |
Smooth, elastomer
|
High |
Cushioning, lattices, energy return applications (e.g. footwear) |
Choosing a flexible 3D printing material comes down to how the part needs to behave in use rather than simply how soft it feels. Use this as a quick filter, then refer to the comparison table above for detailed properties.
1. How soft does it need to be?
2. Does it need to perform or simulate?
3. What kind of load will it see?
4. How important is surface finish?
5. Do you need multiple materials in one part
6. What stage is the part at?
