Ranked Materials
| # | Material | Family | Index Value |
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Materials Explorer
Interactive Ashby charts for material selection. Choose axes, overlay performance index isolines, rank candidates, and click any point to inspect sourced property data across 60 engineering materials.
Background & How to Use
What is an Ashby Chart?
Ashby charts (also called material property charts) plot one engineering property against another on logarithmic axes. They were developed by Professor Michael Ashby at Cambridge as a systematic way to compare materials and identify optimal candidates for a given design objective.
Performance Indices
A performance index is a grouping of material properties that captures how well a material performs for a specific structural or thermal objective. On log-log Ashby charts, lines of constant performance index appear as straight isolines — materials above the line outperform those below it.
Using this tool
- Select X and Y axes from the left rail, or click a preset to jump to a classic chart.
- Choose a performance index to rank materials and overlay isolines.
- Toggle material families on or off to focus on specific categories.
- Open Tool Settings to show property ranges, toggle blobs/envelopes, labels, and switch themes.
- Click any point on the chart to inspect its full sourced property data.
Data
The database contains 60 engineering materials across metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, and natural materials with 29 properties sourced from Ashby (2011), ASM Handbooks, MatWeb, MIL-HDBK-5/17, and manufacturer datasheets. Properties include min/max ranges and statistical basis where available.