The transparent amber-colored high-temperature plastic of every aerospace cabin air-duct, every medical autoclave-sterilizable instrument, every high-temperature electrical connector, every premium FDM-printed functional part for industrial use. PEI (polyetherimide; SABIC's Ultem is the dominant trade name) is one of the small family of 'high-performance' thermoplastics — it operates continuously at +170 °C (vs. ~100 °C for ABS / PC), it's inherently flame-retardant (UL 94 V-0 without additives), it's autoclave-sterilizable for medical / surgical use, and it's transparent in a distinctive deep amber color from the polymer chemistry rather than from dye. The price tier is roughly 10-30x ABS by mass — used where the application demands what PEI alone delivers. Ultem 9085 is the FDM-print variant that put aerospace-grade printable into Stratasys printers; it's the material that put 3D-printed flight-rated parts on Boeing 787 cabins. Buy from McMaster for sheet stock (small quantities only — premium pricing); from Stratasys for FDM filament; from SABIC directly for injection-grade pellets.
Thermoplastic amorphous polymer, structural unit a polyetherimide chain with imide rings and ether links; commercial product family from SABIC (formerly GE Plastics — Ultem trade name retained through divestiture). Density 1270 kg/m³. Tensile strength 105 MPa. Tensile modulus 3.0 GPa. Elongation at break 7-60 percent depending on grade. Glass transition Tg 217 °C — the property that gives PEI its high continuous-use temperature. Heat-deflection temperature 200 °C at 1.8 MPa. Continuous use 170 °C (in air). Inherently flame-retardant — UL 94 V-0 at 0.41 mm thickness without additives, low smoke generation, low toxicity of combustion products (the FAA cabin-air requirement). Optically clear in unpigmented form, deep amber-yellow color from the polymer backbone (cannot be made water-clear). Excellent dimensional stability under temperature cycling. Hydrolysis resistance allows steam-autoclave sterilization (132 °C, 30 minutes, repeated cycles) without degradation — the medical / surgical-instrument property. Ultem 9085 (FDM grade) is specifically engineered for fused-deposition printing with optimized melt rheology for layer adhesion. Resin identification code 7 (other), not in standard recycling streams; specialized industrial recyclers reclaim PEI scrap.
Principled BSDF defaults derived from the sphere transparent finish. Reasonable seed for Blender, Substance, Keyshot, Rhino — tune per material. Or grab the whole library at once: ForMaterials library →
# finish: transparent albedo #c89858 metallic 0.00 roughness 0.05 ior 1.50 transmission 1.00 clearcoat 0.00 sheen 0.00 anisotropic 0.00 thickness 1.00 attenuation_distance 0.60
{
"albedo": "#c89858",
"metallic": 0.0,
"roughness": 0.05,
"ior": 1.5,
"transmission": 1.0,
"clearcoat": 0.0,
"sheen": 0.0,
"anisotropic": 0.0,
"thickness": 1.0,
"attenuation_distance": 0.6
}
# Blender 4.x — Principled BSDF
# PEI (Polyetherimide, Ultem) · finish: transparent
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_pei_ultem")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value = (0.5776, 0.314, 0.0976, 1.0)
bsdf.inputs["Metallic"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Roughness"].default_value = 0.050
bsdf.inputs["IOR"].default_value = 1.500
bsdf.inputs["Transmission Weight"].default_value = 1.000
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
# PEI (Polyetherimide, Ultem) · finish: transparent
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_pei_ultem", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse", (200, 152, 88)) # 8-bit sRGB
mat.setProperty("metallic", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("roughness", 0.050)
mat.setProperty("indexOfRefraction", 1.500)
mat.setProperty("transparency", 1.000)
mat.setProperty("coatingWeight", 0.000)
{
"_format": "Substance Designer / Painter \u2014 pbrMetalRough constants",
"_about": "PEI (Polyetherimide, Ultem) \u00b7 finish: transparent",
"baseColor": {
"r": 0.5776,
"g": 0.314,
"b": 0.0976
},
"metallic": 0.0,
"roughness": 0.05,
"ior": 1.5,
"opacity": 0.0,
"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_pei_ultem",
"pbrMetallicRoughness": {
"baseColorFactor": [
0.5776,
0.314,
0.0976,
1.0
],
"metallicFactor": 0.0,
"roughnessFactor": 0.05
},
"extensions": {
"KHR_materials_transmission": {
"transmissionFactor": 1.0
}
}
}
]
}# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# PEI (Polyetherimide, Ultem) · finish: transparent
def Material "mat_pei_ultem" {
token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_pei_ultem/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>
def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.5776, 0.314, 0.0976)
float inputs:metallic = 0.000
float inputs:roughness = 0.050
float inputs:ior = 1.500
float inputs:opacity = 0.000
float inputs:clearcoat = 0.000
token outputs:surface
}
}
PEI / Ultem — the FDM-print-bed polymer. Amber, transparent, FDA-cleared, machines cleanly. Used for jigs, prototype housings, electrical insulators. Tougher than polycarbonate, more heat-stable.
Onsrud Cutter plastic feeds & speeds (PEI / Ultem table); SABIC Ultem 1000 / 9085 datasheets.
→ try this material in swarfSABIC Ultem 1000 / 9085 technical literature; Brydson *Plastics Materials*.
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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