TechnologyMaterial Specification
Turning waste into a material the market can evaluate.
From an ambiguous description to a structured specification, where every data point says where it comes from.
CENTRAL QUESTIONHow do we turn “I have plastic” into something an industrial market can evaluate?
WHERE EACH DATA POINT COMES FROM
- 01DECLAREDSaid by whoever holds the material.
- 02VISUAL ESTIMATESeen in an image.
- 03REFERENCEA typical value for that material.
- 04MEASUREDCame from a measurement.
- 05LAB VERIFIEDConfirmed by a laboratory.
01CONTEXT
A material without a specification creates uncertainty. “I have plastic” forces whoever receives it to ask questions, request samples and take on risk, and each of those frictions reduces the sales options or the value someone is willing to pay.
The specification is the language a processor uses to decide. Without it, the conversation starts from zero every time.
02WHY A DATA SHEET IS NOT ENOUGH
A data sheet is usually a table of values. What it almost never says is where each value comes from: whether it was declared by the seller, whether it is visible in a photo, whether it is a typical value for the material or whether it came from a laboratory. For the buyer, those four things are very different, and mixing them is the source of most disputes after delivery.
Every data point should say where it comes from.
03OUR HYPOTHESIS Illustrative example
A useful specification is a set of fields, and each field keeps its origin and its state. Ecohero organizes visual and operational information and, when applicable, laboratory results to build a more useful description of the material, and shows them separately: declared, visual estimate, reference, measured and laboratory-verified.
The states shown below are conceptual: they describe the level of backing behind a data point, not a specific result.
- Material
- VISUAL ESTIMATE
- Form
- VISUAL ESTIMATE
- Color
- VISUAL ESTIMATE
- Contamination
- DECLARED
- Moisture
- PENDING
- Composition
- PENDING LAB
- Process origin
- DECLARED
04HOW A FIELD CHANGES
A material starts out as “preliminary”: the image suggests a resin, a color and a presentation. As long as there is no laboratory validation, the composition field stays as “pending lab” and is shown that way. Only when a measurement exists does the field become “measured”, and only with laboratory confirmation, “verified”.
A field can also step back. If a measurement contradicts a visual estimate, the measurement prevails and the change is recorded, not hidden.
05THE DEPENDENCY
This piece comes before Trace Match: there is no good compatibility without a good specification. It is also the natural continuation of Visual Intelligence, whose first reading is the draft of this sheet.
06CURRENT BOUNDARY
The states shown do not represent laboratory results that have been carried out. Today a specification combines what is declared, what is estimated and, when it exists, what is measured; expanding measurement coverage and sharing it with buyers is a direction of work. When measurements exist, they will be presented with their method and origin.
07WHAT WE’RE LEARNING
The state of each data point matters as much as the data point. The costliest ambiguity is mixing what was measured with what was estimated, because whoever receives the specification cannot tell what is firm. We also learned that format counts: a useful specification uses the fields and language a processor expects, not the ones convenient for whoever produces it.
08WHAT COMES NEXT
More fields backed by measurements, better formats for sharing specifications and a closer link to the identity of the material.