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Excellence Melting Point Systems by METTLER TOLEDO measure the melting point or melt-

ing range of polymers very accurately. They are best suited to determine the correct melt-

ing temperature for molding machines.

Why melting temperature of polymers is important

Often the quality of raw polymers has to be tested before they are used for injection molding. Among other tests

the melting range is determined in order to set the recommended melting temperature. The melting temperature

is the temperature the material should be as it leaves the molding machine and enters the mold. This tempera-

ture is different for every material made, and should be held as close as possible by the molder to attain parts

with expected physical, mechanical and thermal properties. That is why the melting temperature setting of the

molding machine is so important.

Suitable standard

In order to achieve comparable results the determination should follow a certain standard which determines

sample preparation, method parameters and how to report. Such a standard is EN ISO 3146.

Excellence Melting Point Systems

Melting Temperatures of Polymers

elting Point Systems by METTLER TOLEDO measure the melting

polymers very accurately. They are best suited to determine t

ure for molding machines.

mperature of polymers is important

www.mt.com/one-click-meltingFor more information

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Mettler-Toledo AG, Analytical

CH-8603 Schwerzenbach, Schweiz

Telefon +41-44-806 77 11

Fax +41-44-806 72 60

Internet www.mt.com

Subject to technical changes

©08/2011 Mettler-Toledo AG

(electronic publication only)

Especially the contained capillary method provides an

easy and fast method for this quality control task

which even can be automized.

Simple and efficient

Best suited for carrying out such analyses are the Ex-

cellence Melting Point Systems. They offer accurate

determinations thanks to the measurement principle

and video camera recording, efficient workflows due to

One Click™ melting points and automatic detection

and are really easy to operate which means close to

no training required before you start to productively

work with the systems.

Accurate results

The instrument records a transmission light and a re-

flected light video. The images of the transmission light

video are evaluated by digital image analysis. This

delivers an intensity curve which is shown in figure 1.

The measurement can be visually reviewed by replay-

ing the video on the instrument or offline on a com-

puter by playing the AVI-video. Two images extracted

from the reflective light video which correspond to the

start and the end of melting of the material shown in

figure 1 are displayed in figure 2. The material mea-

sured is a polyethylene homopolymer powder. On the

intensity curve characteristic temperatures such as

start of melting and end of melting can be evaluated.

Customers use MP systems for polymer quality

control

A worldwide present supplier of sports equipment de-

cided to rely on METTLER TOLEDOs MP90 Melting

Point Systems for the quality control of polyurethane.

Beyond other application areas the material is part of

the soles of different types of sport shoes.

After thorough testing and application development

several instrument were purchased and fulfill their

tasks in various factories around the world now.

Figure 1: Typical intensity curve resulting from a determination of a

polyethylene homopolymer powder. It shows the light transmission

intensity versus temperature. The start of melting is evaluated at

around 5% transmittance. The end of melting is evaluated at the

dramatic slope change around 98.5 °C towards the end of mea-

surement.

Figure 2: Images taken at the characteristic melting events. Top:

Start of melting at 89.3 °C, Bottom: End of melting at 98.5 °C. The

temperature is displayed in each video.