The effect of thermal history on porcelain expansion behavior

Porcelain-fused-to-metal restorations are fixed several hundred degrees above the glass-transition temperature and cooled rapidly through the glass-transition temperature range. Thermal expansion data from room temperature to above the glass-transition temperature range are important for the thermal expansion of the porcelain to be matched to the alloy. The effect of heating rate during measurement of thermal expansion was determined for NBS SRM 710 glass and four commercial opaque and body porcelain products. Thermal expansion data were obtained at heating rates of from 3 to 30 degrees C/min after the porcelain was cooled at the same rate. By use of the Moynihan equation (where Tg systematically increases in temperature with an increase in cooling/heating rate), the glass-transition temperatures (Tg) derived from these data were shown to be related to the heating rate.