Firefighters depend on thermal imaging cameras to find lost survivors in the thin, black smoke of a burning building. Recently, however, it was a Bullard Thermal Imager made of GE's ULTEM® resin that survived a fire when a firefighter dropped the camera.

Made of GE Plastics ULTEM polyetherimide resin, the Bullard Thermal Imager remained in the building until firefighters quenched the blaze. During recovery, firefighters found the charred camera on the structure's lowest level.

"We thought it was toast," said Sergeant Mike Kennedy, a Brighton, Michigan, firefighter. "When we were looking it over, we took off the back screen and pushed the start button. It worked! For a minute, we all stood there around the camera in disbelief. We were amazed."

Bullard worked with GE Plastics in selecting this new plastic for use in the casing of its thermal imagers. ULTEM resin was chosen for its strength and resistance to heat -- up to 356°F (180°C).

"We needed a material for our thermal imager that offered excellent resistance to heat and impact -- common challenges that our equipment must be designed to endure in a fire," said Tom Kiddle, business group manager, thermal imaging for Bullard. "Firefighters depend on our products to perform under some extremely demanding environments."

Ken Rudolph, commercial technology manager of high performance polymers for GE Plastics, said the overall strength, dimensional stability, and heat resistance of ULTEM resin made it the logical recommendation for Bullard and its thermal imagers. GE Plastics' highest performance amorphous polymer, it is found in many other demanding applications including microwaveable cookware, automotive throttle bodies, aircraft panels, steam sterilized medical instruments, and fiber optic connectors for telecommunications.

"We were very pleased that the ULTEM resin performed up to expectations," Rudolph said.