SOY-4641
SOY-4641 soy wax: the 49 C workhorse
A fully hydrogenated soybean oil with a narrow, well-behaved melt envelope that ends at 49.0 C. It is the reference grade everything else on this site is read against, because almost every supplier sells a prilled soy within a degree of these numbers.
Melt band 20–90 °C — every live specimen pinned at its own interval
20 °C55 °C90 °C
| First softening | 38.5 °C | Surface yields to light finger pressure. |
|---|---|---|
| Slab stage | 44.0 °C | Pourable but still slushy at the edges. |
| Clear point | 49.0 °C | Fully liquid, no seed crystals left. |
| Congeal point | 37.0 °C | Surface skins over on cooling. |
| Phase width | 10.5 °C | Clear point minus first softening. |
| DSC peaks | 41.2 °C · 47.8 °C | Calorimetry peak temperatures, 2 °C/min ramp. |
| Crystal β′ | 41.0 °C | 4 nm · 62° |
Hydrogenated soybean oil is a triglyceride mixture, not a pure compound, so it has no single melting point. What the table below records is the band: the temperature at which a pressed surface first deforms, the slush stage where the crystal network is half broken, and the clear point where the last opal haze disappears.
For SOY-4641 the useful working window is a 65 to 70 C pour and a 21 to 24 C cure. Poured hotter than 75 C the top sets with a dull grey skin and the sides pull away from the glass; poured below 60 C the wax starts to set in the pitcher and traps air lines that only show up after the second burn.
Crystal forms
| Form | Transition | Layer | Tilt |
|---|---|---|---|
| beta-prime β′ | 41.0 °C | 4 nm | 62° |
Same-family shrinkage comparison
Shrink — the filled bar is this grade, the hollow bars are its family siblings
Known failure modes
| Trigger | Threshold | Known failure modes |
|---|---|---|
| SOY-SEAM | pour temperature → below 60 C | Wax sets in the pitcher and drags a visible seam down one side of the vessel. Re-melt and re-pour; the seam cannot be healed in place. |
| SOY-TUNNEL | cure time → under 48 h | The top surface stays tacky and the first burn tunnels. Hold at 21-24 C for at least 48 h before the first light. |
| SOY-WEEP | fragrance load → above 8 % | Oil migrates to the surface as a sheen within a week. The load is above what the crystal network will hold without a pour-point modifier. |
Burn records for this grade
| Date | Burn report | Hour | Pool ⌀ mm | Soot 0–10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-28 | SOY-4641 in a 76 mm tin, 32 hours | 32 | 58.0 | 4.2 |
Protocol
- P-06 four-hour burn sessionCapped multi-session burn with hourly dimensional readings
Other live specimens
- BEE-9400 Beeswax 11.5% · 88
- COCO-8300 Coconut wax 6.8% · 12
- PARA-1275 Paraffin wax 12.9% · 21
- PARA-2281 Paraffin wax 16.8% · 9
- PARA-4625 Paraffin wax 14.2% · 15
- PARA-4780 Paraffin wax 13.5% · 17
- SOY-415 same family 9.6% · 34
- SOY-P22 same family 10.8% · 29