Thermal dimensional stability of isotropic polyoxymethylene

Abstract

A parametric mapping analysis of the effect of various structural and morphological parameters on the thermal dimensional stability of polyoxymethylene is highlighted. The molecular composites model is found to describe adequately the expansional behavior of isotropic polyoxymethylene. The thermal expansivity is highly sensitive to the level of crystallinity followed by the transverse dimension of the crystallites. The longitudinal dimension of the crystallites, however, is not effective in altering the expansion behavior of isotropic polyoxymethylene. When comparing the model calculations with experimentally published data, an agreement of better than 15% is observed.