What is the difference between thermo plastic and thermosetting plastic?

Answer 1

Answerthermoplastics plastics can be heated and then moulded into a shape or form, but thermosetting cannot.Each plastic can be moulded into a 'shape or form', it is just that thermoplastics, once they have been moulded, they can be re-heated and moulded again, where-as once thermosetting plastics have been moulded, if re-heated and you try to remould it, it will just make it brittle and snap instead.

Answer 2

The basic difference between Thermosetting and thermplastic material is that when we heat the materials the thermosetting material gets hardened the first time and if we again heat it, just burns without deforming while the thermoplastic materials on heating loses its toughness and come into plastic state where it can be moulded to any shape of desired nature. The thermosetting materials are hard and have atomic structure that bound each other strongely and on heating this structure gets decomposed. While the thermoplastic material have structure that can be easily deformed and converted to any shape. On heat they turn into liquid and on freezing turn into Glassy brittle material, hence they are not as tough as thermosetting materials Thermoplastic material have weak Van Der Waal force and stroger dipole-dipole interaction. Example of thermosetting material is BAKELITE, Epoxy Resin, Polyimides,etc Example of thermoplastic material is polyethylene, polysytrene, nylon etc. -Writer is an engineering Graduate of Visveswaraiah Technology university. ShivkantB.E. Mechancial

Answer 3

Thermoplastic materials can be heated and cooled numerous times from a rigid to a flexible form (i.e., acrylic, polycarbonate sheet, etc) while thermosetting plastics (i.e., polyester and epoxy resins) change from a liquid form (most common) to a one-time (non-remeltable) solid form.

Answer 4

Plastics involve two major categories :

Thermoplastics : themoplastics soften when heated & can be molded in different shapes.

Thermosetting plastic : Thermosettings placstics generally degrades when heated.

Answer 5

Thermoplastic can be heated and reshaped multiple times without undergoing chemical changes, while thermosetting plastic undergoes a chemical reaction when heated and cannot be reshaped once it sets. Thermoplastic is recyclable, whereas thermosetting plastic is not easily recyclable. Thermo plastic has weaker structural strength compared to thermosetting plastic.