Engineering materials may differ from the raw materials that are purchased or transformed to give the finished physical, thermal, and environmental numbers provided in the materials specification. For example, a sheetmetal designer may choose an engineering material as 1mm thick martensitic stainless steel. This is a specification of a type of chromium stainless steel that is hardened slowly but may also be heat treated to achieve the expected tensile strength. The CAD user may specify the thickness, because the 3D models have that thickness and expect a particular bend radius, but the engineering material does not specify the sheet’s overall size, nor does it specify how the metal is hardened. In some companies, these criteria may be decided by the manufacturing engineer and the engineering material would then be transformed into raw materials with a particular sheet size and with processes, like hardening . The raw materials resulting from the transformation of engineering materials could be replaced by raw materials from region-specific suppliers. Also the processes used to transform the engineering materials into raw materials could be replaced by manufacturing processes with region—specific energy/water coefficients.

Engineering materials usually have estimated/average numbers for initial simulations of sustainability metrics, like carbon footprint. By having access to engineering materials within a PLM system it enables you to guide material selection to the design team and provide insights into the material usage within products and across entire product portfolios allowing you to make informed decisions early in the design phase.