Capricorn PTFE Bowden Tubing – XS Series

Capricorn PTFE Bowden Tubing – XS Series

The Capricorn XS Series of Professional Grade Bowden Tubing is made from the highest quality PTFE.

The secret blend of high lubricity additives turns it into a deep blue color.

The XS formula of high lubricity additives combined with smaller inner diameter, 1.9mm ± 0.05mm, was developed in order to print flexible filaments with Bowden driven printers.

Beta testers quickly discovered that it allowed them to lower retraction as well, which has proven to be an even bigger selling point.

High Lubricity Additives make the XS Series tubing the lowest friction Bowden tubing on the market. Less friction means more responsiveness, less retraction, more accurate prints, less slippage, wear, and tear on the extruder, and less clogging when printing chunky filaments such as some wood fills or iron fills.

Lower retraction means time saved every time the extruder retracts. Over the course of a print, a few milliseconds here or there add up to a lot of time saved.

1.9mm ± 0.05mm Inner Diameter Reduces the “wiggle room,” or buckling, inside the tube, allowing you to print flexible filaments even on the longest Bowden systems.

High Temperature Resistance due to using only the highest quality PTFE the XS tubing will operate at even higher temperatures than the TL series. See the Capricorn Tubing Safety page for more details about high temperature printing.

Technical Specifications:

PTFE, or Polytetrafluoroethylene, is a synthetic polymer commonly used as a coating for non-stick pots and pans. It is the slipperiest substance known to man, and is said to be the only surface to which a gecko cannot stick. Although Bowden tubes can be made from several different polymers, PTFE is generally considered the best because of its high melting point and low coefficient of friction.

1.75mm Bowden tubing, because of its small diameter, is made with an expensive paste extrusion process. Very precise equipment is needed to obtain a consistent shape and internal diameter. Additives such as colorant are difficult, because the PTFE doesn’t readily want to mix with anything. Plain white PTFE is the cheapest and most common.

The tubing is manufactured using the most sophisticated equipment currently available. It always comes out perfectly round, and the diameter stays as consistent as possible.

Our XS Bowden Tubing is also made from the highest quality pure virgin Japanese PTFE, and formed using the paste extrusion process. However, we have added a “Secret Sauce” which lowers the coefficient of friction. This additive also makes the tubing dark and opaque.

Our XS tubing has a nominal internal diameter of 1.9mm. This smaller diameter makes it ideal for printing flexible filaments, because there is no room for the filament to bind up inside the tube. The low friction coefficient allows any filament to glide through the tube with ease.