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CES Selector 2008

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Granta announced CES Selector 2008, the latest version of the unique PC software for materials and process selection.

CES Selector has always been the choice of the selection expert. The 2008 version dramatically reinforced its capabilities as a productivity tool for use by any designer or engineer in practical design. And we added new data and tools to address critical business issues such as cost and meeting eco objectives. (Previous version: CES Selector 2007...).

CES Selector 2008 showing graphical selection of performance indices

CES Selector showing the new performance index finder

"What does CES Selector 2008 do for me?"

You	Benefits of CES Selector 2008	Key new features
An expert CES Selector user	Quicker and easier to use – particularly where you need to balance multiple objectives. Get your colleagues using CES Selector and share your ideas and results more easily. Selector can become a group or company resource.	- Performance index finder - Selection reports - Custom subsets - New data - Site licensing
Any designer or engineer	CES Selector is now a productivity tool that can help any designer or engineer - even occasional users. If you've used CES Selector in the past, why not find out how much easier it is to use? If you've never seen CES Selector, now is the time to try it!	- Performance index finder - New data - Site licensing
Interested in eco design	At last – a practical eco design tool! The new Eco Audit Tool allows you to quickly estimate the eco impact of a product at different stages in its lifecycle. Use that information to guide materials selection and substitution.	- Eco Audit Tool - Updated eco data
A medical device designer	CES Selector now offers auditable materials selection for a broad range of materials – find the most appropriate materials for medical or food contact applications, while also reducing cost.	- Improved polymer coverage - New medical materials data - Universe/CAMPUS link
A plastics engineer	The complete polymer selection tool is now even easier to use and with broader coverage than ever	- Transparent plastics & elastomers - Universe/CAMPUS link

New features

Major software enhancements

Performance index finder makes it much easier to optimize materials choice against multiple constraints (on engineering properties, cost, volume, mass etc.) and to set up 'trade-off' studies. The Ashby methods (read more) provide a powerful approach to such materials selection by combining graphical materials selection charts with the ability to plot performance indices that capture optimal combinations of properties. In the past, choosing the right performance index could be a challenge, especially for infrequent users. You needed to look it up in a reference and enter it manually, or work it out for yourself. This process has been greatly simplified, with an easy-to-use graphical user interface (pictured) that enables you to quickly specify your requirements in terms of design function, objectives, and constraints - the system then computes the appropriate performance indices.

Choosing the appropriate performance index in CES Selector

The new performance index finder - a simple pictorial menu

A new reporting tool produces a standard summary of a selection project, which can be saved to PDF format. This enables better communication – it’s quick and easy to share results in hard copy, by e-mail, or online, in a clear format, consistent across different users.

Custom subsets - you can easily define a subset of the CES Selector database on which to perform operations and analysis. Focus your work - e.g., compare cast aluminums and molded polypropylenes for a part design project. Store and share information about which materials are of interest - e.g., the company’s preferred materials list.

Eco design

The new Eco Audit Tool (available with the CES Eco Selector edition) enables a rapid calculation of the approximate energy usage and CO2 emission in each phase of a proposed product's lifecycle. Quickly assess a design for environmental impact and then use CES Selector to choose alternative materials and processes that reduce the environmental impact. This rapid, practical tool allows organizations to consider this impact early in the design process - where changes are easiest to make and can have the greatest effect.

New eco data supports this new tool and the use of CES Selector. Enhanced information within the MaterialUniverse module includes energy and CO2 footprint of materials, their processing, and data on their recycling.

CES Medical Selector

CES Selector 2007 introduced rational polymer selection for medical product design, allowing regulatory approval status and medically-relevant properties such as sterilizability to be considered alongside standard engineering, economic, and environmental data. CES Selector 2008 extends this coverage to additional materials classes.

Improved polymer coverage - new data on elastomers and transparent plastics. The medical materials data, which covers generic grades of plastics, is now linked directly to similar specific grades in the CAMPUS plastics database. You can quickly move from a screening study designed to find the appropriate material type into detailed analysis of particular grades and suppliers.

New coverage of medical metals and ceramics - identify metals and ceramics that are available in medical or food contact grades, investigate properties that are important in medical applications (sterilizability, durability to chemicals, permeability), reduce and avoid cost.

New medically-relevant properties - radiopacity and MRI safety.

New data

In addition to the new medical and eco property data outlined above, the following data is new and available in the MaterialUniverse data module (part of the CES Selector Basic Edition):

Transparent plastics and elastomers data
Stainless alloys data
Updated price estimates for over 3,000 materials

Other new features

Improved presentation, including the ability to choose colors to highlight materials or groups of materials on a chart.

Usability - following user feedback, datasheets now show all data by default, avoiding problems with data inadvertently hidden by presentation templates. Tabbing of Selector Windows also makes the software easier to use.

Linking of the MaterialUniverse and CAMPUS data modules - records for generic materials types in the Granta MaterialUniverse data module are now linked to similar materials in the CAMPUS plastics database. You can quickly move from a screening study designed to find the appropriate material type into detailed analysis of specific grades and suppliers.

New licensing and training options

CES Selector 2008 increases the value and relevance of the CES Selector product line for materials analysis and decision-making in industry. To support users who may wish to extend their use of the software, and based on feedback from such users, Granta is offering new site-licensing options. These include the ability to install the software across a whole site in a cost-effective manner, including flexibility for home-working and travel. Because you can open up access to more people in your organization, this option also makes it easier for users who want to trial CES Selector, or only need to use it occasionally. A new training package is designed to enable rapid start-up with the software, focused on solving real problems of industrial relevance.