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The comparison
of raw materials is a fundamental need when working with recipes
particularly when you may wish to find a substitute material.
There are two
displays which can assist you to find and compare materials.
- the Find
/ Compare Materials window
- the Materials
Database Table window. More
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Using
the Find / Compare Materials Window
To open the
Finf / Compare Materials window
- click the
button on the tool bar or
- select the
Find / Compare Materials ...
item on the View Menu or
- select the
Compare Materials ... item
on theRaw Materials Menu
This options
open the window shown in Fig.1
Fig.1
The Find / Compare Materials window. |
Locating
the Material to be Compared with Others
In Fig.1 the
window is set to view a single material. The purpose of this exercise
is to compare an initial material with others. First locate the
initial material you wish to compare with others. It may be in the
default Local Materials.rmt databases. If it is not you can load
another database by clicking the 
button.
When you have
located the material click on its name in the list to display its
formula in the first formula column, In our example I have highlighted
CornishStone
Displaying
a Second Material Alongside the Formula for Cornish Stone
We can now display
the formula for other materials alongside that of Cornish Stone.
Click on the Show Second Material
button. The display changes as shown in Fig.2
Fig.2
Comparing Materials - the formula of a second material is displayed. |
If you clicked
the Search button at the stage
shown in Fig.2 the material list would just have the material Cornish
Stone in it as there is no other material with the same oxides
as Cornish Stone in the Local Materials database.
There may be
another feldspar in the Feldspars A-Z.rmt file. To load that
file click the
button next to the 
and open this file.
Fig.3
Confirming that the new database has been created. |
Now Matrix
displays the full list fo materials in Feldspars A-Z.rmt.
When you
click the Search button
Matrix will display the materials in Feldspars A-Z.rmt which
have the same oxides (it is not concerned with values).
In our
example we are left with about 14 feldspars in the list. (Fig.3)
We can
now scroll through the list displaying the formula for each
material alongside Cornish Stone looking for a reasonable
match.
If you
click the Match Oxide Value
button you can change the list to those materials which have
oxides, present in Cornish Stone, at levels + or - the value
shown in the Oxide Value Tolerance
text box.
This box
becomes active when you click the Match Oxide Value button
and you can change the tolerance levels.
The result
of using this function is shown in Fig.4
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Fig.4
The search is narrowed using the Match Oxide Value function |
Now the
list has norrowed down to just one feldspar Yankee Feldspar
containing oxides that Cornish Stone has at levels + or -
0.3 molecular parts.
Note that
Yankee Feldspar does not have MgO but this function
has identified Yankee Feldspar as a potential replacement
for Cornish Stone.
The other
parts of a recipe with Cornish Stone would require only minimal
adjustments.
Using
the Restart button you
can try different settings for the Match Oxide Value function.
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Using
the Find Materials with Selected Oxides Function
You can perform
a crude search for materials which simply contain certain specified
oxides by clicking the Find Materials with Selected Oxides button.
This expands the Find / Compare window as shown in Fig.5
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I have
clicked the CaO button
and then the Search button
and Matrix has listed all of the materials in the Local
Materials.rmt database that have CaO present in their
formulae.
You can
click various combinations of oxides but the significance
of those oxides in the materials is not taken into account.
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