The dense green-gray composite sheet that lives at the back of every electronics shop as the substrate of every printed circuit board (the FR4 designation is the flame-retardant industrial-electronics grade), and at the back of every knife-making shop as the canonical synthetic knife-handle scale material. G10 and FR4 are the same basic construction — woven fiberglass cloth impregnated with epoxy resin, hot-pressed into rigid sheet — with FR4 adding a flame-retardant additive that G10 doesn't carry (G10 has slightly better mechanical properties; FR4 has UL94 V-0 flammability; both are dimensionally and electrically similar). The applications: every PCB in every consumer electronic device since the 1960s (FR4); knife-handle scales (G10 in tactical / hunting knife industry); aerospace / robotics structural plate (G10 / G11 / FR4 family); precision tooling fixtures. Sold in NEMA-classified grades (NEMA LI 1 grades G7, G10, G11, FR4, FR5, etc., distinguishing fiber type, resin, and flammability). Buy from McMaster (Garolite trade name), specialty knife-supply houses (USA Knife Maker for knife-handle scales), PCB-substrate vendors for industrial volumes.
Continuous-fiber thermoset composite, woven fiberglass cloth (E-glass typically) impregnated with bisphenol-A epoxy resin (NEMA G10) or BPA epoxy + brominated flame retardant (NEMA FR4). Fiber volume fraction typically 50-60 percent. Density 1850 kg/m³. Flexural strength 480 MPa parallel to weave, 380 MPa perpendicular (the orthotropy of the woven layup). Tensile strength 280-310 MPa. Compressive strength 415 MPa. Modulus of elasticity 18 GPa flexural. Dielectric strength 17-22 kV/mm at 1mm thickness (the property that makes FR4 the canonical PCB substrate — high enough breakdown voltage to support microns-thin copper traces at typical electronic operating voltages). Service temperature 130 °C continuous (Tg ~130 °C is the limiting factor; high-Tg FR4 grades push to 170 °C). Machinability: cuts cleanly with carbide tooling; produces fine fiberglass dust at all operations (respiratory protection essential — the dust is irritating to lungs and eyes); drills with HSS bits at moderate speeds, dulls bits faster than aluminum. Cannot be heat-formed (thermoset — no plastic flow). Bonds to itself with epoxy adhesive; takes paint, anodizing-equivalent surface treatments by epoxy primer + topcoat. PCB-grade FR4 ships as copper-clad sheets with 18, 35, or 70 µm copper foil laminated to one or both sides for circuit etching.
Principled BSDF defaults derived from the sphere matte finish. Reasonable seed for Blender, Substance, Keyshot, Rhino — tune per material. Or grab the whole library at once: ForMaterials library →
# finish: matte albedo #3a4838 metallic 0.00 roughness 0.75 ior 1.45 transmission 0.00 clearcoat 0.00 sheen 0.00 anisotropic 0.00
{
"albedo": "#3a4838",
"metallic": 0.0,
"roughness": 0.75,
"ior": 1.45,
"transmission": 0.0,
"clearcoat": 0.0,
"sheen": 0.0,
"anisotropic": 0.0
}
# Blender 4.x — Principled BSDF
# G10 / FR4 (Fiberglass-Epoxy Laminate) · finish: matte
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_g10_fr4")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value = (0.0423, 0.0648, 0.0395, 1.0)
bsdf.inputs["Metallic"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Roughness"].default_value = 0.750
bsdf.inputs["IOR"].default_value = 1.450
bsdf.inputs["Transmission Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Coat Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Sheen Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Anisotropic"].default_value = 0.000
# KeyShot 11+ — lux Python API, Generic material
# G10 / FR4 (Fiberglass-Epoxy Laminate) · finish: matte
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_g10_fr4", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse", (58, 72, 56)) # 8-bit sRGB
mat.setProperty("metallic", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("roughness", 0.750)
mat.setProperty("indexOfRefraction", 1.450)
mat.setProperty("transparency", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("coatingWeight", 0.000)
{
"_format": "Substance Designer / Painter \u2014 pbrMetalRough constants",
"_about": "G10 / FR4 (Fiberglass-Epoxy Laminate) \u00b7 finish: matte",
"baseColor": {
"r": 0.0423,
"g": 0.0648,
"b": 0.0395
},
"metallic": 0.0,
"roughness": 0.75,
"ior": 1.45,
"opacity": 1.0,
"anisotropyLevel": 0.0,
"_notes": "Channels listed are the standard Substance pbrMetalRough output. Drop into a Uniform Color node per channel, or as the constant input on a layered stack."
}{
"asset": {
"version": "2.0",
"generator": "ForMatter"
},
"materials": [
{
"name": "mat_g10_fr4",
"pbrMetallicRoughness": {
"baseColorFactor": [
0.0423,
0.0648,
0.0395,
1.0
],
"metallicFactor": 0.0,
"roughnessFactor": 0.75
},
"extensions": {
"KHR_materials_ior": {
"ior": 1.45
}
}
}
]
}# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# G10 / FR4 (Fiberglass-Epoxy Laminate) · finish: matte
def Material "mat_g10_fr4" {
token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_g10_fr4/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>
def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.0423, 0.0648, 0.0395)
float inputs:metallic = 0.000
float inputs:roughness = 0.750
float inputs:ior = 1.450
float inputs:opacity = 1.000
float inputs:clearcoat = 0.000
token outputs:surface
}
}
WARNING: G10/FR4 dust is glass-fiber-bearing — respirator + HEPA collection. The PCB substrate. Mills cleanly with sharp carbide; common cuts include profile-trimming PCBs and shaping electrical insulator parts.
IPC standards for FR-4 machining; Sandvik composite-machining guide; OSHA respirable-fiber guidance.
→ try this material in swarfGarolite / NEMA G-10 / FR-4 technical literature.
House vocabulary — terms ForMatter uses with intent.
Materials and processes for people who design and make things.
A local-first library of materials, processes, applications, and finishes — equal weight, citable everywhere, with cost-over-volume curves, trade-off profiles, equipment-tier filters, and second-life paths layered onto the data so a student can move from "what is this" toward "what's actually buildable here, now, by me." Part of the renato.design ecosystem — sibling of Plenum, Specimen, Ingenue, gesture, graf, and the Renato Rhino plug-ins. Form and matter, inseparable.
Half of teaching materials is teaching how the material is made into the thing. The standard subscription library was always light on that half. The wedge here isn't better samples or a prettier interface — it's treating Process as a peer entity, not a footnote.
Conway's Material World on raw materials, Lefteri's Making It on processes, Forty's Concrete and Culture, Sparke's Design in Context, Bürdek's Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design, Schröpfer's Material Design on materials in architecture, Winchester's The Perfectionists on tolerance, Minshall's Your Life Is Manufactured on the global supply chain, von Busch's Making Trouble on material activism, Were's How Materials Matter, Hegger / Drexler / Zeumer's Basics Materials, Untracht and McCreight on metalsmithing, USDA Forest Products Lab on woods, GIA on gemstones, Schott / CoorsTek / Toray / Owens Corning datasheets, MakeItFrom for verifiable property numbers, ASM Handbook, ISO standards. Museum holdings draw from the Met, MAD, V&A, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Newark Museum of Art, British Museum, Heard Museum, Smithsonian NMAI, Eiteljorg Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, and Grand Rapids Art Museum — collection-record permalinks only, designer overview pages and exhibition listings excluded. Voice blocks now ride on every entry kind — material, process, application, and finish — and include Ruskin on iron, Anni Albers on twining, Greg Lynn on the shred-and-teeth NURBS lineage, Pugin on the metal that won't be hammered, Barthes / Yanagi / Benjamin channeled within their philosophy; Sparke, Bürdek, Forty, Conway, Schröpfer, Minshall, von Busch, Lefteri, Pat Pruitt, Mary Lee Hu, Tom Joyce, Albert Paley, and the rest of the contemporary makers quoted verbatim with citation. All cited.
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