MaterialUniverse
| What is it? | Engineering, economic, and environmental property profiles designed for like-to-like comparisons across the whole spectrum of material and processing possibilities |
| What is in it? | 3,500 records providing physical, cost, mechanical, thermal, electrical, optical, durability, environmental data on virtually all purchasable engineering materials, plus extensive data on 240 processes |
| What is it used for? | Comparison, selection, and substitution of materials |
| Where does it come from? | Compiled and maintained by Granta Design—reference sources are provided as part of the data set |
| How can I access it? | Available within the GRANTA MI or CES Selector software. Access within CAD or CAE software using MI:Materials Gateway or GRANTA MI export capabilities |
Description
MaterialUniverse is an outstanding resource for materials scientists and engineers. In a searchable electronic format it contains 3,500 unique data records covering virtually all purchasable engineering materials and 240 records covering related processes.
Materials records cover the full range of materials classes (see image, right). Each record has more than eighty general, mechanical, thermal, optical, electrical, environmental, economic, corrosion, and other properties. Process records cover the physical and economic attributes of forming, finishing, joining, and surface treatment processes.
A key feature of MaterialUniverse is that there are no 'holes' in the data. Where a property is not known experimentally, it is estimated using well-established methods (and the fact that it is estimated is clearly indicated in to the user). Because every record is complete, users can seek candidate materials for their design applications without the risk that good candidates will be excluded simply because of missing data.
Other key design principles of the MaterialUniverse data are:
- A complete spectrum of materials is represented
- Each material is represented only once—representative records combine data from different suppliers
- The range of possible properties for a material is captured
- Quality checking procedures help to minimize data errors
- Properties are normalized to the user's choice of unit systems
- A carefully-constructed record hierarchy aids navigation
Read more about these design principles »
Finally, because MaterialUniverse provides not only engineering properties, but also price and environmental properties, it offers the range of data required to support practical materials decisions. MaterialUniverse helps you to explore the complete 'universe' of materials possibility before focusing more detailed analysis on the most promising options.
Viewing MaterialUniverse data within the CES Selector software. Click for a larger screenshot.
Data can also be accessed via the GRANTA MI web browser interface.
What data is included?
Materials records contain data in each of the following categories:
Category |
Example properties |
General |
Includes tradenames, price, density... |
Composition |
% composition, information on base material, filler... |
Mechanical properties |
Young's modulus,
Compressive modulus,
Flexural modulus,
Shear modulus,
Bulk modulus,
Poisson's ratio,
Yield strength,
Tensile strength... |
Impact properties |
Impact strength, notched and unnotched... |
Thermal properties |
Melting point, Glass temperature, Heat deflection temperature, Thermal conductivity... |
Processing properties |
Melt temperature, Mold temperature... |
Electrical properties |
Resistivity, Dielectric constant, Dissipation factor... |
Bio-data |
Information on toxicity, RoHS compliance... |
Optical properties |
Transparancy, Refractive index... |
Absorption, permeability |
Water absorption, Permeability (O2, CO2, N2)... |
Durability |
Flammability, Fluids & sunlight, Chemical resistance |
Geo-economic data |
Ore grades, Abundance, Annual world production... |
Eco properties |
Material production energy, CO2 footprint, recyclability... (more on eco properties ») |
Application information |
Notes include typical uses for the material |
Within specific material classes—metals, polymers, woods, ceramics, magnetic materials, tool steels, and foams—certain additional class-specific properties are listed for each record.
Process records contain information including:
- A process description and schematic (such as that shown, right)
- The materials types and geometries to which the process can be applied
- Process characteristics
- Costs (including models of how cost varies with key parameters)
The generic level at which processes are described means that the ProcessUniverse is ideally suited to early-stage design, redesign, and innovation projects where a change of process can drive dramatic cost reductions.
More on some specific applications
| Application | Data | More infomation |
| Eco design | More information » | |
| Medical devices | An extended Medical MaterialUniverse is available providing additional properties and information that help you to design medical or food contact products, devices, and supplies. | More information » |
| Plastics selection | MaterialUniverse data is typically used during initial screening and selection, with final selection drawing on the more detailed information about specific grades available in modules such as CAMPUS and IDES. Find out more about applying this data to polymer selection on the CES Polymer Selector pages. | CES Polymer Selector » |
| Elastomers | MaterialUniverse provides comprehensive coverage of rubbers and thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs). | More information » |
| Transparent plastics | These are important for both functional and aesthetic reasons, but their use has some specific problems. MaterialUniverse helps. | More information » |
| Stainless alloys | Over 300 alloy compositions and conditions for Austenitic, Ferritic, Martensitic, Duplex, and Precipitation hardened stainless steels plus Nickel alloys | More information » |
Accessing MaterialUniverse data
GRANTA MI—MaterialUniverse is available as a data module within the GRANTA MI materials information management system, providing quick and easy web browser-based access to the data.
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) software—by hosting the data within your GRANTA MI system, you can make it easily accessible within your CAD or CAE software. You can export the data for use within applications such as Abaqus, ANSYS Workbench, CATIA, Creo Elements/Pro, MatML, Nastran, Patran, or Pro/ENGINEER. Through GRANTA MI:Materials Gateway, you can access MaterialUniverse data directly within applications including Abaqus/CAE, Pro/ENGINEER, Creo Elements/Pro, and Autodesk Inventor.
CES Selector—browse, search, and plot data using the CES Selector decision-support tools. MaterialUniverse is designed to support the systematic selection methodology provided within CES Selector.
Recent news
The following updates are available with GRANTA MI Version 6 and CES Selector 2013:
- New equivalency / designation fields make it easier to identify and find substitute materials across different designation systems
- Revised, more informative, tree structure for metals makes it easier to find the information you need
- 59 new wrought Al records (11 alloys + tempers)
- 9 new cast Mg alloys (AE, AJ, Elektron)
- 6 new steels (2 HSLA, 3 boron press hardened, 1 structural steel)
- 14 new GFRP records (8 polyester, 6 polyamide based)
- 9 new fillers (8 particulates + basalt fiber)
- New data on ‘Electrical components’, increasing the number from 22 to 43
You can also take advantage of the links to MaterialUniverse from the new Critical Materials Data Module to analyze materials supply chain risk.
Support for education
This data can also be accessed via the Level 3 database in CES EduPack for educational purposes. More »