The Altair® Material Data Center™ (AMDC) is a comprehensive, cloud-based platform that enables engineers, designers, and analysts efficiently find and use material data for simulation and product development. One of AMDC’s most powerful features is its versatile and intuitive search functionality, allowing users to find materials based on names, specific properties, standards, certifications, processing methods, or even through visual comparison. This flexibility empowers users to identify the most appropriate material quickly - whether it’s for a new design, material substitution, or simulation input.
Here's a quick overview of the main search options in AMDC:
1. Suggested Search
Suggested Search is the simplest and quickest way to start finding materials. It works like a smart search bar - just start typing a material name, keyword, standard, or property, and AMDC will provide autocomplete suggestions.
Use Case:
If you're looking for a specific material like “Steel” or filtering materials that have “Stress-Strain” curves, just start typing, and you'll see relevant matches immediately.
Benefits:
- Fast and intuitive
- Ideal for known materials or broad material classes
- Reduces time spent browsing
Watch Suggested Search in action:
2. Advanced Search
When you need more control over your search criteria, Advanced Search lets you filter materials based on specific properties and ranges, such as:
- Material Properties: Density, Tensile strength, Young’s Modulus, etc.
- Special Characteristics: Heat or flame resistance, impact modified materials, etc.
- Regional Availability: Asia Pacific, Europe, America, Africa
- Manufacturing Methods: Injection molding, blow molding, extrusion, additive manufacturing, etc.
- Material Certifications like RoHS, REACH, FDA, US Pharmacopeia class VI, and many more.
Use Case:
You need a material with an ultimate tensile strength above 450 MPa or a material that is resistant to chemical exposure. Advanced Search makes it easy to narrow down your options.
Benefits:
- Highly customizable
- Enables precise filtering
- Saves time evaluating large datasets
Watch Advanced Search tutorial:
3. Scatter Plot
The Scatter Plot is a powerful visual exploration tool that plots materials based on any two selected properties (X and Y axes). It allows you to interactively identify trends, make trade-offs, and zoom into your area of interest.
Use Case:
You want to compare materials based on stiffness vs. carbon footprint or strength vs. thermal expansion. Scatter Plot allows you to explore this visually and zoom into your area of interest to shortlist materials for your application.
Benefits:
- Intuitive, graphical interface
- Ideal for performance trade-off analysis
- Helps in making data-driven material choices
See Scatter Plot in action:
4. Similar Material Search
Similar Material Search is designed to find alternatives to a known material, based on matching key mechanical, thermal, or electrical properties. It’s ideal for material substitution when availability, cost, or sustainability is a concern.
Use Case:
If your preferred material is discontinued or too expensive, use this feature to discover comparable materials that meet similar performance criteria.
Benefits:
- Rapid identification of equivalent or similar materials
- Supports supply chain flexibility and cost reduction
- Useful in design iteration and risk mitigation
Watch Similar Material Search demo:
Thus, whether you're performing a quick search, conducting a detailed property-based filter, visually exploring trade-offs, or seeking alternative materials, AMDC's search functions - Suggested Search, Advanced Search, Scatter Plot, and Similar Material Search - have you covered. These tools are designed to reduce guesswork, support engineering decisions, and accelerate the product development cycle.
Start exploring smarter material choices with Altair Material Data Center today! To access Altair® Material Data Center™, go to - https://materials.altairone.com/page/landing
