HDT is the initial temperature of deformation of plastics under load and has been used for decades to characterise the thermal resistance of plastics. It is a so-called one-point value, valid only under the test conditions. For many years now, researchers who have been studying the properties of plastics in greater depth have been trying to convince industrialists that dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) should be used instead, a procedure which most engineers in the processing industry consider too complicated. M. Sepe, head of a US consultancy, shows in a series of articles that DMA curves can provide very important information on the properties of plastics without the need for complex mathematical calculations. Part 1 of the previous issue of our publication looked at how much more the DMA reveals about the elastic modulus of the plastic under investigation than the HDT (which is essentially the temperature at which the elastic modulus of a polymer suddenly decreases); Part 2 of this issue reveals further useful information that can be read from the DMA curves.