Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were used to detect and simulate the cure behavior of unsaturated polyester (UP), phenol, and UP/phenol blends and to calculate and predict the cure rate, cure temperature, conversion, and changes in the glass-transition temperature along with various cure orders in order to obtain the optimum parameters for processing. With dynamic scanning and isothermal DSC procedures and Borchardt-Daniels dynamic software, cure data for the UP resin were obtained, 90% of the conversion rate at 100degreesC being achieved after 15 min. However, for the phenol and UP/phenol blends, gradually increasing the temperature was found to be best for curing according to the DSC and DMA test results. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1041-1058, 2004.