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Consortium News

April 2010

New composites technical paper

A new technical paper on Data Management for Composite Materials has been written by Granta, drawing on experience gained from working with the MDMC Composite Sub-Committee.

Download (Granta website) >>>

January 2010

ARL joins MDMC as Raytheon hosts latest meeting

The Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) held its 15th meeting, hosted by Raytheon in Tucson, AZ, during January. The US Army Research Labs were welcomed as the latest participant, swelling the membership to eighteen leading aerospace, defense, and energy enterprises.

The meeting was the first to use the new process for input to GRANTA MI development - helping to ensure greater clarity in this long-term, on-going development program. A key focus was on further increasing usability, sharing practical ideas to ease access to key data and tools for the widening user community of engineers and designers. There was also a chance to review developments based on input at previous meetings, now implemented in version 3.1 of GRANTA MI. These include advanced features for handling tabular data - for example, in importing such data, and in display of summary tables that update automatically when records in a materials property database are modified.

Full report (Granta website) >>>

August 2009

Consortium meets at Boeing - GRANTA MI 3.0 demonstrated

The Consortium met for its 14th meeting in Seattle. Discussions included a new process for reviewing and prioritizing development work at Consortium meetings, prioritization of future work, and a review of the latest GRANTA MI developments

Latest GRANTA MI news (Granta website) >>>

February 2009

Environmental materials Consortium to meet at Rolls-Royce in April

MDMC members are reminded that they are entitled to attend meetings of the complementary Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium, with observer status. The EMIT Consortium is developing software and information resources to enable eco design and response to environmental regulations. It is particularly relevant to MDMC members through its work on restricted substances policies and regulations (such as REACH), which are an area of major concern for aerospace and defense organizations.

The next EMIT Consotium Meeting is at Rolls-Royce, Derby, UK, April 20-22

EMIT Consortium information >>>

January 2009

Consortium meets at NASA - next meeting set for Seattle

The thirteenth meeting of the Material Data Management Consortium was held at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL this month. Members from over a dozen leading aerospace, defense, and energy enterprises again gathered to review progress in developing the GRANTA MI materials information management system, to discuss their implementations, and to provide guidance to Granta for future developments of the system. Among the developments reviewed were:

A new comprehensive search capability combining numerical criteria and free format text
A new database schema to support composite data management
New analysis capabilities for materials models

These will be available to all GRANTA MI users in version 3.0 of the software, due for release later this year.

Another theme was the value of effective materials data management across functions within member organizations. A number of interesting examples described how creating a high quality, controlled source of corporate materials data using GRANTA MI had resulted in unexpected applications beyond the materials and engineering groups - for example, in informing purchasing.

The next meeting will be held at Boeing, Seattle, in August.

November 2008

January meeting confirmed for Huntsville, AL

The next MDMC meeting will take place in Huntsville, AL, from January 13-15, 2009.

The meeting will be hosted by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Details are currently being circulated to member organizations.

August 2008

MDMC holds first European meeting

The Material Data Management Consortium held its twelfth meeting in August, the first at a European venue. A positive and successful three-day session was held at Queens' College, Cambridge. Member and observer organizations included AWE, Boeing, Honda Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace, Los Alamos National Labs, NASA, Raytheon, Rolls-Royce, and the US Navy. Attendees discussed recent and upcoming developments to the GRANTA MI system including:

New technology to manipulate and view complex multi-dimensional data
Sophisticated new querying tools that make it much easier to find materials based on combinations of structured property data and information about the material stored in free text, or related documents
An enhanced user interface and integration to computer aided engineering software

Archive of meeting information >>>

July 2008

New Eco Consortium launched

Granta Design has announced the launch of the new Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium. Modeled on the successful MDMC template, the EMIT Consortium will focus on the application of materials information technology to aid eco design and compliance with environmental regulations. The work of the MDMC and EMIT will be closely coordinated. Founder members of EMIT include Rolls-Royce and NASA, both members of the MDMC. An invitation is extended to MDMC members to attend any EMIT Consortium meeting as observers. Updates on new eco design technology of relevance to members will be provided at each MDMC meeting.

More at Granta's website >>>

April 2008

Next meeting confirmed for Cambridge

The next MDMC Meeting will be the first to be held in Europe! Granta Design and Cambridge University look forward to welcoming members in August.

Dates: August 6-8

Venue: Queens' College, Cambridge

Full event information >>>

March 2008

GRANTA MI 2.0 released

The latest version of GRANTA MI introduces the next generation of materials information management. Version 2.0 includes new version control and data quality ratings features, prioritized by the Material Data Management Consortium. These reinforce GRANTA MI as the industry standard for managing materials data. They help organizations to control their ever-changing materials information more effectively and to apply it accurately

Further information on the Granta website >>>

January 2008

Rolls-Royce case study is seminar highlight

Thirty attendees from industries including aerospace, energy, marine, and automotive joined Granta for a one-day event exploring materials information problems in the engineering process, and information technology to aid their solution. The event was held at Brooklands Museum, 20 miles west of London, site of the world's first purpose-built motor racing track and the location of many pioneering feats of aviation.

The highlight of the discussions among today's engineering innovators was a talk from Dr Malcolm Thomas, Materials Fellow and a former Director of Materials and Mechanical Behavior at Rolls-Royce. Dr Thomas described a major project to introduce an integrated materials property data management system at Rolls-Royce, based on the GRANTA MI software. His talk outlined some of the major issues faced in such an exercise, and how they are being addressed.

More at grantadesign.com >>>

January 2008

Raytheon joins the Material Data Management Consortium

The Eleventh Material Data Management Consortium Meeting was held in Greenville, SC, January 15-17. The Consortium meeting, hosted by GE - Energy, welcomed Raytheon as the newest member organization. The meeting reviewed the upcoming GRANTA MI 2.0 release and prioritized development work for future releases. An accompanying seminar provided a venue for non-members to hear about the work of the Consortium and meet members, including NASA and Rolls-Royce, who presented on their use of materials information technology.

November 2007

MDMC meeting and US, UK seminar details announced

Granta Design is organizing two seminars on the topic "Materials Information - Using it to Enhance Innovation, Increase Productivity, and Reduce Risk" during January. These will be held at:

Jan 17th - Embassy Suites Hotel, Greenville, SC, USA; Guest speaker from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Jan 29th - Brooklands Motorsports & Aviation Museum, Weybridge, UK; Guest speaker Dr Malcolm Thomas, Rolls-Royce

The first seminar coincides with the eleventh MDMC Meeting, which will be held at the same venue between the 15th and 17th of January.

More on the seminars at the Granta website >>>

August 2007

Boeing and Northrop Grumman join the MDMC

Groups from Northrop Grumman and Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems business unit are the latest to join the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC), which met at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, this month. This tenth meeting of the project reviewed new developments in GRANTA MI™, a software system for managing and applying critical materials data in the engineering process. More >>>

March 2007

MDMC meeting dates announced

Forthcoming meetings of the Material Data Management Consortium will be:

31 July - 2 August, Tenth MDMC meeting
NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, USA
15-17 January, 2008, Eleventh MDMC meeting
South Carolina, USA
July 2008, Twelfth MDMC meeting
Cambridge, UK

January 2007

MDMC meeting - members moving to enterprise implementations

The Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) membership met at the Honeywell Aerospace site in Tempe, AZ, USA. A key theme of the meeting was members moving beyond pilot and initial implementation phases and into multi-site, multinational enterprise programs to roll out use to hundreds of users. The meeting discussed the practical software, system, computer hardware, and communication issues involved in such implementations as well as reviewing progress in the GRANTA MI system and priorities for future developments. More >>>

November 2006

Honeywell broadcasts to Anaheim!

Even a last-minute hitch that stopped our keynote speakers from attending the workshop didn't prevent the Californian aerospace community from finding out all about the MDMC! Instead, Michael Gorelik and John Perek from Honeywell simply got on a conference call and "broadcast" their presentation to attendees from several of the state's key aerospace development sites. Attendees also benefitted from interactive discussions and demonstrations of the MDMC and its technology. More >>>

September 2006

MDMC meeting & workshop dates announced

The next MDMC Workshop will be held on November 14 in Anaheim, CA. Workshops are free to attend and offer an opportunity for materials scientists, engineers, and managers in engineering enterprises to view and discuss the latest materials information technology, as developed and implemented by the MDMC. Details...

The Consortium has also announced the data and venue for the ninth MDMC Meeting. Members will be hosted by Honeywell at their Tempa, AZ location from Jan 16-18, 2007.

August 2006

MDMC welcomes GE-Aviation

The Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) met in Los Alamos, NM, USA, this month and welcomed GE-Aviation as its newest member. More >>>

The latest MDMC workshop ran concurrently with the Consortium meeting. More >>>

July 2006

Rolls-Royce a hit with Farnborough audience

The third in the current series of MDMC Workshops was held on July 18, 2006 alongside the Farnborough Air show. The event attracted the largest group of participants of the series so far, including airframe manufacturers, gas turbine OEMs, materials suppliers, Tier 1 suppliers, and R&D organizations. The audience were engrossed by the keynote presentation from Dr Malcolm Thomas at Rolls-Royce. More >>>

June 2006

NASA team scoops award

The MAPTIS II development team has been awarded a 'One NASA' award for their work in providing NASA, NASA contractors, and NASA-associated organizations with a single-point source and access to materials information. More >>>

May 2006

Workshop brings MDMC to the Berlin Air Show

The second in the series of MDMC workshops took place alongside the Berlin Air Show on May 18, attracting aerospace organizations from Germany and beyond. Rolls-Royce were the keynote speaker organization, describing progress with their phased implementation of an enterprise materials information management system. More >>>

Feb 2006

Fifteen major aerospace companies join Toulouse workshop, Berlin next!

The cream of the European aerospace industry were represented at last month's successful MDMC Workshop in Toulouse. The event was the first in a series designed to explain and discuss the possibilities of materials information management, with the aim of exploiting the potential of this valuable emerging technology in Europe. More >>>

Jan 2006

7th meeting of the Material Data Management Consortium

The latest meeting of the Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) heralded the start of the second three-year phase of this collaborative software development project. It was held at the Largo, Florida facilities of Concurrent Technologies Corporation on January 18 and 19 2006. Dr. Steven M. Arnold of NASA Glenn Research Center chaired the meeting and started by warmly welcoming AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment), Honeywell Aerospace and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the three newly joined members to the consortium. More >>>

Dec 2005

AWE PLC joins Material Data Management Consortium

The Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) is welcoming the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE plc) as its newest member. More >>>