Abstract
The paper presents an experimental device designed to measure the bending temperature of deflection under load, one of the most important thermomechanical characteristics of polymeric materials. The device allows the application of a prescribed load which has the effect of inducing a standard stress in a rectangular specimen through three-point bending. Subjected to this bending stress, the test specimen is heated, at a constant speed, until a prescribed deformation (deflection) is registered. The temperature and deflection are recorded continuously by a data acquisition system designed for monitoring the process and subsequent analysis of the experimental results. In order to verify the functionality of the experimental device, preliminary tests were carried out on some polymer materials that have polypropylene in their composition.