Materials

On the Material form, you can view and edit materials that already exist in the database, or you can add new ones. Materials are substances composed of one or more hazardous or nonhazardous chemicals. They can include products, raw materials, process streams, and isolated manufacturing intermediates. Materials can be composed of pure chemicals or mixtures of components. A mixture is made up of pure materials and/or other mixtures. For example, you could set up a mixture to define a solvent that you manufacture and identify the major components and minor components that comprise it. (Minor components would typically represent the impurities.) Mixtures are commonly used in waste management, where they represent waste profiles. Mixtures are also common in both inventory management and in incident reporting.

For additional instructions on how to establish and edit materials, click the following links or use the scroll bar to scan the page.

Establishing Materials

To add a new material, enter its name and, if it is a pure material, its CAS number. Next, indicate whether the material is pure or a mixture and designate its component basis—solid, liquid, or vapor. You can also enter synonyms, compositions, properties, response factors, and a molecular formula for the material and associate it with regulatory information, specific families, material groups, and language-dependent material names in the sections on the form. A material may be identified by one or more of the following classifications:

• Trade Secret. Select this option if the material you are entering is a trade secret. This classification is generally used for reports, such as the form R.

• Process Stream. Select this option if the material is a mixture of process materials. In the FEMS module, you can only assign emission factor categories to materials that are process streams.

• Waste Profile. Select this option if you will enter a waste profile for the material for use in the Waste module.

• Chemical Category. Select this option if you are creating a category of materials to meet SARA reporting requirements. When you use the Essential software to generate a Tier Two report, a chemical category can be used to report several materials as one item. Make sure you also select the Mixture option as the type of material. When a material is saved as a Chemical Category, a link will be available on the Material form to add chemical category components. For more information about chemical category components, refer to Material Chemical Categories.

• Metal (compound). Select this option to identify the material as a metal or metal compound. This identification is required so that the appropriate treatment method is applied to the material when reported in Section 8 of the form R.

• Industrial Hygiene Stressor. Select this option if you will use the material as a chemical stressor in the Industrial Hygiene module.

In the Chemical Inventory module, a utility is available to allow users to export material information out of Essential for import into the European Agency Chemical Association’s IUCLID 5 software application. To identify the material for export, specify the EC Number. The three European lists of substances from the previous EU chemicals regulatory framework, European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances (EINECS), European List of Notified Chemical Substances (ELINCS) and the no-longer polymers (NLP-list), in combination are called the EC Inventory. The EC Inventory is the source for the EC Number as an identifier of substances.

After establishing your pure materials and mixtures, enter an effective date for each one in the Material Composition and Properties section to track and maintain changes in the information about a material.  

To establish materials

1. Click Data Entry > Material Information > Materials in the Navigation Tree to access the Materials list.
   
   For Process Data Manager, click Data Entry > Parameter Information > Materials.

2. Click New.
   
   The Material form is displayed.

3. Enter the Material Name.

4. Enter the CAS Number and the EC Number for the material when applicable.

5. Click all applicable check boxes to classify the material as a Trade Secret, Process Stream, Waste Profile, Chemical Category, Metal (compound), or Industrial Hygiene Stressor.

6. Select the Type of Material and the Component Basis.

7. Click Save.

8. Add information in the Synonyms, Material and Composition, Regulatory Information, Families, Groups, Response Factor, and formula Information sections.
   
   When localization has been implemented, enter material names in other languages in the Add Language Dependent Material Names section.

9. Click Save.

10. Repeat steps 2 through 9 to add other materials.

Viewing or Adding Synonyms for a Material

View any synonyms that have been established for the material in the Synonyms section on the Material form. If no synonyms are listed or if you are adding a new material, access the Material Synonyms form through this section to add alternate names for a material and associate them with a synonym category. For example, you can enter a Product ID number that is used in your order entry system.  

To add synonyms

Tip:  In the procedure described below, the Material Synonyms form is accessed via the Synonym section on the Material form. The Material Synonyms form can also be accessed from the Navigation Tree.

1. Locate the material on the Materials list, click the material link to open the Material form, and expand the Synonyms section if necessary.
   
   When establishing a new material, the Synonyms section is displayed only after the record is saved

2. Click Save.

3. Click Add Synonym to open the Material Synonyms form.
   
   The Material field is automatically populated with the Material name in the Material form.

4. Enter the Synonym for the material.

5. Assign synonym categories by selecting Available Synonym Categories and clicking Add.
   
   If a synonym category is not listed, click Edit Synonym Categories List and add it. To unassign a synonym category, select the assigned category and click Remove.

6. Click Save.

7. Add other synonyms for the same material by clicking New and repeating steps 3 through 5.

8. Close the window to return to the Material form.
   
   The synonyms are displayed in the Synonyms section. To edit an existing synonym, click the synonym link.

9. Click Save.

Assigning a Material to a Family

You can assign a material to a specific family in the Families section on the Material form. Assigning families allows you to see the relationship between materials, such as all the materials that are ketones or alcohols. Before you begin, make sure you have validated a list of material families on the Families form.

To assign a material to a family

1. Locate the material on the Materials list, click the material link to open the Material form, and expand the Families section if necessary.

2. Assign families by selecting one or more Available Families and clicking the right arrow button.
   
   If a family is not listed, click Edit Material Families List and add it. Remove an assigned family by selecting it and clicking the left arrow button.

3. Click Save.

Assigning a Material to a Material Group

In the Groups section on the Material form, you can assign a material to a material group. Examples of material groups are VOCs, particulates, paints, and solvents. When you establish groups of materials, you can use them for emissions modeling and abatement efficiencies instead of specifying individual chemicals. You can also use chemical groups for reporting fugitive emissions. Before you begin, make sure you have validated a list of material groups on the Material Groups form.  

To assign a material to a group

1. Locate the material on the Materials list, click the material link to open the Material form, and expand the Groups section if necessary.

2. Assign material groups by selecting one or more Available Groups and clicking the right arrow button.
   
   Remove an assigned material group by selecting it and clicking the left arrow button.

3. Click Save.

Adding formula Information for a Material

A formula, also known as a molecular formula, is a non-graphical representation of a chemical entity. Enter a molecular formula for a material in the formula Information section on the Material form. This information can be used on your authored MSDSs or for documentation.

To add formula information

1. Locate the material on the Materials list, click the material link to open the Material form, and expand the formula Information section if necessary.

2. Enter the formula.

3. Type a formula Description for the formula.

4. Click Save.

Entering or Calculating Response Factors

In the Response Factors section of the Material form, define response factors for your pure materials and process streams. The Essential FEMS module uses response factors to calculate an adjusted reading for a component. (The use of response factors is optional.)

For pure materials, type the response factor in the field. For process streams, the response factor can be manually entered or automatically calculated. The response factor and molecular weight of each component material, and the composition of the process stream entered in weight percents are required for calculation. The material record must be saved (click Save on the form) before the response factor can be calculated.

Note:  Any component materials of a process stream without a response factor entry or with a response factor equal to zero are not included in the calculation.

For mixture materials, the mixture's response factor is calculated based on the component weight percentage, component response factors, and molecular weights of each component, as described below.

For example, consider a mixture material consisting of 40% Ethylbenzene and 60% Benzene with the weight percentage, response factor, and molecular weight displayed in the Data Input columns below. The calculated Response Factor, 0.9177, is rounded up to four decimal places.

To enter or calculate response factors

1. Locate the material on the Materials list, click the material link to open the Material form, and expand the Response Factor section if necessary.

2. Use the guidelines below to enter or calculate the response factor.

1. • To manually enter a response factor for a process stream or pure material, type the response factor in the Response Factor field.

   • To calculate the response factor for a process stream, click Calculate Response Factor. The response factor is displayed when the calculation is complete.

3. Click Save.

Associating Language-dependent Material Names

For each material name, equivalent entries in different languages can be defined. For example, when setting up a material record for "Ethane", a value for "Ethane" in Spanish, "Etano", could be specified. When localization has been implemented, the Culture setting assigned to a user determines which value is displayed in field lists on Essential™ forms. Enter the corresponding material names and associate each one with the appropriate language in the Add Language Dependent Material Names section.

To add language-dependent material names

1. Locate the material on the Materials list, click the material link to display the Material form, and expand the Add Language Dependent Material Names section if necessary.

2. Click Add Language Value and select a Language from the list.

3. Enter the Material Name for the language selected and click OK.
   
   The translation information is displayed as a line item in the Add Language Dependent Material Names section. Edit existing translation information using the buttons adjacent to the line item.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to add other language translations for the material.

5. Click Save.

FEMS Material List

In the FEMS module, an additional material browse view is available. The FEMS Material List displays only those materials that meet both of the following conditions:

• The material has been associated with an entity on the Entity Material form (and the logged-in user is authorized to access the entity).

• The material has not been associated with any entity on the Entity Material form.

Click Data Entry > Material Information > FEMS Materials to open the list.

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