Introductory Concepts

With Formulation Design, you can create and manage formulations for many different types of product, and capture product development information for formula design in real time. Products that you can formulate in Formulation Design include consumer packaged goods (CPG; for example, soap or hairspray), specialty chemicals, drugs, and prescription drugs.

This page discusses:

Composite Ingredient

A composite ingredient is an ingredient derived from a composite material that is composed of multiple constituent substances. oo

Dry Weight

The dry weight of an ingredient in a formula is the weight of the ingredient that the formula contains after processing has taken place.

Formula

A formula is a recipe that is the basis for a new product. To create a formula, add materials and processing instructions, specify ingredient levels, and create phases. For more information, see Working with Formulas.

Formula Grid

The formula grid is the main grid of information about formula ingredients and phases. It is visible in the work area when you open a formula.

Formulated Material

A formulated material is a material that is derived from a formula. A formulated material is automatically created in the materials database when you mark a formula as reviewed.

Genealogy

A formula's genealogy is the list of earlier formulas from which it was cloned.

Ingredient

An ingredient is a material as used in a formula. For more information, see Working with Ingredients.

Material

Materials are the building blocks of finished products or intermediate products, There are three types of material:

  • Sourced materials, provided by material suppliers
  • Formulated materials, generated from Formulation Design formulas.
  • Unified materials, which group together similar, replaceable materials

A material can be made up of one more substances, along with impurities or contaminants. For example, sugar cubes are a material made principally of the substance sucrose.

Materials are the basis for ingredients in Formulation Design. The materials available to Formulation Design are created in the Materials Management app.

In the formula grid, a composite beaker icon next to an ingredient indicates that the ingredient's material is a “composition” of multiple constituent materials. These constituent materials must be declared in an ingredient listing. A material in the formula grid without the composite beaker icon is a single declared material, but might contain trace contaminants that are not declared on the label.

Phase

A phase organizes miscible ingredients into a group within a formula. The ingredients are processed together. You can arrange phases in a formula so that they are added to batches in a preferred order. For more information, see Working with Phases.

Premix Phase

A premix phase is a phase that acts like a separate formula within a formula. By default, its ingredients are not included in the formula's ingredient totals. Instead, you include them in the main formula by means of a link to the premix formula. This link acts like an ingredient in the main formula.

For example, if you are making chocolate chip cookies, and you create the chocolate chips in a separate batch, you can include all the chocolate chip ingredients and their levels in a separate premix phase of the formula. You then create a link to the premix, specifying the amount of chocolate chips that you are using in the formula. Formulation Design automatically calculates the chocolate chip ingredient levels to use in the cookie formula.

For more information on premix phases, see Working with Phases.

Processing Instruction

A processing instruction is a textual description of an action to perform to make the product. Processing instructions can exist anywhere in a formula.

You can also insert a phase processing instruction above a phase header. The phase processing instruction describes how to mix the ingredients in the phase.

For more information, see Working with Processing Instructions.

Sourced Material

A sourced material is a material that is provided from a source that is not a fomula, for example an external company or department.

Substance

A substance is an idealized unit from which chemical or biological matter can be defined. An example is sucrose.

Substances are constituent parts of materials. Substances are created in the Materials Registration app.

Unified Material

A unified material is a generic material that can group together similar specific materials. For example, a unified material Glycerine might have the members 70% Glycerine and 60% Glycerine, where the active substance is the same, but the amounts are different. In a formula, you can replace an ingredient's material with a similar material from the same group. For more information, see Working with Similar Materials.

Wet Weight

The wet weight of an ingredient is the amount of the ingredient that is added to a formula, before any processing takes place.