According to Granta, material data is of the utmost importance to automotive engineers. Unfortunately, this data is rarely systematically managed, which leads to inefficient engineering practices, design inconsistencies and even safety risks for end users.
In an attempt to reduce these risks and make the automotive engineering process more efficient, Granta has been working closely with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers through the Automotive Material Intelligence Consortium (AutoMatIC) to build a software-based system that can capture proprietary data associated with welds and joints and make that data searchable and accessible. In fact, industry giants such as GE, Citroën, and Jaguar Land Rover use GRANTA MI to index and categorize their material information.
With GRANTA MI, companies have been able to gain a better understanding of how their materials behave. Whether they’re analyzing crash behavior, analyzing material durability or examining the mechanical properties of a material, engineers who have access to a reliable material data set will be able to come to a better conclusion than those who lack verifiable results.
“It is great to be able to capture the expertise of the consortium in a way that will provide value to all members and to other users of materials information management,” said Dan Williams, consortium coordinator at Granta. “We are meeting the consortium’s goal of supporting the complete material property lifecycle — testing, process qualification, product design, durability, crash simulation — with the right data, for the right people, in the right format.”
In the end, Granta’s new consortium-driven software could help automotive engineers make better decisions about how their products are manufactured. Those decisions could, in turn, make autos more affordable, safer and possibly easier to develop. What automaker wouldn’t like that?