Materials Prep vs. a generic ELN.
Generic ELNs like Benchling, LabArchives, eLabFTW, and SciNote are designed around biotech experiments. Metallography is sample-first work: mounting, grinding, polishing, etching, imaging. Forcing the second into the first never quite fits.
Experiment-first vs. sample-first.
A biotech experiment is a one-time procedure with a result. A metallography sample is a physical object that lives through a sequence of preparation steps before it's imaged, sometimes weeks apart. The data model that fits one doesn't fit the other.
Generic ELNs treat every workflow as a form to fill out. Materials Prep starts from the sample and the prep, the way the lab already thinks about the work.
Generic ELN refers to broadly-applicable lab notebooks like Benchling, LabArchives, eLabFTW, and SciNote. Capabilities vary by vendor and tier.
We're not trying to be a generic ELN.
This page is honest about what each tool is for. Generic ELNs do real work in biotech, in regulated pharma, in academic life-science labs. Materials Prep does real work in metallography. The two overlap less than the category “ELN” implies.
Pick a generic ELN if…
- Your work is biotech assays, sequence data, plate maps, or animal-model studies.
- You're under FDA scope and need 21 CFR Part 11 strict compliance.
- You need a validated, GxP-ready environment for regulated pharma research.
- Your lab spans many domains and needs a single domain-agnostic notebook.
Pick Materials Prep if…
- Your lab's daily output is metallographic sample preparation, micrographs, and prep recipes.
- Recipes by alloy and hardness, an etchant catalog, and a searchable micrograph atlas would change how the bench works.
- You run failure analysis, qualification, university materials research, or in-house QA / metallurgical work.
- You've tried to model metallography inside a generic ELN and given up.
Common questions about switching.
- Is Materials Prep a Benchling alternative?
- Only for metallography. Benchling is a strong tool for biotech ELN workflows that involve assays, plate maps, and sequence data. Materials Prep is purpose-built for metallographic sample preparation. If your lab does both, it's reasonable to keep the biotech tool for biotech work and use Materials Prep for the metallography side.
- Why not just use a generic ELN with custom templates?
- You can model mounting and polishing inside a generic ELN by creating a custom protocol template. Several labs have. The trade-off is that recipe libraries by alloy and hardness, an etchant catalog, a searchable micrograph atlas, batch fan-out logging, and study comparisons all become workarounds inside someone else's data model. The closer you push, the more you're maintaining the workaround.
- Does Materials Prep do the things a generic ELN does well?
- Some of them. Lab roles, audit logging, soft-deleted recoverable records, and signed-URL image storage are built in. Things like assay plate maps, sequence data, and 21 CFR Part 11 strict compliance are not built and not on the roadmap; we're not pursuing FDA-regulated records as a segment.
- Can I import my prep data from a generic ELN?
- We don't have a one-click import yet. If you have an export from your current tool (CSV, JSON, or PDF), we can usually walk a few sample journals through manually so you can see how they translate. Email pace@metallographic.com.
- Who shouldn't switch?
- Service or contract labs that need a customer-facing portal, customer-branded reports, or invoicing. Labs working under FDA 21 CFR Part 11 strict scope. Labs that need a single tool to handle metallography and biotech experiments simultaneously. Materials Prep is built for in-house metallography labs (failure analysis, university materials, in-house QA) and is honest about that scope.
More about the workflow: how it works, recipes, atlas, etchants, trust and security.