Standard Plastics – Technical Plastics - High-performance Plastics

General Information

The permanent operating temperature is the most common characteristic to distinguish between standard plastics, technical plastics and highperformance plastics: for standard plastics, the limit is 90 to max. 100 °C, technical plastics can be operated within a range of 90 up to 150 °C. All high-performance plastics have a permanent operating temperate of more than 150 °C. The permanent operating temperature is defined as the maximum temperature with which the material can be operated for 20.000 hours but without loosing more than 50 % of its original rigidity and ductility. This means, a plastic material having a rigidity of 40 MPa in new condition has to show a rigidity of minimum 20 MPa after having been stored at its maximum permanent operating temperature for 20.000 hours.