Skip to the index table
Wax Almanac winterberry.xyz
中文 Glossary of defined terms

PARA-4625

PARA-4625 paraffin: the reference 46/48

paraffin · Fully refined paraffin 46/48 C, prilled · 2026-08-22 ·

A fully refined 46/48 C paraffin, prilled and food grade. Its melt band is only 4.5 C wide, which is why paraffin takes a mirror-flat top and why a wick sized for soy will drown in it.

Melt window45.5–50.0 °CPhase width4.5 °CShrinkage14.2 %Needle15 · 0.1 mmOil binding3.1 %Frosting risk1 / 5

Melt band 20–90 °C — every live specimen pinned at its own interval

SolidSlab / slush

20 °C55 °C90 °C

PARA-4625 melt envelope: solidus 45.5 °C to clear point 50.0 °C
Melt envelope, drawn as a parameterised SVG at build time
First softening 45.5 °C Surface yields to light finger pressure.
Slab stage 47.5 °C Pourable but still slushy at the edges.
Clear point 50.0 °C Fully liquid, no seed crystals left.
Congeal point 44.5 °C Surface skins over on cooling.
Phase width 4.5 °C Clear point minus first softening.
DSC peaks 46.9 °C · 49.4 °C Calorimetry peak temperatures, 2 °C/min ramp.
Crystal β 42.0 °C 8 nm · 71°

The paraffin molecule is a straight alkane chain, and the prilled 46/48 grade is a tight cut of C20 to C24 chains. A tight cut means a narrow melt band: 45.5 to 50.0 C covers the entire transition, against 10.5 C for SOY-4641. Nothing slushes for long, so the pour is more forgiving and the surface is flatter.

Two properties bite. Shrinkage at 14.2 % is nearly double the soy figure and produces the classic well around the wick on the second burn. Oil binding at 3.1 % is low enough that a 6 % fragrance load will bead on the surface if the melt was not stirred for a full two minutes.

Oil content, ASTM D721含油量(ASTM D721)
Saybolt colourSaybolt 色泽
Flash point, COC闪点(COC)

Crystal forms

FormTransitionLayerTilt
beta β 42.0 °C 8 nm 71°
PARA-4625 crystal habit diagram
Layer / Tilt

Same-family shrinkage comparison

Shrink — the filled bar is this grade, the hollow bars are its family siblings

Known failure modes

TriggerThresholdKnown failure modes
PAR-DROWN wick sizing → below 2.5 mm A soy-sized wick cannot hold a pool in a 4.5 C band and drowns inside two hours. Size up one series step.
PAR-BEAD stir time → under 120 s Fragrance beads on the cooled surface because the oil was never held in the melt. Stir a full two minutes and pour within four.
PAR-WELL second burn → shrinkage over 13 % The wax pulls down around the wick and forms a well that starves the flame of melt. Trim to 6 mm and burn long enough to level.

Other live specimens