A study of the drawing behavior of poly(ethylene terephthalate)

Abstract

Abstract Cold‐drawn and hot‐drawn samples of poly(ethylene terephthalate) were studied by means of measurements of shrinkage stress, birefringence and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The values of shrinkage stress were comparable for both types of sample, implying that the deformation of a molecular network is important for both cold drawing and hot drawing. The DSC results indicate that substantial crystallization occurs in hot drawing for other than the lowest draw ratios, and this crystallization gives rise to an additional peak in the shrinkage stress measurements. In addition to temperature, strain rate is also an important variable, and changes in strain rate caused significant changes in both hot‐drawn and cold‐drawn samples.