Thermosetting Materials

Abstract

Unlike a thermoplastic material which will soften when heated, a thermosetting material undergoes chemical changes when first heated and is converted from a plastic mass into a hard and rigid material. During the heating, or curing, process further polymerisation occurs and a full network molecular structure is formed. There are also a number of materials that will set hard and rigid at ordinary temperatures. These cold-setting materials are of the same general type as the thermosetting plastics since the curing process is fundamentally the same in both cases.