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For Product Developers
Find Better Materials for Your Product Without the 12-Month Search
The Problem
You Know What You Need.
Finding It Is the Hard Part.
You’re designing a next-generation product. The engineering specs call for a material with specific thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties. It needs to meet regulatory requirements, hit a cost target, and be available at volume.
So you start searching. You browse supplier catalogs—each one formatted differently. You download PDFs. You build comparison spreadsheets. You call sales reps who take days to respond. You discover that one supplier uses MPa while another uses ksi, and you’re not sure if they’re measuring the same thing.
Weeks later, you’ve compared maybe 5–8 options from the suppliers you already know. You pick the best available—not the best possible—because you ran out of time.
The Hidden Cost of Limited Visibility
3–6 wks
Average time to evaluate material alternatives
5–8
Options compared (out of 100+ available)
$1M+
Annual cost of suboptimal material selection
The problem isn’t that better materials don’t exist. It’s that the information is scattered across hundreds of supplier websites, buried in incompatible formats, and impossible to compare without weeks of manual work.
The Story
When “Good Enough” Costs
More Than You Think
A product development team at an electronics manufacturer needed a high-purity polymer for a new sensor housing. Requirements: chemical resistance, dimensional stability, operating temperature up to 260°C, FDA compliant.
They went with their usual supplier—the one they’d used for years. The material met specs, but pricing was $220/kg with 8-week lead times. Since it was the only option they evaluated in depth, they had no negotiating leverage.
When they later ran the same requirements through Xtrium, the platform surfaced 12 qualified alternatives from suppliers they’d never heard of. Three were technically superior. Two were 15–25% cheaper. One offered 4-week lead times.
They weren’t overpaying because their supplier was expensive. They were overpaying because they didn’t know their options.
The Xtrium Solution
Set Your Requirements.
See Every Material That Fits.
Xtrium takes your engineering specifications and instantly matches them against 1M+ indexed materials — returning a ranked, normalized comparison so your team can evaluate and decide, not search and guess.
Smart Material Matching
Finds every material globally that meets your technical, regulatory, and commercial requirements.
Input your specs—properties, certifications, cost target, lead time, volume—and Xtrium returns qualified materials ranked by fit. No more browsing catalogs hoping to find what you need.
The platform normalizes all data into comparable units and formats. When one supplier reports tensile strength in MPa and another in ksi, Xtrium handles the conversion so you can compare apples to apples.
Substitute Discovery
Identifies drop-in replacements and functional alternatives for materials you’re currently using.
Specify the material you want to replace and why—cost, availability, sustainability, performance upgrade—and Xtrium surfaces alternatives that match or exceed your current spec. Each substitute includes a compatibility assessment so your team knows what testing is needed.
This is how you respond to price increases, supply disruptions, or sustainability mandates without starting from scratch.
Sustainability Intelligence
Surfaces greener alternatives that still meet your engineering requirements.
Filter by CO₂ footprint, recyclability, bio-based content, or specific ESG certifications. Xtrium shows you which sustainable alternatives actually work for your application—not just which ones exist.
When your customers or regulators ask for lower-carbon options, you’ll already have the answer.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Gives your team a single, normalized view of every option.
Instead of toggling between 15 different PDFs with inconsistent formatting, you get one comparison table: all properties standardized, all certifications tracked, all pricing and lead times visible. Filter, sort, and export for internal review or procurement handoff.
How It Works
From Requirements to Shortlist in 4 Steps
Define Your Requirements
Enter the material properties your product needs: mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical. Add business requirements: certifications, cost target, lead time, minimum volume. Specify any constraints: geography, sustainability, regulatory compliance.
Xtrium Matches and Ranks
The platform searches 1M+ materials, filters to those meeting your requirements, normalizes all data into comparable formats, and returns a ranked list with match scores.
Compare and Evaluate
Review materials side by side in a standardized comparison table. Click into any material for full technical specs, supplier details, certifications, pricing, and sustainability data. Adjust your criteria to explore tradeoffs.
Move to Action
Export your shortlist with full documentation. Connect directly with suppliers through the platform. Hand off a complete evaluation package to your procurement team—no additional research needed.
When you need this
Common Scenarios Where Xtrium Saves Weeks
New Product Development
You’re designing a product and need to find the right material from the start. Xtrium shows you every option that fits your specs, not just the ones from your usual suppliers.
Material Substitution
Your current material has been discontinued, prices have spiked, or your customer wants a sustainable alternative. Xtrium finds drop-in replacements and functional substitutes in hours.
Cost Reduction
Engineering says the material is fine but procurement says it’s too expensive. Xtrium surfaces lower-cost alternatives that still meet the technical spec, giving you negotiating data or a real switch option.
Regulatory Compliance
New regulations require different material certifications or restrict certain substances. Xtrium filters for compliant alternatives across your entire materials portfolio.
Sustainability Mandates
Your customer or internal ESG team requires lower-carbon, recyclable, or bio-based materials. Xtrium finds options that meet both sustainability and performance requirements.
Proven Results
Measurable Impact for Product Teams
90%+ Time SavingsMaterial research that took weeks now takes hours. Your team evaluates more options in less time. |
15–25% Cost ReductionCustomers consistently find lower-cost alternatives they didn’t know existed— or gain negotiating leverage with current suppliers. |
10x More OptionsEvaluate 50+ qualified materials instead of the 5–8 from suppliers you already know. |
Faster Time-to-MarketSkip the weeks of catalog research. Start evaluating qualified materials on day one of your project. |
Who this is for
Built for Teams That Specify,
Select, and Source Materials
Product Engineers
Find materials that meet your technical specs without spending weeks on supplier websites.
Design Engineers
Explore material tradeoffs early in the design phase, when changes are cheap.
Materials Engineers
Evaluate substitutes and alternatives with normalized, comparable data.
Sustainability Leads
Find greener materials that still meet performance and cost requirements.
Product Managers
Accelerate development timelines by removing the material search bottleneck.
Find the Right Material—Not Just the Familiar One
The best material for your product might come from a supplier you’ve never heard of. Xtrium shows you every option that fits—so your team can pick the best one, not just the closest one.
Download the Materials Selection Guide to see how product teams are cutting evaluation time by 90%.