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GRANTA MI:Server

GRANTA MI:Server is the heart of GRANTA MI, providing its database system, which is installed on a server for enterprise network or web access. The database is explicitly designed to manage specialist materials and process information. MI:Server is the vital enabling technology for all of the benefits available from GRANTA MI - improved productivity, enhanced innovation and quality, and lower risk in your engineering process.

MI:Server provides your corporate materials database. You use the import, export, and editing tools of GRANTA MI:Viewer and GRANTA MI:Toolbox to populate and maintain this database with your organization's proprietary information. Alternatively, you can purchase data products from Granta for use within the database. Or you can use your GRANTA MI installation to host both internal data and external reference information.

GRANTA MI databases are used to store technical, economic, and environmental materials information. Examples include:

Data for materials testing, engineering design, and all points between - i.e., raw test data, reduced data, design data, specifications data
Materials property references - a 'read only' option means GRANTA MI can, if desired, simply be used to provide convenient, shared access to such data
Information for business decision support - e.g., databases of restricted substances or of your company's approved / preferred materials

Support for the complexity of materials data

Why do you need a specialist database for materials information? A feature of this information is its diversity and complexity. MI:Server supports a wide range of data types, some of which are specific to materials engineering. Examples include:

Single-point data - for simple property values
Graphs, gridded data, series data - for ranges of data
Multi-dimensional data with many variables - vital for materials information management enabling, for example, capture of stress-strain curves for a material at multiple temperatures
Equations and logic (NEW IN GRANTA MI 3.0) - allowing data to be determined automatically by applying stored expressions or logical statements. This enables: automatic calculation properties based on other data stored in the database; storage and use of complex materials models (or 'math functional data'); plotting of design curves based on these models; and use of logic within datasheets
Text, documents, and media files - allows capture of the full context for your materials information: photomicrographs, PDF copies of source documents, movies recording mechanical tests, etc...
Units systems - allows you to store, and switch between data represented in US, Metric, SI, Imperial, and other systems

Multi-dimensional materials property data from the MMPDS aerospace materials data set
- stored in a GRANTA MI database and displayed via MI:Viewer (click for larger image)

An example dataset handled by GRANTA MI describes several thousand materials, each having thousands of associated fatigue curves with multiple r-ratios, frequencies, and temperatures. Generic information systems, and even most materials databases, simply cannot manage the full complexity of specialist data such as this.

Enterprise data management features

MI:Server is a robust, mature system, designed for enterprise use. To maximize its value in corporate engineering environments a materials database needs to meet a range of requirements and policies relating to security, auditability of data, management of changing data, and the 'maintainability' of the system. In some highly-regulated, security-conscious, or safety-critical environments, such a system cannot even be installed unless it addresses these issues.

MI:Server provides the only materials database system that supports all of the following enterprise materials data management features:

Meta-data - enables capture of the relationships and context for items of data
Traceability - records and links to the pedigree for materials information; retains links as data changes; provides 'smart' features to enable automatic linking of related objects
Authentication & security auditing - controls access to valuable corporate data
Version control - ensures control and recording of changing information
Data quality ratings - ensures data is used for appropriate applications
Customization to your requirements - see MI:Admin for more information
Integration with other software - read more on MI:Materials Gateway for accessing materials data within CAD, CAE, and PLM software, and MI:API for integrating your own applications into GRANTA MI

For a more detailed discussion of the requirements for materials data management, and how GRANTA MI meets them, download our Technical Paper "Meeting the Materials Data Management Needs of Engineering Enterprises" >>>