Non-metallic materials are increasingly being used in instruments operating under cryogenic conditions. Some of these instruments are beginning to be produced in quantity and many more large scale applications are envisaged. Thermoplastic materials have not found application in this environment largely because of uncertainties about their behaviour. Many traditional thermoplastic materials have been found to be unsuited to low temperature application but this may not necessarily be true of some of the newer materials. The use of thermoplastics as matrix materials for fibre-reinforced composites is rapidly gaining ground, but there is a developing need for components in non-structural applications using materials which may readily be moulded in quantity or in a weldable thermoplastic matrix. This paper reports measurements of some of the low temperature mechanical and thermal properties of a new class of thermoplastic materials whose unique chemical structure results in a self-reinforcing or liquid crystal polymer. These materials were introduced as a range of high temperature engineering thermoplastics with excellent processing characteristics, but they may also find application at cryogenic temperatures.
