Materials Information Management

Granta Design has announced the latest release of GRANTA MI for materials information management. It focuses on helping user organizations to deal with engineering realities. Version 7 enhances core tools for managing the materials data lifecycle. The system can be utilized to deliver materials information and associated applications to a range of engineers, scientists and managers.

Enhancements to core features include a simplified web tool through which any authorized user can upload materials data from anywhere. Advances in graphing and querying provide greater insight as users compare data from different sources - for example, test results and handbook data. Such capabilities help users to build and maintain a single, controlled, traceable source for corporate materials data to manage the lifecycle of every property in that database and to ease the workflow from test results to approved design data. According to the company, these are key objectives for user organizations, such as those in the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC), the collaborative project with members including Boeing, GE, Honeywell, NASA and Rolls-Royce. Recent new members are Doosan Babcock, Embraer and Eurocopter.

"In real engineering enterprises, it is not enough simply to build a great materials database," said a company spokesperson. "Data must be used. GRANTA MI is unique in the range of applications for materials information that it supports. This goes far beyond materials engineering and structural engineering to include design, simulation, environmental and regulatory teams, and teams making strategic materials decisions to optimize purchasing or global manufacturing. Most users are not experts in the system, so Version 7 enhances ease-of-use and interactivity, for example, during charting. And it is now easy to configure a wizard user interface to provide engineers with guidance on materials choices based on their own company's business rules."

A key technology in deploying materials data to engineers and managers is MI:Materials Gateway. GRANTA MI Version 7 incorporates Version 2.0 of this technology, which enables users of CAD, CAE and PLM to access and apply materials data directly within their host system. This provides an enhanced level of integration for materials data with design, simulation and product lifecycle management. It makes GRANTA MI a fully embedded, consistent component across the user's choice of software from providers such as ANSYS, Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, PTC and Siemens PLM.

"In practice, corporate materials data is often messy and rarely complete," said the spokesperson. "GRANTA MI Version 7 recognizes this reality, complementing proprietary data with a comprehensive library of authoritative reference data on metals, plastics, composites and more. Enhanced tools make it easier to apply this resource to fill the gaps in in-house data, with full traceability. Updated data is available for Granta's MaterialUniverse, which provides broad coverage of the full property set for virtually every type of purchasable engineering material." Updates to in-depth references for specific materials classes include the latest versions of MMPDS aerospace alloys, StahlDat steels from the German Steel Institute, MI-21 metals from World Metals Index and TWI, CAMPUS and IDES plastics and composite data from Firehole Composites. New GRANTA MI packages combine the software and data needed for specific applications, smoothing implementation. These include new templates that combine a best-practice database design with tailored tools for a particular industry, material type or use. There are packages for metals, composites and plastics; for the aerospace, automotive and medical device industries; and to support implementation of corporate materials strategies or restricted substances risk reduction.

For more information contact:

Granta Design

ASM International

9639 Kinsman Road

Materials Park, OH 44073-0002

800-241-1546

www.grantadesign.com