Finding properties of unknown material with known and/or partially known designation is a very common engineering activity. Although sometimes fairly trivial, this task can often be extremely tedious and time-consuming, especially when materials originate from different countries and standards are involved.

Step 1: Choosing a search option

Suppose that you want to identify material with the designation 1.4301. Origin of the material is unknown.

Your first step is to choose a search option. Total Materia search engine performes searching material(s) by designation most efficiently through the Quick Search option.

Step 2: Defining search criteria

Enter material 1.4301 in the designation field. Spaces and cases are not relevant for searching, since the world standards of steel designations are not treating spaces in a uniform way.

Defining search criteria

Since the origin of the material is unknown, leave All in country's pop-up list. The search engine will search the whole database.

All you have to do then is to simply click on the "Search" button. In a few seconds Total Materia search engine will find all materials in the world, which have 1.4301 in their designation!

Step 3: Selecting a material from the list of the results

Searching materials by designation generally results in a list of materials that satisfy the criteria you gave. Depending on the search criteria, this list can be quite large (up to 2000 materials), but in our example the resulting list consists of 21 materials. By clicking on their designation, you can retrieve and review their properties.

Selecting a material from the list of the results

Suppose that you are mainly interested in German steel materials, defined by EN. Therefore, select steel defined by EN from the list.

Step 4: Selecting group/subgroup of the material

Sometimes materials with the same designation can be defined by various standards in the same country and/or belong to more than one group and subgroup. Although chemical composition usually does not vary significantly, group/subgroup where material belongs sometimes has significant consequences on mechanical properties of the material and its application.

Total Materia displays groups/subgroups to which material belongs. You can review material properties by clicking on the links related to the subgroup of interest

Selecting group/subgroup of the material

Now all the parameters are defined, you can view properties of the materials. Everything is completed in less than one minute!

Step 5: Viewing the properties of the material

Total Materia displays chemical composition, mechanical properties of the material,cross-reference table (i.e. table of similar steel materials) and much more. You can view those properties by simply clicking on the related link.

By clicking on the composition link you can view the chemical composition of the selected material and information on the Carbon Equivalent along with comments relating to the delivery condition of the material.

Viewing Chemical composition

Mechanical properties are presented according to each condition of the material that the user can define by using the condition selector. It is also possible to use the radio button to view data for all conditions.The default tab shows all available data at room temperature.

Viewing Mechanical properties

In the other tabs it is possible to find mechanical properties at high and low temperature with the possibility to view the data in the form of a temperature dependency diagram by using the radio button.

Viewing High Temperature properties

Physical property data is critical for a range of engineering calculations but is not always available on standards. Where standard data is available Total Materia presents this information in the Official properties tab but also offer a range of additional ways to find physical properties data

Viewing Physical Properties

Other sources information comes from other recognized and trusted sources like official handbooks to further compliment the available data. Each other source is accompanied by its own reference to ensure traceability.

Viewing Physical Properties (Other Sources)

Again, it is also possible to view data in diagram form if preferred.

Viewing Physical Properties (Diagrams)

Total Materia harnesses its cross referencing capabilities by also providing a list of similar materials which also have direct physical properties available for them. This opens up even more new possibilities for finding useful property data in Total Metals.

Viewing Physical Properties (Similar Materials)

Other data available in the Total Metals module includes machinability data, heat treatment guidelines and diagrams, metallography images and corrosion data. See our other guided tours for more detailed information.



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