Best filament for mechanical parts: strength and wear

The short answerNylon for wear. PETG for tough. ABS for heat.

A mechanical part moves, slides, or carries a load, so it needs strength and wear resistance. Nylon leads on wear. PETG is the tough, easy pick. ABS handles heat. PLA is too brittle for mechanics.

What a mechanical part asks of a filament

A mechanical part slides against another surface or carries a repeated load, so it needs wear resistance, toughness, and often heat resistance. PLA is too brittle for any of that. The real choices are nylon, PETG, and ABS.

How the materials compare

When to pick nylon

Pick nylon for moving or wearing parts like gears and sliders. The Polymaker PolyMide CoPA datasheet rates its heat resistance to 180 °C, and nylon slides with little friction. The cost is drying, a heated chamber, and a hardened nozzle.

When to pick PETG or ABS

Pick PETG for tough parts that do not slide. It prints without a heated chamber at 240 to 260 °C. Pick ABS for parts that face sustained warmth, and print it in an enclosure.

For gears, read best filament for gears. For the materials, see the PETG guide or which filament is strongest.