Good elastic material that can be used for push buttons?

[veclock]

Hello! I have a project where I need to print push buttons. It's not going to be mechanical, but instead squishy, like rubber.
I tested with PolyFlex, and when having infill it's quite solid, so it can't really be deformed that much when pressing in.

I need it to be able to compress when I'm pushing it, preferably with infill inside.

Do you know of any filaments that would be more suitable for my purpose?

Thanks in advance!

[Davo]

Use a lower density infill, like 5%. You should find that changing the number of solid perimeters will greatly affect the flexibility when deforming the surface.

[curious aardvark]

yep also try ninjaflex or filaflex. They are both softer than polyflex.

But davo is right too :-)

[veclock]

Thanks for the answers!

I tried 5% with PolyFlex, grid pattern. It's very solid still. Buttons are quite small, only 1-2 cm o. So I switched to 0% infill, but it's still very solid, because of the walls.
I'm using a Trinus and I don't want to use any material that needs a special extruder.

Which one is softer, NinjaFlex or FilaFlex?

[curious aardvark]

both identical in my opinion.
Don't need anything special extruder wise.
Just need to be printed a lot slower than polyflex.

Around 10mm/s for soft tpu's (which is what ninjaflex and filaflex are). 240-250ish extruder temp and I never bother heating the bed for rubber tpu's they'll pretty much stick to anything cold.

[Davo]

Did you reduce the number of solid perimeters and top/bottom layers?

He is using TPE filaments.

[Barret]

You could try soften flexible TPE filament. TPE material is more like rubber.