Tough 2000 Resin is a Formlabs SLA 3D printing resin that behaves like a moulded ABS part: stiff, strong and solid in the hand. It is as stiff and strong as ABS, so parts hold their shape under load, and they give before they break, taking impacts that crack standard resins. Choose it for rigid housings and protective shells, brackets and mounts, functional prototypes that must look and feel like the moulded part, and jigs and fixtures for the production line. For parts that need to flex and spring back, Tough 1500 Resin is the polypropylene-like choice.
How Tough 2000 Resin is manufactured
Tough 2000 Resin is manufactured using Stereolithography (SLA) on Formlabs Form 4L printers, where light cures the liquid resin layer by layer through a masked display. Parts are washed in isopropyl alcohol, supports are removed and every part is post-cured at 70 °C to the Formlabs schedule, the step that develops the strength and stiffness in the datasheet. The large Form 4L platform builds an enclosure half in one piece, or a full batch of brackets and fixtures together.
Upload CAD files to Forge Labs Steam for Tough 2000 Resin quotes and a manufacturability review, and fix issues before production.
Upload CAD files to Forge Labs Steam for Tough 2000 Resin quotes and a manufacturability review, and fix issues before production.
SLA delivers the smoothest surface of any 3D printing process. Every part is washed, post-cured and has its supports removed, leaving a smooth, finely detailed surface that is ready to use straight away or to paint.
Parts are washed, post-cured and have their supports removed, leaving the smooth, finely detailed surface SLA is known for. Sharp edges, small text and fine features hold their shape, and the surface is ready for fit checks, assembly and presentation, or as a base for paint.
Painting offers a highly durable, automotive-grade coating that enhances the aesthetics and durability of 3D-printed parts. Each part is hand-finished to ensure smooth surfaces and a premium quality appearance. Using professional-grade coating equipment, this process allows for precise application and exceptional adhesion. Custom color matching is available, making it ideal for applications that require specific branding or visual impact.
Tough 2000 Resin gives engineers ABS-like parts from an SLA printer: rigid and solid like a moulded ABS housing, able to carry load without sagging, and tough enough to take impacts that crack standard resins. It suits rigid housings and protective shells, brackets and mounts, functional prototypes that must look and feel like the moulded part, and jigs and fixtures for the production line.
Choose it over Tough 1500 Resin when the part must stay rigid. Tough 1500 Resin is the polypropylene-like option: more flexible, it bends and springs back, which suits clips, latches, hinges and compliant mechanisms, and it takes hard, repeated impacts better. Tough 2000 Resin is stiffer, stronger and more resistant to heat and creep, so it is the better fit for structural parts, load-bearing brackets and enclosures that must hold their shape.
Forge also prints real ABS. FDM ABS is the choice for large parts, parts that run close to 100 °C and production thermoplastic, while Tough 2000 Resin is the choice when a part needs the smooth surface, crisp small features and moulded look of SLA, with far more stretch before it breaks than printed ABS.
Forge already builds SLA electronics housings with precise fit for PCB mounting, connector alignment and button clearances. Tough 2000 Resin brings the same fit to housings that also have to carry load, hold tapped threads or keep a snap-fit closed.
Consumer Products
Housings and snap-fit enclosures that feel like moulded ABS and survive drops onto concrete.
Automotive & Manufacturing
Fixtures and nests that stay on dimension under load, with 1.3% creep strain after two weeks at 4 MPa.
Medical & Healthcare
Gasket-sealed enclosure halves with tapped threads, each printed in one Form 4L build.
Aerospace
Rigid fuselage shells and camera housings with sharp ribs, vents and connector cut-outs.
Consumer Products
Product teams use Tough 2000 Resin for housings, covers and snap-fit enclosures that need to feel like moulded ABS and survive being handled, dropped and reassembled. One maker prints a production gaming-mouse shell as one piece on Form 4L in Tough 2000 Resin, after moving off a standard resin for impact resistance; the shell survives drops straight onto concrete and a full-strength squeeze at the grip. Every release has sold out, and the maker printed 1,000 mice for the last one, about 250 a week.
Automotive & Manufacturing
Production teams use Tough 2000 Resin for jigs, fixtures, nests and gauges that have to hold tolerance through long service on the factory floor. Low creep is the reason: at room temperature, flexural creep strain reaches only 1.3% after two weeks under a 4 MPa load, so clamped and bolted fixtures keep their locating features where they were designed. Toughness keeps fixtures from chipping when parts and tools strike them, and SLA reproduces small locating pins and keyways accurately.
Medical & Healthcare
Medical device teams use Tough 2000 Resin for enclosures, cart covers and control panels outside the patient-contact path. A team building a focused-ultrasound medical device prints enclosure halves about 300 mm long, each in a single Form 4L build, sealed watertight with a gasket and with M3 threads tapped straight into the resin. A 1 mm thin-walled part in the same assembly snapped into place without breaking.
Aerospace
Drone and UAS teams use Tough 2000 Resin for fuselage shells, camera housings and protective covers that need to stay rigid in flight and resist shattering on impact. SLA keeps thin ribs, vent slots and connector cut-outs sharp, and the stiff shell holds cameras and electronics in alignment. Forge builds production UAS airframe parts in SLS nylon; Tough 2000 Resin suits the detailed shells and housings where surface finish and stiffness come first.
Values from the Formlabs Tough 2000 Resin V2 datasheet, tested to the standard listed with each property.
Mechanical performance
Modulus and strength show how stiff the resin is and how much load it carries; elongation and impact show how tough it is. Read the two together: Tough 2000 Resin pairs ABS-level stiffness with high elongation at break, which is what ABS-like means in practice. The part feels rigid in the hand, and under overload it stretches well past its yield point before it fractures.
The fracture values show how well a part resists a crack growing from a notch or sharp corner, Ross flex fatigue counts bending cycles to failure, and the creep figure shows how little a part moves under a constant load over two weeks. Generous fillets at snap-fit roots, bosses and inside corners get the most from that toughness.
Material makeup
Hardness and density describe the cured part. A high Shore D hardness gives a hard, scratch-resistant surface, and Formlabs improved scratch resistance in the V2 formulation, which keeps handled housings and fixtures looking clean.
Heat performance
Heat deflection is listed at two loads. Lightly loaded housings can be judged against the lower-load figure, while brackets and fixtures that carry stress should be judged against the higher-load figure; parts that run hotter belong in High Temperature Resin or FDM ABS.
The glass transition from dynamic mechanical analysis marks where stiffness falls away. Thermal expansion is typical of a tough photopolymer, so allow for it where a part mates with metal across a wide temperature swing.
Functional performance
Tough 2000 Resin is an electrical insulator. Volume resistivity and dielectric strength support enclosures that sit around live electronics, and the dielectric constant and dissipation factor at 50 Hz and 1 kHz help evaluate it near power and signal circuits.
It is not static dissipative; ESD Resin is the Formlabs option for static-sensitive assemblies.
Compatibility data
Formlabs immersed post-cured cubes for 24 hours and measured weight gain, and separately measured tensile strength, modulus and elongation after one day and one week of immersion to ASTM D543. Water, salt water, diesel, hydraulic and mineral oils, Skydrol, dilute acids and bases, bleach and hydrogen peroxide barely swell it, and after a week in the fluids tested to ASTM D543, solvents aside, parts keep nearly all of their tensile strength and stiffness.
Elongation is the value to watch for parts that rely on stretch. A week in Skydrol cuts elongation at break by more than half, and dilute hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide and water also reduce it, so snap-fits that will see those fluids should be tested in them.
Gasoline, acetone, xylene and butyl acetate swell it strongly, and long soaks in isopropyl alcohol or acetone cut its strength. Keep parts away from gasoline and strong solvents; Formlabs has not tested other fuels such as jet fuel or kerosene. Chemical ratings are screening guidance at room temperature; confirm exposure with application-specific testing before production release.
Compliance
Formlabs rates post-cured Tough 2000 Resin V2 UL 94 HB, declares its resins compliant with the EU RoHS directive, and its EU safety data sheet lists no ingredient on the REACH candidate list.
Formlabs publishes no biocompatibility, food-contact or flame-retardant rating for Tough 2000 Resin, so it is used for parts outside patient and food contact; Flame Retardant Resin is the Formlabs option where a flame-rated part is required.
Datasheets, design guidance and supplier documentation for Tough 2000 Resin.
Access the most recent datasheet and supporting documentation maintained by our engineering team.
Tough 2000 Resin datasheetExplore printable geometry recommendations, wall thickness tips, and finishing playbooks for SLA.
View SLA design guideSupplier declarations and test statements for this material.
Tough 2000 Resin is manufactured using industrial-grade Stereolithography (SLA) technology, delivering exceptional surface finish and dimensional accuracy for high-detail applications. Calibrated resin systems and a controlled wash and post-cure keep Tough 2000 Resin parts repeatable across the full build platform.
Can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our customer support team.
Upload your design and get a quote for Tough 2000 Resin parts from our engineers.
Create an account to upload CAD
STEP, STL, OBJ, 3MF and IGES supported
