Vicat softening point

Vicat softening point or Vicat hardness is the determination of the softening point for materials that have no definite melting point, such as plastics. It is taken as the temperature at which the specimen is penetrated to a depth of 1 mm by a flat-ended needle with a 1 square mm circular or square cross-section. For the Vicat A test, a load of 10 N is used. For the Vicat B test, the load is 50 N.

Standards to determine Vicat softening point include ASTM D 1525 and ISO 306, which are largely equivalent.^[1]

References