The stainless-steel grade that handles salt water — 304's molybdenum-spiked, low-carbon sibling. Marine fittings, surgical implants, food-and-pharma plumbing, the $40 keyring. Slightly less common in kitchen sinks because it costs more than 304; nearly universal in any context where chloride corrosion will eventually find any other steel.
Austenitic Cr-Ni-Mo stainless (16–18% Cr, 10–14% Ni, 2–3% Mo, ≤0.03% C per ASTM A240). The L (low-carbon) grade resists sensitization (Cr-carbide grain-boundary precipitation during welding). Molybdenum dramatically improves pitting resistance in chloride environments — PRE ≈ 24, vs. 18 for 304. Non-magnetic in annealed condition. Tensile 485 MPa, yield 170 MPa annealed.
NOX worked with GKD Metal Fabrics to construct a facade made of Escale, a stainless pliable mesh that becomes rigid only after locking into its supporting steel structures.
Principled BSDF defaults derived from the sphere metallic finish. Reasonable seed for Blender, Substance, Keyshot, Rhino — tune per material. Or grab the whole library at once: ForMaterials library →
# finish: metallic albedo #c4c8cc metallic 1.00 roughness 0.25 ior 1.45 transmission 0.00 clearcoat 0.00 sheen 0.00 anisotropic 0.00
{
"albedo": "#c4c8cc",
"metallic": 1.0,
"roughness": 0.25,
"ior": 1.45,
"transmission": 0.0,
"clearcoat": 0.0,
"sheen": 0.0,
"anisotropic": 0.0
}
# Blender 4.x — Principled BSDF
# Stainless Steel 316L · finish: metallic
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_stainless_316l")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value = (0.552, 0.5776, 0.6038, 1.0)
bsdf.inputs["Metallic"].default_value = 1.000
bsdf.inputs["Roughness"].default_value = 0.250
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
# Stainless Steel 316L · finish: metallic
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_stainless_316l", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse", (196, 200, 204)) # 8-bit sRGB
mat.setProperty("metallic", 1.000)
mat.setProperty("roughness", 0.250)
mat.setProperty("indexOfRefraction", 1.450)
mat.setProperty("transparency", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("coatingWeight", 0.000)
{
"_format": "Substance Designer / Painter \u2014 pbrMetalRough constants",
"_about": "Stainless Steel 316L \u00b7 finish: metallic",
"baseColor": {
"r": 0.552,
"g": 0.5776,
"b": 0.6038
},
"metallic": 1.0,
"roughness": 0.25,
"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_stainless_316l",
"pbrMetallicRoughness": {
"baseColorFactor": [
0.552,
0.5776,
0.6038,
1.0
],
"metallicFactor": 1.0,
"roughnessFactor": 0.25
},
"extensions": {
"KHR_materials_ior": {
"ior": 1.45
}
}
}
]
}# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# Stainless Steel 316L · finish: metallic
def Material "mat_stainless_316l" {
token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_stainless_316l/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>
def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.552, 0.5776, 0.6038)
float inputs:metallic = 1.000
float inputs:roughness = 0.250
float inputs:ior = 1.450
float inputs:opacity = 1.000
float inputs:clearcoat = 0.000
token outputs:surface
}
}
The marine and medical stainless — molybdenum addition for chloride resistance. Same machining discipline as 304 but with shorter tool life. Avoid the ShopBot for anything serious; use the MR-1.
Machinery's Handbook 30th ed., 'Stainless Steel Machining' (316L); ASTM F138 medical-implant stainless datasheet.
→ try this material in swarfASM Handbook Vol. 1; AISI 316L datasheet; ASTM F138 medical-implant stainless.
Fabricated and cold-connected stainless steel, niobium, titanium, plated base metal. Accession 1999.11A-C. Threaded-rod cold connections instead of solder; the 348 in the title indicates the component count.
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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