With the advent of the web engineers and scientists at different companies often make use of the vast knowledge available “out there” to look up and research materials. This can be a great first step in narrowing down a search in order to produce a small subset of materials to choose from, as long as the search is done with some up front knowledge. When comparing data sheets from different vendors it is important to compare the test methods as well. For example viscosity measured using different methods can give different results. If possible, try to match up test methods, speak to the vendors and see if they have data on their materials with the other methods – to make it easier to compare. Finally, even after comparing data sheets it is critical to test materials in your application. Technical data sheets should be used as guidelines as way to down select from a range of materials in order to develop a smaller subset of materials for actual physical testing.