The softening point is the temperature at which a material softens beyond some arbitrary softness. It can be determined, for example, by the
Vicat
Vicat SA is a French company manufacturing cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete in four continents.
Its activity has developed in France by vertical integration and abroad by acquisitions and, more recently by building Greenfield factorie ...
method (ASTM-D1525 or ISO 306),
Heat Deflection Test
In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...
(ASTM-D648) or a ring and ball method (ISO 4625 or ASTM E28-67/E28-99 or ASTM D36 or ASTM D6493 - 11 or JIS K 6863). A
ring and ball apparatus Ring and Ball Apparatus is used to determine the softening point of bitumen, waxes, LDPE, HDPE/PP blend granules, rosin and solid hydrocarbon resins. The apparatus was first designed in the 1910s while ASTM adopted a test method in 1916. This inst ...
can also be used for the determination of softening point of bituminous materials.
See also
*
Glass Transition Temperature
The glass–liquid transition, or glass transition, is the gradual and reversible transition in amorphous materials (or in amorphous regions within semicrystalline materials) from a hard and relatively brittle "glassy" state into a viscous or rubb ...
References
Temperature
Polymer chemistry
Glass physics
{{thermodynamics-stub