Experiment & proof
Zorva Lab.
The Lab decides what gets published for every grade. It runs the print trials, breaks the specimens, and writes down the settings that survived — including the ones that did not.
Protocol
Five steps, in this order, every time.
The order matters. Most published settings are wrong because the machine was never characterised before the material was judged.
- 01
Fix the machine, not the material
Every trial runs on a calibrated reference printer with a known hot end, a measured e-step calibration and a flow test. If the machine drifts, the settings we publish describe the drift.
- 02
Bracket the temperature
A temperature tower first, then a flow and pressure-advance pass at the two ends of the useful range. The published range is where the material worked, not a single lucky value.
- 03
Print the parts that fail
Overhang combs, bridging spans, thin walls and a threaded boss. Cosmetic test cubes hide the failures that matter.
- 04
Load it until it breaks
Three-point bend and pull tests on printed specimens, in the orientation we recommend and across layers. Both numbers matter, and the second one is the honest one.
- 05
Write down the batch
Results are recorded against the batch they came from. That is what makes the data sheet traceable rather than decorative.
Data sheet
What a data sheet must contain.
A fixed set of fields, in a fixed order, for every grade. Anything optional gets left out under deadline — so nothing here is optional.
- Nozzle range
- Where the material fused cleanly, in 5 °C steps
- Bed and chamber
- Including whether an enclosure is required, not just recommended
- Drying schedule
- Temperature and hours, set below glass transition
- Hardware notes
- Hardened nozzle, direct drive, extraction where they apply
- Properties
- Tensile, elongation, flexural modulus, heat deflection, impact
- Batch
- The run this spool came from
The properties on this page are values published in the named manufacturers' data sheets, measured on their grades to the standard printed against each row — not measurements of a ZORVA spool. Use them to compare material classes, not as an acceptance specification.
Honesty
What we do not claim.
Who measured the properties on this site?
Not us — and we say so. ZORVA has no test lab of its own yet, so every mechanical figure published here is a value **other manufacturers publish for their own grades**, with the test standard and retrieval date on the [data sources page](/sources). They describe a material class, not a ZORVA spool. Where nobody publishes a property, the row is blank — which is why some tables here are shorter than elsewhere.
Why do you publish ranges instead of single values?
Because a single number is only true on one machine. A range tells you where the material tolerates being printed, which is the information you can actually use on a different printer.
Are your property figures measured on printed parts?
Where a figure describes a printed part, we state the orientation it was printed in. Values measured on moulded samples are 30–50 % higher than printed parts and are not comparable — which is why we say which is which.
Do you publish failed tests?
Yes, in Field notes. A material that did not work at a given setting is more useful to you than a curated highlight, and it is the only way a published range means anything.
Notes
Latest from the bench.
Branded or no-name, every new spool gets checked
The real difference between branded and no-name 3D printing filament is information, not the label. Eight checks for a new spool: packaging, lot number, two-axis diameter, spool core, moisture, calibration and a test print.
The race to multicolour without purge — four architectures, nine names, side by side
K3, SPARKX i8, Snapmaker U1, Bambu H2C, Prusa INDX and the H3C/P3C FCC filings compared: colour-change method, swap time, waste, chamber, materials, price.
HP MJF 1200 — Multi Jet Fusion made smaller, and what it changes about outsourcing
HP MJF 1200: 320 × 165 × 230 mm (12 L) build, PA 12, builds under 12 h, under $60,000, shipping early 2027. How MJF differs from SLS and what it really costs.