I was just updating an entry today in my notebook and thought this might be of interest to other people. Feel free to suggest corrections or additions, except of course Bambu is Sunlu (if this was your suggestion you accidentally logged into the Bambu Lab forum, you meant to log into Facebook). There. Now you are smarter than “everyone”.
(Note I’m using the common english brand names of companies so you recognize them.)
The Key Manufacturers
Sunlu
eSun
Polymaker
Kexcelled
Ziro
The sub-brands
Inslogic is exactly Sunlu
Jayo is exactly Sunlu
Tecbears is Sunlu
3dHoJor is exactly eSun
Soleyin is Creality
Creator & Voxelab are Flashforge
Deeplee is owned by Elegoo
Overture is very closely related to Polymaker
The Relabels
Ambrosia (West3D) looks like Flashforge
Elegoo is usually eSun, Ziro and Kexcelled
Amolen & Cookiecad are primarily Ziro
Hatchbox is Kexcelled and maybe someone else
Qidi engineering filaments seem to be Siraya, their others are Kexcelled
Inland (Microcenter) is Polymaker & eSun, but the spit changes with vintage
Bambu is Polymaker & eSun & Kexcelled & Home Richfull (the new food safe one) & a few (like black) in-house. Bambu Marble Red Granite (& Elegoo Brick Red) look like Kexcelled. No evidence at all of Sunlu, that whole same box thing is a red herring propagated on Facebook by people who don’t understand the US distribution system of Chinese goods.
I am not so sure that this is entirely true. Overture is an American company headquartered in Texas yet its filament is made in China. Polymaker is a Chinese company that makes some of its filament in Texas. Both use cardboard spools but the spools are different. Before Bambu, I used a lot of PolyTerra. Printed every color available. When I started using Bambu matte PLA I noticed that its texture was indistinguishable from PolyTerra, even if the colors didn’t exactly match. However, Overture’s matte PLA tends to have more of a silky feel to it that is noticeably different than PolyTerra and Bambu Lab matte PLA.
PolyLite is strong yet fragile once its breaking point is reached, whereas Bambu Lab basic PLA bends quite a bit more before snapping.
I tend to use a lot of PLA pro from both Overture and Polymaker. Using the same settings, the Polymaker PLA pro tends to print a little fat.
I’m highly confident of the polymaker/overture connection, but I think it’s better to call them sister companies. Some of the MDS between them are number-for-number identical.
Please don’t read the chart as saying “if you buy filament X from Y you are getting the same product”, and when I do mean to say that I’ve edited the chart to say “exactly”.
Where/how did you get this information? If accurate this is helpful but some of these brands you posted being affiliated with others leaves me wondering.
For example, the Inslogic. I purchased 10 spools and it’s complete garbage through my printers. Whereas TecBears has been a very good brand for me.
eSun and 3dHoJor have both been good. DeepLee and Elegoo seem similar to me.
But, in MY experience (only a year into 3D printing), the overall best brand has been Ziro! From their packaging (like no other brand…sealed, foam wrapped, extra filaments to try), their amazing colors and their overall print quality has been 100%! I’ve NEVER had issues with clogging, bleeding, nothing!
Same can be said for the Bambu Labs brand. Always good quality for me.
My question would be, if these brands are connected why are they different in quality? Is it just another way of marketing cheaper? (Like Toyota and Lexus being one in the same?)
Yes, like an iceberg, Ziro is just the trade name you see sticking out of the water of the giant filament manufacturer lurking below the surface. Sorry I don’t have the Chinese name in front of me, but it’s unlikely you’d recognize it anyway.
Maybe it is the Chinese way of doing business. If you look at, for instance electrical connectors, regardless of the product, the connectors are all the same, almost as if they all came out of the same factory. All of these types of companies tend to cluster so that a start-up can come in, and tap into the resources available in the system. Which gives Chinese companies an advantage over companies from elsewhere.
Filaments are a chemical blend. An individual company can develop a specific blend. Then that recipe can theoretically be used to create that flavor of filament on anyone’s equipment. Thus, one factory could produce every flavor of filament available, while individual companies can tout the benefits of their flavor over another. It seems to me that the Bambu filaments have been tailored for use on Bambu printers. As Bambu comes to more and more dominate the consumer 3D printer market, more and more third party companies are going to tailor their filaments to print well on Bambu printers.
Maybe initially, in the very beginning high-flow PLA wasn’t common. It seems reasonable eSun might have needed to create a new filament line for Bambu Lab, but that was a long time ago now.