Tab Gate: A small removable tab about the same thickness as the molded item, but usually perpendicular to the part for easy removal.
Tackifiers: Additives used to enhance the adhesiveness or bonding ability of a material.
Tensile Modulus: (Also called modulus of elasticity). The ratio of nominal stress to the corresponding strain below the proportional limit of a material.
Tensile Strength, Break: The maximum stress that a material can withstand without breaking when subjected to a stretching load.
Tensile Strength, Yield: The maximum stress that a material can withstand without yielding when subjected to a stretching load.
Tensile Strength: The maximum tensile stress sustained by the specimen during a tension test.
Thermal Conductivity: the ability of a material to conduct heat.
Thermal Degradation: deterioration of the material by heat, characterized by molecular scission.
Thermal Shut-Off: material freezes causing a blockage.
Thermoelasticity: Rubber-like elasticity exhibited by a rigid plastic resulting from an increase in temperature.
Thermoforming: The process of forming a thermoplastic sheet into a three-dimensional shape by clamping the sheet in a frame, heating it to tender it soft and flowable. Then applying differential pressure to make the sheet conform to the shape of a mold or die positioned below the frame.
Thermoplastic Elastomers: The family of polymers that resemble elastomers in that they can be repeatedly stretched without distortion of the unstressed part shape, but are true thermoplastics and thus do not require curing.
Thermoplastic: material that will repeatedly soften when heated and harden when cooled.
Thermoset: A polymer that doesn’t melt when heated. Thermoset polymers “set” into a given shape when first made and afterward do not flow or melt, but rather decompose upon heating. They are often highly cross-linked polymers, with properties similar to those of network covalent solids, i.e., hard and strong.
Tie-Bar Spacing: The space between the horizontal tie-bars on an injection molding machine. Basically, this measurement limits the size of molds that can be placed between the tie-bars and into the molding machine.
Time scan: effects of mold and melt temperature and injection time changes in pressure, stress, and temperature at the end of the flow.
Toggle: A type of clamping mechanism that exerts pressure by applying force on a knee joint. A toggle is used to close and exert pressure on a mold in a press.
Tonnage: The measure by which injection molding machines are typically categorized, representing the clamping force of the injection molding machine.
Tool: In injection molding, the term sometimes used to describe the mold.
Transfer Molding: A process of forming articles by fusing a plastic material in a chamber then forcing the whole mass into a hot mold to solidify.
Transition Temperature: The temperature at which a polymer changes from (or to) a viscous or rubbery condition (or from) a hard and relatively brittle one.
Tunnel Gate: See the submarine gate.
