Let me start with the hottest topic which has opened an eye in the 3d printing revolution. There are many pros and cons in both the filament materials. At first, even though many companies prefer to use ABS and many companies are using ABS filament .Let me jot out the basic difference between PLA and ABS.
As it produces gaseous fumes which are injurious to health, while printing with ABS filament, it is hard to perform 3d printing in a closed atmosphere. Ventilation is required while printing with ABS.
But, when it comes to PLA (Corn Starch Plastic) does not produce any gaseous fumes while performing 3d printing, it is environmental friendly.
ABS printed object is more flexible, more durable, more heat resistant, toughest, strongest, more resistant to chemicals, not less than ABS, even PLA printed object is more rigid.
While printing objects with PLA, heater bed is not required, whereas heater bed is required for objects to be printed with ABS.
When it comes to ABS, there are very fewer color choices whereas in PLA there are wide variety of colors like translucent, whereas in PLA there are wide variety of colors available.
ABS melts at a little higher temperature whereas PLA melts at a lower temperature than ABS.
PLA is much cheaper when compared to the cost of ABS.
With the help of PLA very large prints are easily done, but whereas with ABS very large prints cannot be easily achieved.
Well, generally, PLA is the best material for large objects since it can be nearly warp free when compared to ABS. Even on a high end commercial printer, really large ABS objects present a real problem.