SPECIALTY PLASTICS

Polyetherimide (PEI)

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 General Description

General Electric (US) introduced PEI under the

name of Ultem in early 1982. This thermoplastic
fills the gap between the polyethersulfones and
the considerably more expensive polyamide
imides and polyfluorocarbons.

PEI is a high performance, amorphous

thermoplastic based upon regular repeating
ether and imide linkages. The aromatic imide
units provide stiffness while the ether linkages
allow for good melt-flow characteristics and
processability.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

General Description
PEl is characterized by the following properties:
- Very high strength (even when unreinforced),
- high stiffness and hardness,
- high heat distortion temperature (> 200 °C),
- high continuous service temperature (170 °C),
- high dielectric strength,
- dielectric properties remain almost constant
over a wide range of temperature & frequency

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 General Description
- transparent amber color,
- low coefficient of thermal expansion,
- high resistance to chemicals and hydrolysis,
- high weathering resistance,
- high resistance to g-radiation,
- low flammability (V-0 at 0.76 mm thickness) &
low smoke emission,
- good, economic processability.

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Polyetherimide (PEI)
Structure

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Structure and Properties

• PEI consist of imide groups O=C-N-

C=O linked by ether groups and thus
they have good mechanical and
thermal properties.

• The ether groups are also

responsible for a certain flexibility
of the polymer chain and hence good
processability.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Additives
The main additive is glass fiber reinforcement.

Availability
• Commercially available granules from General
Electric Co. under the trade name of Ultem®.
• Standard grade (Ultem 1000)
• Grades reinforced with 10 - 40% w/w glass fiber,
• Grades reinforced with 15% Carbon fiber
• The development range (D 6000) distinguished
mainly by increased HDT
• Special purpose grades for moldings subjected to
wear and for manufacturing printed circuit boards

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Mechanical Properties

• The structure of PEI results in very high

strength and stiffness.

• The tensile strength of the unreinforced

material is greater than 100 N mm-2.

• The flexural modulus is 3300 N mm-2.

• Both values are far above the levels of

other thermoplastics.
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

Transition Temperatures
The high stiffness and good
dimensional stability at elevated
temperatures are not surprising in
view of the high Tg of the original
grades (217 °C) and of the
development grades (230 °C).

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Notch sensitivity
• The unreinforced material possesses
adequate impact strength although it is
notch sensitive.
• Stress concentrations in moldings, on sharp
edges, for example, should therefore be
avoided.
Wear Properties
• The special purpose grade PEI is
particularly suitable for applications which
require high wear resistance, e.g. bearings
and vane pumps.
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Thermal Properties
• One of the most outstanding properties of
PEI is its ability to withstand exposure at
elevated temperatures. PEI exhibits a Tg at
419oC.

• The HDT (at 1.82 N mm-2) of PEI is 200°C,

the same as that of PES while those of PSF
and PC are 170 and 135 °C, respectively. This
accounts for its excellent retention of
physical properties at elevated temperatures.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Electrical Properties
The unmodified and 30% glass-reinforced PEI
resin exhibits an excellent balance of
electrical properties which remain stable over
a wide range of environmental conditions.

The favorable dielectric properties and high

volume resistivity of PEIs are constant over a
wide range of temperature and are hardly
affected by environmental influences.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Electrical Properties

The dissipation factor remains low over a wide

range of frequency particularly in the kHz (103
Hz) and GHz (109 Hz) region.

This property is significant for logic components

in electronics applications or components for
microwave applications where the material
should absorb as little electrical energy in the
form of heat as possible.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

Water Absorption

The unreinforced PEIs absorb 0.3%

water at 60% atmospheric humidity.

The maximum permitted content is,

however, 0.05%.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Resistance to Chemicals
PEI is very resistant to:
• mineral acids,
• salt solutions,
• aqueous alkaline solutions (pH < 9),
• antifreeze, automotive and aviation
lubricants,
• fuels and cleaning agents, alcohols,
• carbon tetrachloride, ether.
• hydrolysis.
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

Resistance to Chemicals
• It has limited resistance to ketones.

• It is not resistant to ethyl acetate, MEK

and chlorine containing solvents

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Resistance to Stress Cracking

PEI has only limited resistance to

stress cracking. The glass fiber
reinforced grades are superior to
unreinforced grades.

Weathering Resistance

PEI is resistant to UV radiation without

the addition of stabilizers.
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

Resistance to High Energy Radiation

• The resistance to high energy

radiation (g-radiation from a Co60
source) is remarkably high.

• Even a radiation dosage of 5000 kJ

kg-l causes a loss of only 6% in the
tensile strength
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Flammability

• PEI is flame resistant without the

incorporation of additives.

• In fire incidents, PEI gives off

only very small amounts of smoke.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

Processing
• PEI is easily processed on conventional
injection molding/ extrusion/blow molding m/c

• Resin viscosity vs. shear rate profile

comparable to PC or PSF (rather than
conventional polyimides), although the
processing temperature is much higher.

• Due to its thermal stability, PEI exhibits a

much higher processing window than most
other engineering plastics.
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Processing
• PEI absorbs so much water when stored
in air that predrying is required.
Molding compounds should not contain
>0.05% water for processing.
• Melt temperature is 375 to 425°C,
• Mold temperatures 100 to 150°C.

• Shrinkage is between 0.2 to 0.7%

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Processing
• Readily converted into film sheet &
profiles via melt extrusion because of
its high melt strength.

• Owing to its melt integrity PEI is easily

thermoformed or blow molded using
injection or extrusion techniques.

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Machining
• Laser beams are used when high drilling
and cutting speeds are required.
• Close tolerances, the absence of swarf,
burrs, etc and low internal stresses are
the advantages of this technique.
• Holes as small as 0.15 mm diameter can
be bored in positions inaccessible to
conventional drills.
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Joining-1

• Molded-in threads or self cutting

screws can be used for screw
connections.

• Inserts are molded in or inserted by

vibration.

• Snap joints use the elastic recovery of

PEI.
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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Joining -2
• Diffusion bonding (using methylene
chloride) is a suitable method for PEI
to PEI glued joints .
• Adhesion bonding can be used to join
PEI to PEI or other materials. Adhesion
bonding agents are based on silicone,
nonamine epoxide resins & hot melt
polyamide adhesives

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Typical Applications

• High voltage circuit breaker housings,

connectors, microwave oven components,
flow solder resistant terminal strips,

• Transmission components, pistons and

brake cylinder parts, carburetor
housings, headlamps,

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)
Typical Applications

• Aircraft seat shells, safety belt clips,

• Cables,

• Bearings, gears,

• Vanes for pumps.

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Polyetherimide (PEI)
Typical Applications

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

Tradename

Ultem (General Electric Plastics, US)

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 Polyetherimide (PEI)

Further Reading

1. BRYDSON J.A, Plastics Material, Butterworth

Heinemann, oxford, New Delhi (2005)
2. DOMININGHAUS H., Plastics for Engineering,
Hanser publishers, Munich, New York (1998)
3. CHARLESS A . HARPER, Modern Plastics Hand
Book McGraw –Hill, New York (1999)
4. MARGOLIS J. M., Engineering Thermoplastics,
Marcel-Dekker, New York (1985)

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 TABLE- !Guide values of properties of PEI
Properties Units PEI PEI (Glass Filled)
Density g/cm3 1.27 1.61
Water absorption (23°C, 24h) % 0.25
Mechanical
Tensile strength N/mm2 105 185
Elongation at break % 7-8 2.5
Tensile modulus of elasticity N/mm2 3000
Notched impact strength J/m 50 150
Rockwell hardness scale M199
Thermal
Service temperature in air without mechanical
C 170
loading (long term)
Heat deflection temperature °C 200 213
Vicat, Method B °C 219 216
Coefficient of linear expansion between 0 & 50 °C mm/mm/°C 62x10-6 14x10-6
Thermal conductivity W/mK 0.22

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 TABLE- !Guide values of properties of PEI
Properties Units PEI PEI (Glass Filled)
Electrical
Volume resistivity Wcm 6.7x1015
Dielectric constant 3.15 3.7
Dissipation factor, tan d 50 Hz 0.0025 0.002
Dielectric strength kV/mm 33
Fire performance to UL 94 class V-0 V-0

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