ABSTRACT
Glasses and amorphous polymers have a characteristic thermal expansion behavior, an example of which is shown in Figure 7.9. These materials pass through a glass transition tern-
perature, Tg, followed by a dilatometric softening point, Tds, with increasing temperature. The phrase "dilatometric softening point" is used since this maximum expansion point, representing the temperature at which the glass softens to the point of collapsing on itself, 7 depends on the cross-sectional area of the specimen, and the force the pushrod spring applies to the specimen, which will vary from instrument to instrument.
