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A cAse study of best prActice in the integrAtion of mAteriAls technology And design to improve innovAtion

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Granta Design creates software tools,

databases and visual aids to help

engineers and designers more easily

access and apply information about

material properties, including their

environmental impact. With its origins

in research and a pioneering materials

education programme at Cambridge

University, Granta is an active partner in

several international research consortia

which aim to improve the choice and use

of materials in manufacturing, as this

InnoMatNet case study demonstrates.

Consortium

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best prActice in mAteriAls And design best prActice in mAteriAls And design

“We’d like to see more creative thinking

about materials across the educational

spectrum, and industry thinking about

materials and eco design issues earlier in

the design process.”

Jamie o’Hare, Granta Design

uniVersity oriGinsGranta Design was founded in 1994 by

well-known authorities on materials

selection Professor Mike Ashby and

Professor David Cebon, as a commercial

company spin-off from the Engineering

Department at the University of

Cambridge, UK.

They had developed interesting ways

of collecting, presenting and analysing

materials data as part of their research

and of educating materials science and

engineering students to select the best

material for a given application.

Mike Ashby

David Cebon

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Their methods included graphical

methods – widely known as Ashby Charts

– and accompanying software, and over

time they realised these might have an

industrial as well as educational market

beyond the university.

The fundamental idea is unchanged in

products such as CES EduPack™ (which

provides resources to support materials

education across science, engineering,

processing, and design) and CES

Selector™ (a PC application that enables

materials experts in product development

teams to find, explore, and apply

materials property data). But now there is

more data, better graphics, and improved

tools to interact with and apply the

material properties graphs. For example,

the Eco Audit™ Tool enables a user to

predict the energy usage of a given

product over its lifetime, by specifying the

materials used to make the product, their

weights and finishing processes.

Granta has also developed the GRANTA

MI™ product line, responding to industry

demand for tools to help manage

corporate materials data.

An Ashby Chart, providing a highly

visual means of assessing the properties

of different classes of materials, and

providing guidance, in this case, for

minimum energy design

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For an educator, it is useful to be able to

produce graphs and reports and allow

students to explore “what-if” scenarios.

Working with CES Selector, a practising

designer or engineer might use these

graphing tools – or similar reports which

Granta’s software can make available

within CAD – to help think through which

would be the best material for a specific

application, taking its environmental

impact as well as material performance

and cost into account.

Much of the company’s evolution has

been due to feedback from customers

regarding usability and specific

technology requirements. Granta actively

encourages this collaborative dialogue,

particularly through its regular industry

consortium meetings. This translates into

tools that are designed to be easy for

clients to apply themselves, rather than

having to buy-in expertise to apply them.

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Granta’s CES EduPackTM provides world

leading teaching resources for materials

in engineering, science, processing,

and design, supporting and enhancing

teaching at over 800 universities and

colleges worldwide

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best prActice in mAteriAls And design

GroWtH oF inDustry serViCesSignificant commercial growth started in

2000 as a result of three developments:

1. The addition of business

entrepreneur Patrick Coulter as Chief

Operating Officer, who had a track

record of success with science based

start-ups and could focus on Granta’s

commercial growth.

2. Increased international profile via

collaboration with US materials

engineering society ASM International,

which invested in Granta in order to

offer their 30,000 members online

access to specialist materials data.

Patrick Coulter

3. Discussions with aerospace

organisations which revealed an

opportunity to build software to help

them manage, track, and apply the

huge volumes of materials test data

they were generating. Granta saw that

their biggest opportunities came from

the most material intensive industries,

with the most demanding applications

of those materials e.g. in aerospace.

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Consortium aPProaCH 1 Materials Data ManagementFrom these activities it became clear

that a collaborative, consortium-based

approach would be valuable, both to

Granta and its clients. As a result the

Material Data Management Consortium

(MDMC) and a significant materials data

product – GRANTA MI™ – were formed.

Roles were divided between Granta as

software developer, ASM International

as co-ordinator, and aerospace

companies including NASA, Boeing and

Rolls Royce as ‘problem owners’ and

member-funders.

GRANTA MI grew to become a

comprehensive data facility for

companies needing to effectively and

securely manage and apply in-house

data. It also enabled them to access

materials data from Granta itself, as well

as from other licensed sources.

A key benefit of this approach was that

consortium members could make their

expensively generated data significantly

more accessible to in-house engineers

and design teams, as well as others

who needed to understand and use it,

maintaining full traceability.

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Consortium aPProaCH 2 Eco Data ToolsIn recent years Granta has experienced

increasing demand for additional tools

to assess environmental performance

and to inform complex material

choices. By narrowing down materials

options and considering environmental

performance and risk earlier in the

design process, companies are finding

they can save time and avoid having

to substitute materials that lead to

unsustainable outcomes or regulatory

problems later in development.

This demand led to the formation of a

second, parallel consortium in 2008 - the

Environmental Materials Information

Technology (EMIT). This focuses on issues

such as restricted substance use, critical

or scarce materials, and energy/CO2

impact. Like the MDMC, this consortium

seeks to have a practical impact on how

companies design and engineer products

in relation to eco issues.

EMIT consortium meetings are used to:

• Gather feedback on the tools that

members are already using.

• Share insights into emerging

environmental legislation (e.g. REACH).

• Help define requirements for future

software features and data sets which

can produce useful tools and guidance.

Eco Materials Adviser: providing

materials data and eco design tools in

Autodesk Inventor

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PartiCiPation in GOVERNMENT-FunDeD researCH ProJeCtsGranta have worked on several

government funded research programmes

which succeeded because they combined

a collaborative approach with a specific

purpose and industry input.

One such project focused on improving

the environmental impact of Rolls

Royce’s next generation aircraft engine.

Granta were invited to participate as

a result of their existing consortium

collaborations with Rolls Royce.

Their role was to explore tools for

assessing the business risks associated

with product design and alternative

engine technologies. Drawing on their

expertise in assessing environmental

impact and reporting on restricted

substances, they were able to develop

critical materials tools which could

be embedded within a Computer

Aided Design (CAD) environment.

These generate risk reports on energy

emissions, restricted substances and critical materials content to feed into corporate risk management systems.

Key to the success of Granta’s approach was detailed understanding of the early stages of the design process, and interpretation of the underlying needs of design teams and engineers as part of creating suitable tools for them.

They also produced a case study documenting key lessons and areas of improvement arising from the project.

The benefits of participation included:

• Exposure to current and potential industry partners

• Invitations to join industry advisory bodies such as the Design for Environment Working Group which is developing common metrics to enable environmental impact comparisons to be made across

different products.

• Ongoing dialogue with government

agencies such as DEFRA on critical

raw materials, with the possibility

of case studies being published in

the public domain.

• Development of software capability

resulting in new data products.

• Product feedback informing

next generation software tool

development.

• Learnings from the working group

were fed back into Granta’s

industry consortia, creating new

collaborative opportunities.

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suPPortinG a WiDe ranGe oF inDustries While Granta’s industry tools were

originally developed with input from

consortia members in aerospace, defence

and heavy industry manufacturing, they

have discovered that its systems work

equally well managing textiles, plastics,

or other materials data used across a

wide range of industries.

By implementing best practice materials

data management, these companies

ensure information can be traced

to its original source, saving time

and improving quality in materials

engineering. Granta’s materials decision

support tools allow engineers and

product design teams to select and

substitute materials, optimizing product

cost and performance.

Integrating these tools with Computer

Aided Design (CAD) software provides

quick and easy access to up-to-date

materials information, as well as reports

on environmental impact, restricted

substances, etc., helping designers take

such factors into account when they’re

developing products.

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Granta’s inVoLVement WitH materiaLs eDuCation Alongside Granta’s commercial success,

the company has maintained a strong

tradition of supporting materials

education. Granta’s educational product,

CES EduPack, is designed to support

and enhance existing university-level

teaching. It provides a comprehensive

database of materials and process

information, powerful and highly visual

materials software tools, and a range of

supporting textbooks, lectures, projects,

and exercises, forming a curriculum-

wide resource.

The company values its many

connections with university academics,

which they feel have potential to

influence the engineering and creative

industries longer-term.

To facilitate this, Granta get involved in

the annual Materials Education Symposia

(www.materials-education.com), at

which educators gather to discuss

undergraduate teaching about materials

within engineering, design, architecture,

sustainability, and other science subjects.

For example, at the 2012 event there

was a particular interest in encouraging

students of industrial design – who

may not have a very strong mechanical

engineering or materials background

– to think in a more structured and

quantitative way about the justification

for materials choices – whether based

on aesthetics, sound qualities or

environmental impact.

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best prActice in mAteriAls And designbest prActice in mAteriAls And design

Granta DesiGn’s innoVation WisH List Education• Granta staff believe that any

initiatives which promote the cross-

disciplinary inclusion of materials,

manufacturing and related issues

in university level education – from

industrial design to aerospace

engineering – will be highly beneficial.

• This should be extended to educating

designers and manufacturers about

the lifecycle of products, including

how products are disassembled, what

happens to the materials involved,

and how best to retain value in

materials at end of life.

Collaboration• They see the benefits of a greater

emphasis on materials knowledge

being shared in a more collaborative

manner. There is a key role for

the UK Government’s Technology

Strategy Board and its Knowledge

Transfer Networks to facilitate

dialogue and research, e.g. through

feasibility calls.

Eco awareness• Industry should continue thinking

about how it can respond to drivers

like environmental objectives early

in design, thereby reducing cost

and environmental impact when it’s

easiest to do so.

Practical tools• There also needs to be a focus on

practical tools to help people in their

day to day work – enabling them

to quickly make informed decisions

about the environmental impact of

materials, based on quantitative data,

as well as other design criteria.

• There needs to be a cultural change

from reporting on eco performance

towards being more proactive about

it during the design process.

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tHe FoLLoWinG Granta staFF Were interVieWeD For tHis Case stuDy:James Goddin James’ early interest in armoury and

forging fencing blades led him to study

materials science and engineering at the

University of Bath, specialising in electric

chemistry corrosion for his PhD. After

graduation he worked for 10 years in a

construction industry research company,

gaining a strong interest in innovation,

intellectual property and collaborative

research. He joined Granta in 2009,

enjoying the opportunity to collaborate

with a wide range of end users in

stimulating materials R&D.

Jamie O’HareJamie studied Mechanical Engineering at

Bath University, and completed a PhD in

eco-design and product development for

the electronics sector. He joined Granta

in 2010, having realised the critical

environmental impact that material

choice has in design, e.g. on product

mass, temperature performance and

hazard reduction. This coincided with

emerging commercial industrial interest

in the connection between materials

and environmental properties, and the

growing need for research data to inform

decision-making.

Stephen Warde Steve first encountered materials science

at Cambridge University where he

enjoyed its practical focus and the sense

of dealing with how things get made

and work. He then spent 15 years at a

Cambridge spin-out company working

on computer modelling of materials at

atomic level, to improve the productivity

of scientific research. Steve joined Granta

Design in 2006, attracted by its materials

focus and vision, and strong connection

to Cambridge University.

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Best practice in materials and design Best practice in materials and design

DisCLaimerThis report forms part of the

deliverables from the InnoMatNet

project which has received funding from

the European Commission’s Seventh

Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013

under grant agreement n° 290583. The

report reflects only the authors’ views

and the European Commission is not

liable for any use that might be made of

the content of this publication.

The project runs from the 1 April 2012

to 30 September 2014. It involves

eleven partners and is coordinated by

Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI).

More information on the project can be

found at www.innomatnet.eu

The lead contractor for the case studies

was InnoMatNet consortium partner

the Institute of Materials, Minerals

and Mining, with delivery through

the Materials and Design Exchange

(MaDE), a group within the UK Materials

Knowledge Transfer Network.

www.iom3.org.uk

www.materialsktn.net/made

© innomatnet 2013 Images pp. 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21 ©Granta Design 2013.

aCKnoWLeDGementsWe are grateful to the following individuals and organisations for their contribution to the InnoMatNet case studies: James Goddin, Granta Design Jamie o’Hare, Granta Design stephen Warde, Granta Design

Case study suggestions taken from the InnoMatNet survey. Reviewed by: Claire Claessen and John Conti-Ramsden, Chemistry Innovation KTNJohn Bound, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (MaDE, Materials KTN)

Research & editing: John Bound, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (MaDE, Materials KTN)

Graphic design: Lara Collins, The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining

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Best practice in materials and design

ContaCt

Granta Design Limited

rustat house

62 Clifton Road

Cambridge, CB1 7EG

t +44 (0)1223 518895

www.grantadesign.com

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