Making Sense of High-Temperature Plastics

Many electrical, automotive, industrial and other applications call for costeffective materials with superior mechanical and electrical performance at elevated temperatures. During the past half-century, high-temperature engineering thermoplastics have increasingly met this need. In reviewing the most commonly used high-temperature thermoplastics, this article defines these polymers as those having a heat deflection temperature (HDT) of more than 400°F when reinforced with 30 percent glass-fiber. (Heat deflection temperature is the deformation temperature of an injection-molded plastic specimen under a defined load - typically 264 psi). Glass fiber reinforcement can improve a polymer's HDT, modulus, impact and creep resistance