The temperature-dependent behaviour of amorphous and semi-crystalline thermoplastics is
very different. Amorphous thermoplastics are hard and brittle materials at ambient temperature. With rising temperature, the solidity decreases and the extensibility increases at the same time. If, as shown in the phase diagram, the glass transition temperature is exceeded, the solidity falls rapidly and the extensibility increases sharply. In the case of a further increase of temperature, the plastic, as soon as the flow temperature has been exceeded, first changes into the melting state (plastic range) before it decomposes chemically if the temperature continues to rise and irreversibly loses its properties.The deformation behaviour of a semi-crystalline thermoplastic shows quite different characteristics. Its molecule filaments can position themselves closely next to each other because of only a few branchings, which results in high secondary linkage forces (crystallization). Due to the long molecule chains, however, interlacing also occurs (amorphous), so that the two phases, amorphous and crystalline, are present next to each other.