Materials overview
What Is the Material Library?
Your material library is a private, reusable database of every material and component that you supply. Think of it as your catalogue: each entry represents a distinct material with its full specification — composition, origin, CAS numbers, and supporting documents — stored once and ready to reference whenever a customer asks for it.
The key benefit is avoiding repeated data entry. Battery manufacturers and customers commonly request the same composition data for the same materials across multiple DPP projects. Keeping your materials in the library gives you a single, consistent reference to consult each time you respond to a request, instead of rebuilding the details from scratch.
Your material library is private to your Traceable account. Customers cannot browse it. They only see material data when you explicitly reference a material in a response to their specific data request.
Building your material library is AI-assisted (powered by Anthropic Claude). When you create or edit a material, Traceable can suggest values — such as composition breakdowns, CAS numbers, and categories — to save you re-keying them from your source documents. This assistance is optional, and every suggested value is editable: you review and confirm the material details before saving. AI assistance is usage-metered and capped ($25 per month) and fails closed — if your account reaches the cap, AI suggestions pause and you continue entering values manually.
How Materials Relate to Data Requests
When a customer submits a data request asking for, for example, the elemental composition of a lithium iron phosphate cathode material you supply, your material library gives you a ready reference for the values to enter. Look up the material in your library and use its stored details to complete the requested fields in the response form.
Keeping your library accurate and up to date reduces transcription errors and makes each response faster to complete.
Material Library Fields
Today a material entry stores: Name, Code (optional), Material type, Description, and free-form Specifications (key/value pairs), plus Supporting Documents. The structured regulatory fields below — CAS number(s), Country of origin, and the Composition Breakdown — are part of the planned richer materials capture and are not available today. They are shown here to describe the intended model.
Each material in your library contains the following information:
Identity Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Your internal name for the material. Use your own naming convention for consistency — this is how you will search for it later |
| Description | Optional free text describing the material in more detail |
| Material type | One of: Raw material, Processed material, Component |
| Category | The material category (e.g., Cathode active material, Anode active material, Electrolyte, Separator, Cell housing, Battery management system component) |
Regulatory Identifiers
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| CAS number(s) | Chemical Abstracts Service registry numbers for the substance(s) present. Required for any substance of concern under EU Battery Regulation Annex VI. Multiple CAS numbers can be added for multi-component materials |
Origin and Provenance
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Where the material is extracted or primarily produced — not where it is processed or manufactured into a component. This distinction matters for supply chain due diligence under the EU Battery Regulation |
Composition Breakdown
The composition section allows you to define the material's constituent sub-materials with their weight percentages. Each sub-material row contains:
- Sub-material name
- CAS number (optional at sub-material level)
- Weight percentage
- Unit (mass % is standard; volume % is available for certain liquid or gas-phase materials)
The weight percentages of all sub-materials must total exactly 100%. Traceable validates this and will not allow you to save a material with an incomplete or over-specified composition.
Supporting Documents
Each material can have one or more documents attached — safety data sheets, test reports, REACH compliance declarations, or other technical documentation that substantiates the material's specification. See Certificates for Materials for managed certificates with expiry tracking; the documents section here is for general technical files.
Recording Regulation Declarations for a Material
Each material in your library has a Regulation declarations panel on its detail page. Use it to record, per material, where that specific material stands against regulations such as REACH, RoHS, CMRT, and the EU Battery Regulation.
To add or update a declaration:
- Open a material from your Materials list.
- In the Regulation declarations panel, click Declare status.
- Choose the regulation, set the status — Compliant, Action required, Pending, or Not applicable — and add an optional note.
- Click Save declaration.
Each declaration is saved against that individual material and is surfaced to the customers you supply, alongside the material's specification and certificates. Recording a status again for the same regulation updates the existing declaration rather than creating a duplicate.
This panel records the status of a single material. It is separate from the company-level regulation declarations on your Compliance Profile, which describe your organisation's overall regulation posture. Use the Compliance Profile for your company position; use this panel for a specific material.
Searching and Filtering Your Materials List
Navigate to Materials in the left sidebar to see your full library.
Search: Use the search bar at the top of the list to find materials by name, description, or CAS number. The search is instant and does not require pressing Enter.
Filter by type: Use the Material Type filter to show only raw materials, processed materials, or components.
Filter by category: Use the Category filter to narrow the list to a specific material category.
Sort: Click any column header to sort the list. The default sort is by last-updated date, with the most recently edited material at the top.
If your library is large, combining the search and filters is the fastest way to find a specific material. For example, searching "LFP" while filtering to "Cathode active material" will typically return only one or two results.
Next Steps
- Create a Material — add a new material to your library
- Certificates for Materials — attach managed, expiry-tracked certificates to specific materials