Followings are general information to understand IMDS - taken form IMDS user manual

Material Data System (IMDS)

General:
By the year 2015, as a result of legislation in some parts of the world, it is expected
that 95% of an automobile will be recyclable. Any company which wants to re-use 95% of a
vehicle in accordance with these legal requirements must already understand the exact
content of the entire vehicle.
In the future, national and international environmental legislation may require every supplier of
a product to be responsible for the product for its entire life (operations, use, removal,
disposal etc.), Examples of these legislations include the EU Directive on End-of life vehicles,
hazardous material legislation etc. In addition to this, suppliers may have to provide
information about all materials used in the product to permit deconstruction of the commonly
used materials, provide input for scientific analysis of the composition, and provide
classification of the levels of danger related to the materials. This requires a detailed
knowledge of the composition of the materials used.
Every company which uses IMDS will have occasion to create, edit, and manage
MDSs. Even if a company only uses IMDS to pass information from suppliers to customers,
they still need to create MDSs to attach (reference) a supplier MDS and send to a customer.
An MDS is somewhat analogous to a document in Microsoft Word. Just as a Microsoft
Word document is a container that holds text, tables, illustrations, etc. organized into headers,
footers and bodies, with specified format, size, font, etc., an IMDS MDS is a container which
holds components, materials and basic substances organized into a tree-like structure with
specified names, part numbers, norms and standards, weights, etc.
Every material in IMDS is ultimately comprised of Basic Substances, represented by .
A basic substance can be either a chemical element (examples: iron, copper) or a standard
compound (examples: acrylic resin, zinc oxide). Basic substances are defined by either a
specific Chemical Abstract Number (CAS#) or generically by function. Generally, they fit in

three distinct categories:

Company Registration:
Each company or company site is allowed one IMDS registration. This is done to prevent
confusion within their own company and between their company and their customers and
suppliers.
Structure of IMDS data:

Jokers/wildcards

A highly

confidential,

non-declarable,

non-prohibited

substance

replacement containing the word system as the CAS number. These do not describe the
substance used.
Recommendation 001 states all IMDS materials (except select IMDS Committee materials)
must be 90% declared. In other words, says no material may contain more than 10%
unspecified or confidential substances . (An item which displays Not specified is a joker/wild
card) . If the portion of a substance is declared as a range, the upper limit of the range is
used. The sum of the maximum portions shall not exceed 10% for each material in an MDS,
unless the MDS has been published by ILI or Steering Committee (the exception being if the

structure and product type falls into the materials described in Recommendation 010). If the
sum exceeds this 10% limit, IMDS generates a warning.
Publishing
Published MDSs are accessible and completely visible to all IMDS users. Everyone in IMDS
can see all substances included in the MDS, so never use publish for an MDS containing
proprietary information. As with accepted MDSs, published MDSs cannot be deleted.
Forwarding
MDS forwarding is designed for suppliers such as distributors who do not manufacturer a
product but are the provider of record. The forward option allows an MDS from a supplier to
be proposed directly to a customer. No changes are permitted to the ingredients page of the
received/forwarded MDS. If forwarding is allowed, the forwarder must populate the Supplier
Data with their company information, choose a recipient or several recipients on the recipients
tab, and pass this unchanged MDS to the customer.

A company may guarantee the confidentiality of specific MDS information through use of the
confidential flag. When this flag is set for specific basic substances, these substances are
replaced with a generic confidential substance label when the MDS is sent or proposed to a
customer. Confidentiality restricts display of these substances to the company which created
the MDS, and to those from other companies granted Trusted user access. . This protects
certain ingredients and recipes. A supplier must not mark any declarable or prohibited
substance as confidential or highly confidential (joker/wildcard). Many customers will not
accept an MDS with more than 10% of the materials using undeclared substances (including
those marked confidential). IMDS will not permit an MDS with more than 10% of the
substances marked highly confidential (joker/wildcard).
Confidentiality is not applied to basic substance analysis or to a basic substance where used
analysis, as these analyses do not reveal information about the structure of the MDS.
When a user in another IMDS company requires visibility to substances marked confidential,
the client manager of the company that creates the material MDS can grant specific users in

another IMDS company visibility through the Administration > Trust User: option. Only
trustworthy employees of a company should be granted IMDS IDs, as all users within an
IMDS company can view the companys confidential substances. Outside of IMDS, two
companies may exchange a statement of confidentiality stating named IMDS users may see
the confidential substances in the received material datasheets. Only users specifically
granted trust user status can see the true substances underlying confidential substances.
For IMDS following points are proposed

Company user ID shall be created

Material details shall be uploaded for each parts

For metal parts elements like Carbon, Chromium, Nickel, Molybdenum & micro
alloying elements shall be restricted

For non metals generic grade can be given - like, NBR

For grease basic details can be restricted

For coated, painted & plated needs to be discussed with any existing IMDS user