New Bio HT PLA Offers the Elusive Combo: Industrial Strength & Sustainability

UK-based 3D printing filament company Filamentive has unveiled Bio HT(~$54/kg), a new bio-based, high-temperature 3D printing filament aimed at engineers, production teams, and industrial makers who need performance and sustainability in equal measure, the company says.

Designed to bridge the gap between ease of printing and real-world functional performance, Filamentive says Bio HT, which is a PLA, delivers heat resistance and mechanical strength “far beyond standard PLA-class materials,” while remaining easy to work with on most open filament extrusion printers.

Unlike some high temperature PLAs, which require a post-printing heat treatment, Bio HT delivers as-printed heat performance without post-processing, making it more directly suitable for functional, heat-exposed parts.

Heat Resistance Where It Matters

Bio HT’s thermal credentials are impressive for a bio-derived material and Filamentive, which mostly focuses on sustainable and recycled filament materials, does a good job documenting them.

One measure of thermal resistance to look for in your filament is the Vicat softening point. This is a standardized way to measure when a plastic begins to noticeably soften under heat and a small mechanical load (named after French engineer Louis Vicat). It’s not the temperature at which the material melts, but the point at which it becomes soft enough that a needle-like probe can penetrate a defined distance under a specified force.

Filament heat metrics: 

• Glass transition (Tg) marks when a polymer becomes rubbery, not when it deforms under load.
• HDT (Heat Deflection Temperature) measures heat resistance while under bending load.
• Vicat Softening Point marks the onset of surface/structural softening without melting
• Melting point (Tm) is when the polymer becomes liquid.

Where a lot of filament makers use the more vague “heat resistance”, Filamentive give your data. The Vicat softening point of Bio HT is 160 °C (ISO 306, A, 4 mm) with an HDT/B (0.45 MPa) of around 115 °C. These measurements put it well above typical PLA, PETG, or ABS filaments — making it a strong contender for parts that see intermittent or sustained heat exposure.

Overall, this means tools, such as jigs, fixtures, housings, brackets, and shop-floor aids can hold shape and stiffness where as some ABSs or PETGs would soften or deform. Of course, nylon (PA12) is common for 3D printing tools and it has an average Vicat of around 180 °C, but it isn’t bio-based, which is the point of Bio HT: robust parts without the fossil fuels. Nylon (PA11) is often bio-sourced but not easy to find in filament form, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a bio-based ABS or PETG.