The Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) met in Los Alamos, NM, USA, this month and welcomed GE-Aviation as its newest member. The MDMC is a collaboration of top aerospace, defense, and energy enterprises applying materials information to increase innovation and quality in the engineering process, while reducing risk and cost.

Making the best use of alloys, composites, and ceramics, often under extreme conditions, is critical to such organizations. The management and application of data associated with these materials is vital to projects and processes. Yet best practice in this area is elusive, due to the complexity and specialist nature of the data, and the organizational and technical environments in which it must be applied. The MDMC is defining this best practice.

The collaborative project, with fifteen members including Rolls-Royce, Honeywell, Alcan, and NASA, held its 8th meeting from August 1st-2nd. The Consortium reviewed progress in the development and application of its supporting software system, GRANTA MI (tm). GRANTA MI, an emerging technology when the Consortium began, has been extensively developed, tested, and validated by members, and is now undergoing full enterprise implementation at member sites.

"The meeting demonstrated the real value that engineering enterprises can derive from consolidating their vast and varied experiences through collaboration to define best practices for effectively managing and applying materials data", comments Dr Steven Arnold of NASA's Glenn Research Center, who chairs the Consortium Steering Committee. "We are delighted to welcome GE to the Consortium, as their presence will further enhance our ability as a group to define and meet the materials information management needs of the aerospace community. Further, the Consortium can now proudly claim that its membership includes two of the world's top aero-engine manufacturers."