Reading Material Property Datasheets

Match the material, not just its family

Engivault records distinguish named grades from broad families such as PET or HDPE. A source-reviewed field means the value was checked against its cited source. It does not mean the material has been qualified for your component, or that every property in the record has been reviewed.

For example, Hydro’s 6061 sheet separates tempers and product thickness bands. Its standard T6/T6511 rows list 260 MPa minimum ultimate strength and 167 W/(m·K) typical conductivity at 25°C. The same sheet notes that welding can reduce T6 strength near the weld. A generic “6061” label would lose information needed to interpret those numbers.

Read the measurement and the footnote together

TECAPET white lists tensile modulus at 1 mm/min and tensile strength at 50 mm/min under DIN EN ISO 527-2. Its modulus footnote identifies specimen type 1b. The separate flexural modulus is a different test result. Temperature and moisture conditioning are not stated for these rows, so the library does not supply guessed conditions.

TECAFINE PE300 natural lists 23 MPa strength at yield. That does not supply the library’s tensile-strength field. Its tensile modulus can be reviewed independently even while strength, conductivity and Poisson’s ratio remain withheld. A missing field is not zero.

Compare what is actually available

Both Ensinger sheets describe their numbers as comparison guidelines rather than guaranteed specifications. A minimum, a typical value and a guideline have different meanings. Preserve the manufacturer’s description; do not silently relabel a guideline as a minimum.

Carry units through a worked estimate

Original arithmetic example: suppose a solid rectangular sample has dimensions 100 × 50 × 10 mm. Its volume is 50,000 mm³ = 0.00005 m³. If its applicable density is 1360 kg/m³, the mass estimate is ρV = 0.068 kg = 68 g. Using millimetres directly with kg/m³ would produce a unit error of a billion.

This example assumes a uniform solid with those dimensions and density; it does not include holes, inserts or manufacturing tolerances. Converting units does not establish whether the density applies to your actual part.

Keep a traceable calculation record

Record the exact material grade and product form, source revision and page, property name, units, value type, test conditions and the reason it applies to your calculation. Where information is absent, keep that absence visible and obtain suitable data before relying on the result.

The material library shows citations below each reviewed record. Its API returns null for unsupported numeric properties. Filtering to reviewed materials means at least one property has a source; it does not make every field complete.

References

• Ensinger TECAPET white datasheet, AE, 2023/07/19Accessed 2026-09-08
• Ensinger TECAFINE PE300 natural datasheet, AA, 2017/11/23Accessed 2026-09-08
• Hydro Alloy 6061 datasheet, revision 2019/01Accessed 2026-09-08