November 2005

Granta Material News: Data frustrations of materials engineers

Following the launch of GRANTA MI – our groundbreaking new software system for enterprise-wide materials information management – we begin a series of special editions of Granta’s newsletter.

This special edition focuses on the job of the Materials Engineer.

Granta’s Will Marsden considers some of the “data frustrations” commonly cited by materials engineers – and explains how GRANTA MI can make a tremendous difference.  Click on a topic to go to the full text below. 

1. It takes a long time to organize our materials data.
2. Answering simple queries about our current materials takes up a lot of my time.
3. Finding information about our materials’ properties can be a hassle.
4. Giving out the same data in different formats takes far too long
5. There must be an easier way to control the raw data we use in our calculations.
6. We are still trying to get all of our engineers using the same set of materials data.
7. I don’t know how to get my free copy of “Material Intelligence: The Game”.

Will Marsden writes:

At Granta, we have always been closely involved with materials engineers and their work in many different industries, including aerospace, defense, automotive, hi-tech, domestic, industrial, medical, sports, and material production. Perhaps surprisingly, many of the most important objectives and challenges faced by these engineers in their everyday work are shared by most organizations across industry sectors.  Generally, materials people are a happy bunch and content with what they do.  They are optimistic, problem-solving people. They can spot a problem and design a solution.  But they are often frustrated by inefficient workflow and systems of the organizations they work in.

We have used our close relationships with our customers and partners to understand and solve many of the most common, important, and costly problems with the management and control of materials data.  The result is GRANTA MI, a truly revolutionary software system - actually made by materials engineers for materials engineers. GRANTA MI is a complete software system for the creation, tracking, qualification, and management of materials information – an integrated system of tools to work throughout an organization, from test lab to designer’s desktop.

Here is a discussion of some of the “data frustrations” commonly cited by materials engineers, along with explanations of how GRANTA MI can solve the underlying problems and make a tremendous difference.

“We store our materials information in a general office software system.  It’s a good system and, as a standard office tool, many of us are familiar with it.  It can handle the majority of our needs, but some of our requirements can stretch it, causing complications.  We don’t do anything too out of the ordinary or use any exotic materials, but it is amazing how complex materials data can be these days:  Storing it all where we can get to it and make comparisons easily is becoming more difficult.  Today, storing new data in this system, a job that used to be quite simple, now takes up far too much of our time.”
 
GRANTA MI solution:  Importing and storing even the most complex materials information becomes the simplest process.  When large quantities of data must be brought into the database in random formats, MI’s “Bulk Data Imported” takes the strain.  If there is a regular flow of smaller datasets from text and spreadsheet files, then the standard import modules can fully automate the process.

“As one of the recognized materials experts in my organization, I spend an awful lot of time answering telephone, email and personal queries about the properties of our preferred materials.  These queries can be from new engineers unfamiliar with one of these materials or from a more experienced engineer wanting to confirm they are using the current dataset.  Any one query doesn’t take much time, since I’m familiar with the materials, but there are just so many of them.”

GRANTA MI solution:  You can open up a proportion (or all) of your materials database to some (or all) of your organization’s engineers.  GRANTA MI:Viewer provides a web interface to your data, equipped with simple search, comparison and reporting tools to help all engineers find the information they want for themselves – on their own PCs, with minimal assistance.  Bolstered by the fail-safe Access Control system within the software, you can rest assured engineers can see only the data you have selected for access.

“I’m familiar with most of the materials we use and I know we have the data I’m looking for - I’m just not sure where to find it.  I usually end up phoning one of my colleagues in the Materials Group who gives me the data or maybe directs me to it elsewhere – but there has to be a better way of doing this.”

“Another thing that worries me is confirming I have the current version of the data for a material I am using in my analysis.  Again, I usually have to confirm this with a call to the Materials Group, and then sometimes I need to do more work on it.”

GRANTA MI solution: The MI:Viewer provides a web interface so you can use your own PC to access easily the up-to-date catalogue of preferred materials and associated data sanctioned by your organization.

4. Giving out the same data in different formats takes far too long.

“Maintaining and updating the organization’s database of qualified materials properties is pretty straightforward.  We use a system I have used for some years and I’m very familiar with it.  However, each engineering group has their own specialized design or analysis software, each with a materials catalogue embedded in it.  If I don’t spoon-feed them the new data in the right format, they never update their local copy of the database.  This is a risk our organization can’t allow so I have to check each one every time.  Creating all these files, each with its own unique format, and updating the data in this cloud of satellite databases takes forever, and it’s not a very interesting job to do.”

GRANTA MI solution:  All engineers can access the GRANTA MI central database and export the data they want in the format right for their own software systems automatically. This is achieved by translators provided by GRANTA MI for standard analysis and CAD systems – and by translator templates customized easily for any more exotic systems. 

“The analysis we do on some of our materials in order to model their creep, fatigue and fatigue crack growth behavior can use some huge sets of data.  Even the room temperature stuff can get quite big.  I always check that the correct data is being used for each analysis, and I know that all of my colleagues take the same trouble.  But this care is definitely costly because each analysis takes a long time when all the crosschecks are taken into account.”

GRANTA MI solution:  GRANTA MI generates links between raw data and the results of any analyses that are used within the system.  This automatically ensures the traceability of each and every piece of data in the system – from test machine through to design curve.

“We did an audit of the different databases our engineering groups use for storing materials data.  There were many more than we expected and we didn’t even include the files all the engineers keep on their own computers.  There were some remarkable differences in the data we found and we are now in the process of bringing these different sources of data under our control.  This will allow us to guarantee that all of our groups are using the same set of data.  We have heard some war-stories from other companies where engineers in different groups have used different data for the same materials.  We must not let that happen here – not only would it waste time and cost money, it could harm our reputation and effect us all.”

GRANTA MI solution: Using GRANTA MI, an organization needs only one source of information.  The materials group can control all the data in it and ensure that everyone in the organization uses it correctly.

7. I don’t know how to get my free copy of “Material Intelligence: The Game”.

Enter “game” in the special offer box on our Online Contact Form and get your very own free copy of our amazing new card game Material Intelligence: The Game, created to celebrate the launch of GRANTA MI. 

Inspire colleagues, friends and family, ages 8 to 108, with the joys of materials and their properties.  Printed in brilliant color, the playing cards represent 36 materials, from ABS to Tungsten Alloys.  Players compete by pitting their materials’ attributes against their opponents’.  Boron Carbide beats Oak on Density, but not Electrical Resistivity …  What about Sandstone or PEEK and Fracture Toughness ?