Polymaker Panchroma Translucent PLA Filament 1.75mm 1kg

Filament for prints you light up. Panchroma Translucent lets light through instead of stopping it, so a thin-walled print glows from the inside rather than just sitting there being coloured.

It comes alive in single-wall and thin-walled work — lampshades, luminaires, stained-glass panels, vase-mode pieces, anything with an LED behind it. Print it thick and solid and you'll lose most of the effect, so design for the light and it repays you.

At a glance

Worth knowing

These are semi-transparent, not water-clear. Polymaker make an extra-transparent grade as well; we stock the semi-transparent colours, which diffuse light rather than letting you see straight through. That's what you want for a shade or a glowing panel — a clear filament just shows you the LED.

Dry it even from a fresh bag if the effect matters. Moisture in the filament turns into microscopic bubbles in the extrusion, and those bubbles scatter light. On an opaque print you'd never notice; on a translucent one they visibly cloud and dull the glow. This is the one series where drying is a cosmetic decision, not just a reliability one.

Mechanically it's stiff but brittle — 52 MPa tensile and 3427 MPa modulus, against only 3.3 kJ/m² notched impact. Fine for display work; not a material for parts that get knocked or flexed.

Storage

Polymaker specify drying at 55°C for 6 hours. Keep it sealed with fresh desiccant, and give it a run through the dryer before any print where the light effect is the point.

As filament takes on moisture you'll hear popping or hissing at the nozzle, then see stringing and rough surfaces, and eventually the strand goes brittle enough to snap in the tube. That's almost always moisture, not technique — dry it and it usually comes back.