So, you’re getting caught up with your 3D printer filament supply, huh? Have you thought about buying bulk PLA filament to make it more convenient for you? Luckily, in this post, we listed down and reviewed 5 of the best bulk PLA filament suppliers for you.

Is it Time to Buy PLA Filament in Bulk?

If you’re working on big projects or you have a 3D printing business, then it might be time for you to buy PLA spools in bulk. Purchasing 1.75mm PLA filaments with more than 1 KG per spool can possibly be cheaper than buying 10 or 15 spools of filaments. That is if you find the right supplier.

Now, there are a number of suppliers out there who are happy to offer you 3kg, 4kg, 5kg, or even up to 15 kg of PLA per spool. Don’t be afraid to try on these extra-large filament reels because it would probably be worth it in terms of price.

However, if it’s a new brand you weren’t able to try on before, this may present you with some drawbacks. The most obvious one being you not knowing how the new brand will work on your printer.

To help you decide if it’s time to buy PLA filaments in bulk, here are a few things to think about first.

1. Do you have a 3D printing business where you can benefit from bulk filament spools?

If you’re running a 3D printing business, it’s pretty obvious that purchasing large PLA filament spools is economic on your end. After all, running such a business requires a lot of 3D printing, testing, and prototyping.

Perhaps 1KG of PLA spool quickly runs out during the day! Of course, this depends on how big your nozzle is, the printing speed, and the number of customers you have. But the point is, if your filament changeover is pretty fast, then you can save a lot of operation costs if you buy in bulk reels.

If you’re not sure about the quality of the supplier, you can ask for free samples. Some suppliers offer test kits with a variety of filament samples for free or a few bucks.

2. Are you working on props or large projects?

If you’re printing large volume objects or you’ve got your hands full on projects, you might be using more than just 1KG spool of filament a day. For example, props and bigger projects can take up to 5 to 10kg of filament. This means using a lot of 1KG rolls might not be the best thing to do as you would constantly need to change filament rolls.

3. Do you prefer a specific brand of PLA filament for 3D printing your projects?

Buying a large filament roll can only be economic if you’ve already tested and liked a specific brand. But what if you’ve not tried a new brand, bought a large spool, and found it unsatisfactory? This is a pretty bad investment.

Before you purchase bulk PLA filaments, make sure you’re already satisfied with the product. Try out its sample filaments first or buy a 1KG spool from that manufacturer. When you’ve checked its quality and consistency, then buying a bulk spool is good to go.

4. Do you have a suitable storage area?

Another thing you should absolutely consider is how you can store your leftover filament. If you buy a lot of filaments and you don’t have a proper storage compartment, it may become brittle, wet, and have a weak layer adhesion. Standard PLA should be stored in areas with humidities of 30- 50%.

If you haven’t planned on how to keep your filaments dry, then it’s time for you to do so before you even buy bulk PLA filaments.

Read our article on How to Dry and Store 3D Printer Filament to get fruitful tips on how you can store your filament.

5 Best Bulk PLA Filament Manufacturers & Suppliers

Below are the top sources of high quality, budget-cost sources of bulk PLA filaments.

1. Monofilament Direct

PLA Filament Options: 1.75mm and 2.85mm PLA available in 2.25KG, 4.5KG, or other sizes upon request
Headquarters: Massachusetts, USA
Founded: 2014
Business Type: Manufacturer, OEM, Private Label, Contract Manufacturing, Wholesaler

Monofilament Direct is a PLA and ABS filament manufacturer that specializes in the production of filaments for both hobbyists and business owners. The company offers extra-large spools of PLA and ABS in a variety of sizes ranging from 1kg to 4.5kg to custom sizes.

Aside from benefiting from its low price point, it also offers free shipping across the US. The PLA spool comes with a thick vacuum-sealed polybag, desiccant, and packed inside a robust packaging box.

What’s more, if you go to Monofilament Direct’s website, you’ll see they offer wholesale pricing for retailers, OEM services, and contract manufacturing services. They also offer private label services for those who want to sell their own 3D printer filament brand on Amazon.

Plus, Monofilament Direct’s PLA filaments are manufactured with 100% virgin resin, unique fillers, and superior additives for added durability and optimum storage performance. The filaments are offered with an accuracy of +/- 0.05mm precision.

2. IC3D

PLA Bulk Filaments: 1 kg Spool, 2.5 kg Spool, 10 kg Spool
Location: Ohio, USA
Founded: 2016
Business Type: Manufacturer

If you’re after an established filament brand, IC3D is the way to go. This particular supplier offers a variety of bulk PLA filament options ranging from 2.5kg to 10kg. They offer filaments with 1.75mm and 2.85mm diameter at +/-0.05 dimensional accuracy.

Although the price is almost $9 more than Monofilament Direct’s, IC3D offers a variety of filament options. Aside from PLA, they also offer ABS, PETG, Nylon, TPU, and Anti-M™ PETG filaments. They also have resin pellets and moldable plastics.

Like the former company, IC3D also packages each spool with a thick vacuum-sealed polybag and places it in a cardboard box.

Aside from manufacturing filaments, the company also offers 3D printing services, large volume 3D printing, and small-scale production.

3. eSun

PLA Bulk Filaments: 3KG, 5KG PLA/PLA+ bulk (1.75mm and 2.85mm)
Location: Shenzhen, China
Founded: 2007
Business Type: Manufacturer, OEM, Private Label, Contract Manufacturing, Wholesaler

eSun is one of the top suppliers of low-cost 3D printing filaments in the market. While eSun is China-based, you can still buy its products at a budget price without compromises in their quality. Aside from its 1KG reels, eSun offers 3KG and 5KG bulk PLA reels.

What’s good about eSun is that they offer a wide selection of PLA-based specialty filaments. This includes silk, glitter, marble, luminous glow-in-the-dark, rainbow silk, and matte finish PLA.

4. 3D Fuel

PLA Bulk Filaments: 4KG PLA (1.75mm and 2.85mm), large discounts for bulk orders of over 10KG
Location: ND 58102, USA
Founded: 2014
Business Type: Manufacturer, OEM, Private Label, Contract Manufacturing, Wholesaler

PLA Bulk Filaments: 4KG PLA (1.75mm and 2.85mm), large discounts for bulk orders of over 10KG
Location: ND 58102, USA
Founded: 2014
Business Type: Manufacturer, OEM, Private Label, Contract Manufacturing, Wholesaler

3D-Fuel offers a bulk PLA filament size of 4KG available in a variety of colors and compatible 3D printers. The company claims to be testing these PLA filaments for a variety of 3D printers such as Raise3D, MakerBot, LulzBot, and FlashForge.

Aside from its large spool filaments, 3D-Fuel also offers special wholesale pricing for orders with 10KG filaments. They have a wide range of PLA options you can choose from such as Standard PLA, Pro PLA, and Workday PLA. Each of which varies in terms of material performance, price, and features that would depend on the properties you want and the price you prefer.

Not only does 3D-Fuel serve USA customers, but also is popular in the European market. On Amazon, 3D-Fuel has a lot of positive reviews and 5-star ratings across many of their products.

5. 3DXTech

PLA Bulk Filaments: Ecomax brand available in 4KG spools (1.75mm and 2.85mm diameters) Support filaments, pellets, and colorants
Location: Michigan, USA
Founded: 2014
Business Type: Manufacturer, Contract Manufacturer

3DXTECH’s Ecomax brand is a line of high-quality 4KG-spool 3D printer filaments ideal for bulk printing. The 4KG reels (8.8lbs) are packaged in vacuum-sealed bags with desiccant moisture protection. The company makes PLA filaments from 100% virgin biopolymer resins and special colorants. Aside from their general purpose PLA, they also offer Tough PLA, Carbon Fiber PLA, ESD PLA.

One of 3DXTech’s advantages is that they offer a large array of colors for you to choose from. However, their products aren’t exactly one of the cheapest options in the market but are still fairly priced.

Rest assured that you get filaments fresh out of their Michigan-based filament factory. Moreover, the supplier supplies engineering-grade 3D printer materials and specialty filaments suitable for high durability prints.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Buying PLA Filament in Bulk

Pros

1. Convenience

You don’t need to constantly order or restock filaments.

2. Economic

Bulk 3D printer filaments cost way cheaper per gram than 1KG rolls of filaments.

3. Speed

Each time you run out of filaments from each roll, you constantly need to stop the printer, clean the nozzle and tune the printer to feed the new filament. With bulk filament rolls, you cut out 50% of your time doing these tasks leading to speedier operations.

4. Consistent 3D Prints

Whenever you change a filament spool, you might have issues regarding consistent 3D prints. With a huge spool, you won’t need to worry about having inconsistent and quality issues. This is a very important consideration especially if you’re running a business where you need to constantly quality check your products being consistent.

Cons

1. Keeping the Filament Dry

As we’ve said earlier, this is one of the major issues you’ll face when using large filament rolls. Keeping the filament dry by properly storing them is trickier when you’re handling larger filaments as it has more volume than its smaller counterparts.

Wrapping Up

If you’re 3D printing more often than before or if you have a small business that requires you to 3D print a lot of items, then it might be time to buy bulk PLA filaments. Purchasing bulk filaments alone is a major investment. That’s why you need to ensure the quality, consistency, affordability, and reliability of your supplier.

We hope you’re able to find the best PLA filament supplier and ways to handle, use and store your bulk filaments through this article.