Cambridge, UK—Mar 30, 2011

New Granta Software Aids Composite Testing and Product Design, Supports Development of Composite Materials

Granta Design, the leaders in materials information technology, announced new software and data for composite materials at this week’s JEC Composites Show in Paris.  The updated GRANTA MI composite data management solution reduces risk in the engineering process and maximizes returns from composite knowledge. New tools in the CES Selector software help composite users to choose the right materials and support composite producers in developing and marketing their product lines.

Hybrid Synthesizer results—predicting properties for a range of aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels.

The new GRANTA MI:Composites Package brings together the tools for best-practice composite data management in research, testing, QA, and design. The data needed to characterize composites can be captured, automatically linked to related data, and easily tracked, accessed, and applied. Alongside in-house data, users can access composite reference data from the respected AGATE, NCAMP, and CMH-17 projects. The results are: substantial time savings for materials engineers, who no longer need to hunt for data or repeat tests; more effective use of corporate knowledge; and less risk through the use of accurate, up-to-date data in design.

The CES Selector software offers a new Hybrid Synthesizer tool, which predicts the properties of sandwich panels, foams, lattices, and composites. Clear graphical property maps make it easy to compare these materials with other options. So designers can investigate the benefits of hybrid structures, focusing development of lightweight products on the most productive routes. Materials producers can compare their current or potential materials with the wider materials market. This guides materials development and helps technical marketing teams to communicate the benefits of their products.

This full range of software for composites will be demonstrated at a series of web seminars during April—see details.

“The JEC Composites Show is always a great opportunity to meet with some of our many friends in the composite community,” said Dr. Patrick Coulter, chief operating officer at Granta Design. “We’re pleased that, as in previous years, we are able to demonstrate enhancements to our support for both composite users and producers, developed in collaboration with our composite-focused customers.”

Composite materials are important across sectors including aerospace, wind power, automotive, marine, construction, and sports equipment. Through novel material combinations and structures, composites can provide enhanced materials performance—for example, combining strength with low weight. But engineers must navigate a complicated range of materials options in order to find suitable composites. And, because performance is very dependent on factors such as processing and component geometry, these materials require rigorous testing and validation. This creates a need to capture and analyze large amounts of specialist inter-related data. Granta software helps engineers to manage this data and use it in making more effective decisions relating to composites.

Further information

Media are welcome to contact Granta if they wish to organize a demonstration or review of Granta software.

Granta Design website—www.grantadesign.com

Granta web seminars—www.grantadesign.com/webseminars/

Supporting images—www.grantadesign.com/news/media.htm

Granta at the JEC Show, Paris—Booth J65.