3. Choosing viable materials

Once the product characteristics have been defined, a selection from the universe of materials must be made (as it is estimated that there are over 60,000 materials available), using resources such as specialized databases, software and prior knowledge. The selection will be made through an iterative process of reducing and expanding the possible material spaces until the set that best meets the previously defined requirements is found. This change of approach is designed to encourage creative inspiration. To achieve this, various material selection techniques can be applied:

• Selection by analysis: based primarily on knowledge of the material's technical attributes to eliminate non-compliant choices, it is used as follows:

  • translate non-technical language requirements into technical language...