Not Just Black: Rosa3D’s Static-Safe PLA Ships in Tool Red, Yellow, and Lime Yellow

While PETG ESD comes in everybody’s favorite default color, black, Rosa3D PLA ESD jazzes things up some with a selection of five colors in total, with three “tool” colors that look made for the workshop: there’s Tool Red, RAL 3020; Tool Yellow, RAL 1003; and Tool Lime Yellow.

Rosa3D doesn’t explicitly say what “Tool” is meant to signal. The red and yellow colors are RAL standard colors and are perhaps more recognizable as Traffic Red and Signal Yellow. A red or yellow organizer stands out on a bench in a way a black one doesn’t, which helps when you want ESD-safe parts to be obvious at a glance.

What are electrostatic discharge materials, though? Put simply, they exist to protect the delicate traces of sensitive electronic components from the damage caused by unintended current – static electricity. In situations where a part is in motion and subjected to frictional forces, electrons “borrowed” from the environment and oppositional materials that are rubbing on them build up. Plastic is a great insulator, so that charge typically builds up with nowhere to go. When used as an enclosure for electronics, say for example some kind of edge computing case where you have a camera and a single board computer providing local processing to analyze what it sees, the copper traces of those electronics become a path of least resistance for that charge to discharge, which can damage the electronic components.

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) filament is static-dissipative by design – mixed in with the plastic is a conductive filler that provides any charge with a controlled path away from delicate electronics.

Rosa3D pitches the two at different groups, with PETG ESD held up as ideally suited for production facilities, laboratories, R&D departments, electronics service centers and automotive. It was also the ESD material in the company’s exhibitor listings for this year’s industrial and defense fairs in Kielce.

Conversely, PLA ESD is pitched at hobby, decorative, educational and functional work, with the company giving examples including housings and organizers.

Rosa3D isn’t the first to put ESD PLA in color; fellow Polish maker Spectrum already sells its PLA ESD in eight colors, four of them named “Power Tool,” at €89.90 per kilogram.

Static protection comes at a price, though: PLA ESD costs €85.34 per kilogram (€48.76 for 0.5 kg), the same as the PETG version, and about 5.8 times Rosa3D’s standard PLA Starter refill at €14.61/kg.

Printability appears to remain grounded, though – ordinary PLA territory with a print temperature range of 200–260 °C and a 40–60 °C bed suggested by Rosa3D.

Rosa3D PLA EDS and PETG EDS is available now on 0.5kg (~€48) and 1kg (~€85) spools, 1.75 mm filament size – PETG in black only, PLA in black, white, plus Tool Red, Yellow, and Lime Yellow, shipping to the EU and UK.

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