CES Selector (Basic Edition)

The core functionality of CES Selector, made available in the Basic Edition package, is described below. Specialist editions combine these core features with targeted data:

• CES Polymer Selector for plastics and thermoplastic elastomers
• CES Medical Selector for medical device design
• CES Aero Selector for high-performance engineering

You can also add the following tools:

• Eco Audit Tool for eco design
• Hybrid Synthesizer for lightweight materials and structures
• CES Constructor to add and edit data

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What is CES Selector?

CES Selector is a powerful software package that runs on your desktop PC. It combines information on materials and process properties with a series of powerful tools for browsing and searching that information, and for using it to compare and select materials.

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Basic Edition MaterialUniverse data

At the heart of every CES Selector implementation is a database of materials and process properties. The Basic Edition database contains the MaterialUniverse data module, which provides property data for virtually every purchasable engineering material. The strength of this data is that it contains no 'holes'—property values are either populated with known, referenced data or with values estimated using Granta technology. You can screen the complete 'universe' of potential candidate materials for your application, without excluding the many materials for which you may not have complete data.

MaterialUniverse contains extensive engineering property, economic, and environmental data, making it ideal for materials selection, cost optimization, and eco design.

More on the MaterialUniverse data module »

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Basic Edition software tools

Browse and search materials information

CES Selector provides a range of tools to let you browse and search materials information. You can locate the materials or processes that interest you in simple-to-use tree hierarchy (left hand panel in image below). Material or process records store property data as text, as single numbers, as a range of numbers, or even as functional data—e.g., a graph showing the temperature dependance of Young's Modulus. With Search, you can find materials and processes by name, trade name, application, or other key words.

Viewing the MaterialUniverse data module within CES Selector

CES Selector provides a quick and intuitive environment to explore the extensive materials information resources available in the MaterialUniverse data and other Granta data modules.

Plotting and comparison

CES Selector provides a range of tools for plotting and comparing materials data. New in CES Selector 2012 are comparison tables—these are quick and simple to create, enabling side-by-side comparison of material datasheets. If a reference material is defined, then key differences in performance between this material and others in the table are highlighted, making it easier to avoid problems when seeking replacements for a specific material.

CES Selector comparison table showing three grades of plastic from the CAMPUS data module.
The left-hand column ("Bayblend") has been specified as a reference material.
The user can quickly see similarities and differences (differences greater than 10% are highlighted).

CES Selector makes it simple to create materials property charts (also known as Ashby charts). These plot one property, or a combination of properties, against another. Every material in the database is shown as a point or (more typically) as an ellipse representing the range of its possible values (see the example below). You can plot any combination of properties and, because the system handles functional data that define how a property varies with a parameter such as temperature, you can even generate different plots for different operating conditions. You can interact with the charts, creating a powerful tool for exploring and using materials property data. For example, you can define a reference material and see which other materials might be a suitable replacement or substitute for that material based on the properties required for your application.

Rational materials selection

Additionally, CES Selector (Basic Edition) provides unique tools that support a systematic approach to materials selection. A simple form makes it simple to specify constraints on your materials choice—simple, but powerful, since you can combine limits on any of hundreds of mechanical, thermal, electrical, optical, durability, environmental, cost, processing, and other properties in order to focus your choice. For the remaining materials, you can then use materials property charts to explore the trade-offs between your design objectives.

Materials selection charts in CES Selector—each elipse represents the range of possible values for one material

A valuable concept is the 'performance index'. The index describes the relationship between properties that gives the best performance for a specific application—for example, maximizing the value of E^(1/3)/r optimizes mass for a given stiffness for a panel in bending. Fortunately, with CES Selector you don't have to learn these performance indices! You can identify the right index using a simple graphical selection menu (below). For more advanced use, you can define your own index. You can then plot performance indices on a materials property chart in order to identify the best candidate materials for your application. Plot a different index on each axis of your chart and consider trade-offs—for example, between weight and cost, or volume and CO₂ footprint.

The Performance Index Finder is a graphical tool that helps you to specify your design application

The charts not only help to find and rank candidate materials, they also help you to fully understand the relative performance of materials, and to explore alternatives that may be screened out by a less nuanced numerical analysis. Finally, selection charts help you to present your results with clarity and authority to colleagues or customers.

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Business impact

With CES Selector you can quickly analyze any combination of any properties, for any material, under any conditions, and interact easily with the results. So it becomes very simple to ask, and answer, questions like "What materials will perform the same job at lower cost?", "Which materials minimize environmental impact?", or "What alternative materials are available that might meet these new regulations?".

CES Selector is a valuable tool for businesses that need to make materials decisions in design and manufacturing, particularly where those decisions involve selection or substitution. The benefits of applying the Selector method can range from quickly making simple design decisions, such as replacing an existing grade of polymer with a cheaper option, to creative leaps, such as realizing that a composite could be used to replace a metal, at a fraction of the weight.

Find out what's new in the latest CES Selector release »