Texture measurements relaxation time

In the field of conventional engineering thermoplastics we have a detailed understanding of the isotropic state, we appreciate the stress history deployed in a moulding process, we can measure relaxation phenomena and so predict residual orientation, and so we can deduce the property spectrum of a final product. If the time-scale between recognition of liquid crystalline phenomena in melts and its commercial exploitation appears protracted we need only note the observation of Professor J. L. White summing up at a recent conference in Kyoto, that, for liquid crystal polymers, stress history, optical anisotropy and texture are independent variables. In fact, to make the connection from basic material property to performance in the final product, industrial technologists have had to learn a new science. 

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