Heat Resistance of Plastic Pellets

Many of you crafters will have some questions and concerns about the heat resistance of your products...both the pellets as well as your own creation! You are wise to consider this property BEFORE you purchase your resin pellets and materials!

Most of the products which will be sold into the pellet market will be "semicrystalline" polymers. This means that the product morphology or structure is crystalline in nature. A good analogy is a salt crystal. The polymers and mulecules line up and pack tightly and efficiently creating a crystalline lattice that takes energy to break up. When this structure is heated to a the melt point of the polymer, this crystalline structure changes to an amorphous pile of molecules and they can flow and "melt" and attach to other materials. This is one of the reasons that hot glue is more sticky than cold glue. Hence, for most crafting applications with the exception of adhesives, you will want to operate BELOW the melt temp. of the polymers. You should always know the melt temperature of the polymer you are purchasing. That is the reason you will see these properties on all of our products. All of our products are designed to function well for all home and commercial washer and dryer temps. Some polymers may be a problem so BE CAREFUL!

Another temperature (not near as important as the melt temp) you will want to know is the softening point. This is the temperature at which a polymer will begin to "soften"...just as the name connotes! When a semi-crystalline polymer is heated, the molecules and atoms "absorb" this heat energy and start to move. This creates more space between the polymers and they begin to swell and "soften". This temp. will not create enough energy, however, to break up the crystalline structure in order to allow the polymers to flow and move across and along other polymers molecules. Most polymers will function well above their softening points. If you have questions, give us a call or drop us a line!   

And.....Have Fun!!!