About Granta

	Overview
	History
	Ownership
	People

Granta's History

Granta

1994	Granta Design is founded by Mike Ashby and David Cebon from the Cambridge University Engineering Department. The company's unique intellectual property includes: an extensive compilation of materials data materials property chart (or Ashby chart) methods for presenting and analyzing materials data the performance index concept - using materials property charts to identify optimal materials choices for a given engineering application Granta's first product is the Cambridge Materials Selector software for plotting materials property charts, using them for selection, and for teaching of materials engineering.
1995-97	Granta's start-up team focuses on developing and refining its materials data library (using the first implementations of Granta's unique data-checking and estimation techniques) and on improving the systematic materials selection methods of the Cambridge Materials Selector.
1998	Granta releases Cambridge Process Selector - a companion program to the Materials Selector and the first system to enable systematic process selection.
1999	CES Selector is launched as the first complete software and database system for computer-aided materials and process selection. Users can load the system with databases containing data from Granta, from selected third-party data sources, or their own data. They can then filter materials against a set of selection criteria and apply charting and systematic selection tools.
2000	ASM International, the world's largest professional society for materials engineers, makes a strategic investment in Granta. Granta is now applying its expertise to the management and publication of materials data - for example, supporting web-based access to ASM's extensive materials data handbooks.
2001	Granta provides a digital online version of MIL-HDBK-5, the industry standard design data for aerospace alloys.
2002	Granta, ASM, and NASA launch the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC), a collaboration to help aerospace and energy organizations manage critical materials data. Early members include Rolls- Royce. Granta also releases new tools for plastic selection.
2004	First release of GRANTA MI, which later becomes the industry standard for corporate materials data management. GRANTA MI aims to manage materials data throughout its entire lifecycle, as defined by the MDMC. This includes its capture from testing or other sources, its analysis to create approved design data, deployment to the designers and engineers who need it, and its maintenance in a secure, version-controlled, and robust enterprise system.
2005	New CES EduPack, a focused package of teaching resources to support university-level materials teaching. CES EduPack maintains Granta's materials data and selection tools as a core resource, but builds on these with content, tailored databases, and supporting resources to enable materials and process teaching across a much wider range of related engineering, science, and design courses.
2006	Materials Strategy Software Consortium starts - Emerson Electric and others focus on software for cost optimization.
2007	New Materials for Medical Devices database strengthens Granta's offering for medical device designers. Boeing joins the MDMC, taking membership to seventeen top aero & energy companies.
2008	Eurocopter hosts the first meeting of the new Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium, which will help Granta to develop tools for eco design and for helping to 'design out' the use of toxic and other restricted substances.
2010	Granta opens new headquarters at Rustat House and expands Cambridge team to 80 people.
2011	Granta opens its first overseas offices (in US & Germany), teams up with engineering software giant Autodesk to deliver a new eco design tool, and announces new software for coatings and composite data management.