A substance is a material that has a constant composition regardless of its source and is considered to be pure. A substance can have a chemical abstract services (CAS) number. The CAS number is a global unique identification number. If you only wish to define a substance under the dangerous goods classification, it is adequate to specify information in the header of the Substance window.
In the Substance/Environmental Properties tab, you can define the environmental properties of a specific substance. Each substance is connected to a specific media code. The media code can be defined if the substance is an emission or if it is built into the product or used in another way.
For each substance, it is possible to define several different hazardous properties to the environment and health. A substance can also be defined as a source of energy and you can specify if the energy is renewable or not. The environmental information specified for a substance is used when you define and calculate the environmental foot print for a given part.
You can define the substance type that the substance belongs to in the Substance/Chemical Properties tab. The substance type can be either solid or volatile. The solid substance types are categorized as follows: additive, binder, filler and pigment. The volatile substance types are solvent or water. You can also define if the solvent substance types are solvent or Non-VOC solvents. If the substance type is solvent you need to specify a density for the substance.
The chemical properties information specified for a substance is used when a part composition is defined. When working with recipe structures, the information of the substances is used for recipe breakdowns and when calculating different physical properties for a recipe part.