Granta Design recently launched CES Selector, the unique PC-based software for the selection of engineering materials and manufacturing processes. CES Selector helps product designers and manufacturers to avoid cost, innovate, and meet environmental and other regulations. The new CES Selector 2007 version adds capabilities for applications including cost analysis, medical devices, plastics and elastomers, eco-design, and guiding and communicating materials decisions.
CES Selector combines data on the mechanical, physical, economic, and eco-properties of materials with powerful graphical software for analysis and selection developed at Cambridge University and Granta. The 2007 version features new price estimate data for over 3,000 materials, generated using an improved and updated price model. Together with new software features enabling materials to be easily ranked based on ‘cost per unit of function’, this allows users to quickly identify and compare optimal materials for complex
combinations of properties. For example, cost per unit stiffness could be assessed to help choose an appropriate material for a light, cheap panel. CES Selector is ideal for identifying substitute materials - such as a lower-cost grade of plastic, or an alloy with lower nickel content.
New specialist data is also available for medical plastics, thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), and the eco-properties of materials. These allow CES Selector to find the best materials for a medical device or food contact application, to navigate the fast-moving and commercially important field of TPEs, and to estimate
more accurately the environmental impact of product designs.
New communication, usability, and documentation features not only make CES Selector easier to use, but also improve even further its outstanding graphical presentation of analysis results. These graphical capabilities help materials teams or designers wishing to present or discuss selection decisions, as well as materials producers wishing to position products against competitive offerings.
"Manufacturers must make the right choices when selecting or substituting materials. Materials producers need help in positioning their products," says Professor Mike Ashby of Cambridge University and Granta. "With its extensive new data and improved analysis, presentation, and usability, CES Selector offers more help than ever in tackling such commercially significant problems."