Composite Star 2.0 Available as Shareware

By DE Editors

Screen capture from Composite Star 2.0 database and design software for composite materials.

Material (Brussels, Belgium), a provider of engineering services and software for the composites industry, released Composite Star 2.0, a new version of its database and design software for composite materials, which is available as shareware. A 30-day license of the full version of Composite Star 2.0 can be downloaded at no charge from www.compositestar.com.

Composite Star 2.0 features an improved user interface and a new integrated spreadsheet, which calculates the properties of plies by micromechanics, the properties of laminates by classical laminate theory, and the laminate load response and failure with standard and new failure criteria and progressive failure models. Other new functionality allows users to add or customize calculation procedures.

By offering Composite Star 2.0 as shareware, Material makes composite calculation accessible to educational institutions and small-to-midsized companies with limited ability to invest in high-priced software solutions. Another aim of the shareware concept is to trigger interaction between users by encouraging the exchange of data and calculation procedures through the Composite Star website.

Materialwas founded in 1990 by former engineers of the Institute for Plastic Processing in Aachen, Germany. The company’s CADWIND software system was developed for the filament winding industry. Development of Composite Star software began in 2000.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.