Overview

A Water-soluble material used for supports in 3D printing.

PVA is typically only used as a supporting filament in printers with dual extruders. The machine can be loaded with PVA and another filament such as PLA; The object will be printed with PLA and the supports will use PVA, The finished print can then be placed into a body of water to dissolve all of the supports almost instantaneously. 

Due to being designed to work as a supporting material, PVA filaments typically aren’t suited to performing other roles due to their soluble nature. It can be used for prototypes and testing designs, But should not be used for parts with long-term usage.

Some PVA filaments have additives that make them better at supporting certain materials. PVA-M has great adhesion to PLA, and ABS. PVA-S can handle higher temperatures and adheres very well to ABS-X,  ASA-X, PET-G, and some TPU filaments.