Send this page / Print this page Home / Composites News / Process & Equipment

06 May 2008  -  Belgium

New shareware: calculation software dedicated to composites

© Material SA

The new version of Composite Star - database and design software for composite materials - is now available. It has a completely improved user interface, an integrated spreadsheet and is is entirely free to use for 30 days, as shareware.

With Composite Star 2.0 the user can:
¤ store all data of fibers, matrices, plies and laminates in a user-friendly database
¤ calculate the properties of plies by micromechanics
¤ calculate the properties of laminates by Classical Laminate Theory (CLT)
¤ calculate the laminate load response and failure with standard and new failure criteria and progressive failure models
¤ add new or customize existing calculation procedures with the integrated spreadsheet
¤ display any calculation result as X-Y or polar graph, including any ply property versus the ply's orientation angle, carpet plots, ply-by-ply stress and strain diagrams and failure process diagrams

The new version, Composite Star 2.0, has a completely improved user interface, making the use of the software more user-friendly.

Another important new feature is the integrated spreadsheet. With this spreadsheet, the user can add new or customize calculation procedures. This adds a completely new dimension to the program and widens the scope of calculation possibilities substantially.

Maybe the most important innovation of Composite Star 2.0 is its shareware concept. The full version of the software can be downloaded from www.compositestar.com and is entirely free to use for 30 days. The price for a permanent license is only 495 EUR or US$ 745.

With this shareware concept, Material should make composite calculation accessible to everyone. This is especially important for universities and other educational institutions, as well as for small and midsize companies, who can not afford to invest in high-priced software. Another aim of the shareware concept is to significantly increase the number of users, to trigger interaction between them and encourage the exchange of data and calculation procedures via the Composite Star website.

About Material
Material has been founded in 1990 by former engineers of the Institute for Plastic Processing, Aachen, Germany. Since then Material has been providing engineering services and software for the composites industry worldwide.
In the field of engineering and prototyping, Material has worked for small, mid-sized and large companies for virtually every application and has participated in many publicly founded research projects.
Material's engineers are frequent speakers at technical conventions throughout the world and have published many articles on composite technology. In 1998, 2001 and 2005 Material's own international conventions which focused on filament winding technology met with great success.
Material's software system CADWIND has been the industry's standard for filament winding technology for more then 20 years. In 2000 Material started development of Composite Star, a database and design software which has been released in spring 2003. Composite Star sets new standards in the design of composite materials and structures.
Material operates on a global scale and has representatives in many countries such as Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and USA. You will find us at all major trade fairs such as the JEC, Paris, France and the SAMPE and CFA shows in the USA.

Source : Material SA