DIMENSIONAL STABILITY OF REINFORCED MATRICES.

Particulate fillers are often used to improve the dimensional stability of polymeric items obtained through processing techniques such as injection molding, deep drawing, hot stamping, etc. In these operations the material undergoes large multiaxial deformations which result in molecular orientation and remain as frozen-in stresses during cooling of the material. Once the formed objects are exposed to sufficiently high temperatures, various degrees of spring-back take place and subsequent changes in shape and dimension occur (1).