In this issue:
Release of Thermo-Calc 4.1
We are excited to announce the release of our latest software, which includes Thermo-Calc 4.1, an entirely new database and three updated databases.
All current Maintenance and Support customers should have received your new license files via email already. If you have not received your updates, please email us at info@thermocalc.com.
This release offers some exciting new features, including a new calculation type, a new plot variable, improved plot configuration and time-saving defaults.
Complete details of the release can be found in the release notes or you can read about the highlights of this release on our blog.
New Solar Grade Silicon Mobility Database
This latest release includes a brand new database intended for the production of solar grade silicon materials.
The new database, known as MOBSI, is a kinetic database developed for calculating self and impurity diffusivities in both solid and liquid silicon.
MOBSI can be used in both TC-PRISMA and DICTRA and is intended to be coupled with the thermodynamic database TCSI.
The new database includes 28 elements and 2 phases.
Visit our website to read about MOBSI. For a quotation or questions, email us at info@thermocalc.com
Competition to Win ASM Materials Genome Toolkit
Universities in the United States can compete to win a free three-year Materials Genome Toolkit incorporating Thermo-Calc for use in undergraduate engineering programs.
The ASM Materials Genome Toolkit includes licenses for Thermo-Calc, DICTRA and TC-PRISMA, as well as thermodynamic and mobility databases. Licenses for the toolkit are provided by Thermo-Calc Software through an agreement with ASM.
Thermo-Calc Software is proud to be supporting science-based computational materials design and engineering.
Read full details of the competition and learn how your university can apply at the program announcement.
New Agent in Turkey
We are excited to announce the selection of our newest agent, Turkish engineering firm ONATUS Vision Technologies.
As an engineering consulting firm, ONATUS have a strong background in high tech simulation software and a deep understanding of many manufacturing industries, making them an ideal agent for Thermo-Calc Software.
Learn more about ONATUS and the value that local agents bring to Thermo-Calc Software customers.
Historic Notes: CALPHAD Assessments

In science, progress is not necessarily determined by the results of our research, but rather in how we interpret those results. It is in the connections we make.
Such as the case with CALPHAD assessments, it can take years or even decades to discover the important connections.
In this Historic Note, we reveal how the King of Sweden, a physicist and a failed attempt at a promotion brought about the first CALPHAD assessments nearly three decades after the fundamental discoveries had been made.
Historic Notes is a series of articles that explore the history of materials science, thermodynamics and other related fields through the scientists who made the discoveries. This is the second instalment in a three-part series tracing the evolution of CALPHAD from the Gibbs Phase Rule to the first lattice stabilities. Read the entire series.
TC-PRISMA Journal Article
The December issue of the Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance includes an article by Q. Chen, et.al., about the applicability of TC-PRISMA to designing alloy chemistry and heat treatment.
The article, Modeling Precipitation Kinetics During Heat Treatment with Calphad-Based Tools, demonstrates how TC-PRISMA can be used to gain a better understanding of complicated microstructures, thus reducing our dependence on costly, time-consuming experiments.
You can read the article at the Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance website or, if you do not have a subscription, you can read a summary on our blog.