The white-to-light-gray plastic of every SLS (selective laser sintering) 3D-printed part. PA12, also called nylon 12, is the workhorse polyamide for selective laser sintering — the 3D-printing process where a powder bed is heated to just below the melting point and a CO2 laser fuses each layer to the previous in the cross-section of the part. The result is a tough, isotropic (same strength in every direction, vs. the orthotropic FDM print), durable plastic part with no support structures (unfused powder supports the print as it builds), no post-processing required for functional use. The material of every Shapeways print, every prototyping-house production part, every functional-prototype housing in a startup hardware project. Recyclable as feedstock — unfused powder from a print job can be blended with fresh powder for the next job (the ratio typically 50:50 fresh:recycled for production parts, 70:30 for prototype use). Buy from Sculpteo / Shapeways / Protolabs as a print service; from EOS / 3D Systems for production-machine powder.
Thermoplastic semi-crystalline polyamide, structural unit -[(CH2)11-CO-NH]n-, melting Tm 178-180 °C, glass transition Tg 41 °C. Density 1010 kg/m³ (lower than PA6 / PA66 because of the longer aliphatic chain). Tensile strength 48-54 MPa (printed parts). Tensile modulus 1.7-1.9 GPa. Elongation at break 18-30 percent. Heat-deflection temperature 95 °C at 0.45 MPa. Water absorption 0.4 percent at 24 hours / 23 °C / 50% RH (much lower than PA6 / PA66 — one of the SLS-canon properties; PA12 parts are dimensionally stable in humid environments where PA6 would swell and warp). SLS-specific properties: powder particle size 50-90 µm (fine enough to fuse cleanly, coarse enough to flow on the recoating blade), powder bed temperature 165-170 °C (just below melting), laser power 30-70 W typical for typical 1mm/s scan speeds. Layer thickness 100 µm typical, finer for premium parts. Surface finish: as-printed has a faint sandy texture from the powder fuse; bead-blasting yields a matte uniform finish; vapor-smoothing (acetone vapor for some grades) yields a near-injection-molded surface. Printable with full-color via in-process pigment infusion (HP Multi Jet Fusion is a related but distinct technology that uses the same PA12 base).
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 #e0dcd4 metallic 0.00 roughness 0.75 ior 1.45 transmission 0.00 clearcoat 0.00 sheen 0.00 anisotropic 0.00
{
"albedo": "#e0dcd4",
"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
# Polyamide 12 (PA12, Nylon 12 — SLS 3D Print Powder) · finish: matte
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_polyamide_12_sls")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value = (0.7454, 0.7157, 0.6584, 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
# Polyamide 12 (PA12, Nylon 12 — SLS 3D Print Powder) · finish: matte
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_polyamide_12_sls", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse", (224, 220, 212)) # 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": "Polyamide 12 (PA12, Nylon 12 \u2014 SLS 3D Print Powder) \u00b7 finish: matte",
"baseColor": {
"r": 0.7454,
"g": 0.7157,
"b": 0.6584
},
"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_polyamide_12_sls",
"pbrMetallicRoughness": {
"baseColorFactor": [
0.7454,
0.7157,
0.6584,
1.0
],
"metallicFactor": 0.0,
"roughnessFactor": 0.75
},
"extensions": {
"KHR_materials_ior": {
"ior": 1.45
}
}
}
]
}# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# Polyamide 12 (PA12, Nylon 12 — SLS 3D Print Powder) · finish: matte
def Material "mat_polyamide_12_sls" {
token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_polyamide_12_sls/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>
def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.7454, 0.7157, 0.6584)
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
}
}
3D Systems / EOS / HP MJF technical literature for PA12; ASTM ISO/ASTM 52900.
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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