Help

Help contents (Overview)

A) Searching the database
A-1 General workflow
A-2 How to identify a component
A-3 How to define a mixture
A-4 How to remove a component from a mixture
A-5 How to select properties
A-6 How to specify temperature and pressure ranges
A-7 How to specify the number of components in the mixture
A-8 How to specify display preferences for the result list
B) Using the result lists
B-1 How to navigate within the result list
B-2 How to preview a data table
B-3 How to check a data table for later download
B-4 How to edit or view the data cart
C) Downloading data
C-1 How to start downloading and to perform the login
C-2 The different formats for downloading
C-3 How to download in multiple formats
C-4 When is my download charged to my account?
D) Privacy, reporting and invoices
D-1) Do you report what I am doing?
D-2) What kind of reporting is given within the invoices?
D-3) For what kind of purposes are the reports used?
D-4) Are the reports passed to other parties?
D-5) When are the reports deleted?
E) Account maintenance
E-1) I have lost my password. Please help!
E-2) How to login for account maintenance
E-3) How to change my password
E-4) How to change my email adress
E-5) How change my limit
E-6) How to update my credit card information
E-7) How to view my invoices
E-8) How to view the downloads of the actual quarter
E-9) How to cancel my contract
F) Fees
F-1) The pricing model
G) Registration
G-1 How to start the registration
G-1 How to finish registration

A) Searching the database

A-1 General workflow

The online search engine is designed to get out data with minimal efforts. It is based on the assumption, that you know what you are searching for - that means you know the components you need thermodynmamic data for. A reverse search (definition of properties and searching for matching components) is not possible with the online system.

Based on the above assumptions the workflow is as follows:

A-2 How to identify a component

Enter a name, a sum formula or a CAS number of a substance in the respective field. You can use the wildcard"*" within the name and sum formula fields. You may enter both a name fragment with a wildcard plus a sum formula to search for substances matching both criteria (e.g. 4-methyl* and C6H12 to simply identify 4-methyl-(Z)-2-pentene).

It is also possible to enter several search strings separated by ";" in one field.

Click Search to start the search. If your search criteria matches only one substance, it is added to the mixture list automatically. If your search returns more than one hit, a list of results is displayed. Select one or more components within the list and choose Add to add the substance to the mixture.

You may use Clear to reset the search fields.

A-3 How to define a mixture

To define a mixture consisting of n components, simply identify n components step by step as described in A-2.

A-4 How to remove a component from a mixture

To remove components from a mixture, click Edit. Instead the normal mixture display a selectable list will be displayed. Select the components to delete and click Remove.

If you want to remove all components, use the button NewMix.

A-5 How to select properties

If all components of a mixture are identified, click Next to proceed. On the next page a list of properties is displayed. Select the properties you are searching data for. To select more than one property, hold down the <ctrl> key while clicking a property item.

The properties are listed alphabetically. In addition the most common searched properties are listed on top of the list in addition.

If one wants to search for all properties of the selected mixture/component, use the all properties item. It is on top of the list and will be selected by default.

A-6 How to specify temperature and pressure ranges

If you want to indicate temperature and/or pressure ranges, click the Options button, after selection of the properties (A-5). On the following page you can indicate the temperature and or pressure ranges.

Select at first a range comparison operator: =, <, > or from. Afterwards enter the temperature and/or pressure value within the first field. The second field will only be evaluated, if you indicate a range (from - to). Finally choose the unit for the values you entered.

A-7 How to specify the number of components in the mixture

Normally a search is carried out for the number of components you identified during the definition of the mixture (A-3). That means, if you defined the components A and B, the search will find data for the mixture A/B. To alter the number of components to search for, you can use the systems with dropdown.

If you for example indicate "with 3 components", the search will find data for the systems A/B/N, where N can be any component.

If you for example indicate "with * components", the search will find data for all systems where the components A & B are contained (both).

If you check include sub-mixtures and components, the search will also return the pure component data as well as the data of all submixtures. If you for example defined the three components A/B/C as your mixture, checking this item will return the data of the systems A/B/C, A/B, A/C, B/C, A, B and C all together. This option could not be combined with the one described above.

A-7 How to specify display preferences for the result list

One page of the result list normally contains 15 items. If the search results contains more data sets, the list is split to several pages. The complete list is ordered ascending by property on default.

B) Using the result lists

B-1 How to navigate within the result list

If the result list of your search has more than one page, you can navigate between the different pages using the following elements of each page:

B-2 How to preview a data table

You can preview each data set by clicking on the small table icon within the property column. With the preview you get some additional information, especially on the content of the different cols of the data table. For all independent variables the range is given. This is especially helpful in mixture cases and allows you to determine if the data set is reporting the concentration range you need data for.

To step back to the list of result, use the back button of your browser. The item you have previewed should be marked afterwards. So you can easily check it (see B-3), if the dataset is one you intend to download.

B-3 How to check a data table for later download

If you want to mark a data set for downloading, simply check it at the beginning of the row: it will be added to your data cart.

An overview of your data cart (the collections of data sets you marked for download) is also shown at the lower left. However, due to technical reasons this overview gets only updated after you clicked one of the links or the buttons on the page.

B-4 How to edit or view the data cart

You can view and edit your data cart (the collections of data sets you marked for download) all times. Simply click on the My Cart icon at the lower left of the result list. To get back to the result list, please use the back button of your browser.

Within the data cart view you can step ahead to download the data. Before you may uncheck undesired data sets.

If you uncheck data sets and use the update button, the data sets will be deleted from your cart. In addition, your actual search will be deleted, too. Therefore it will not be possible to step back to your search results afterwards.

C) Downloading data

C-1 How to start downloading and to perform the login

After selection of one or more datasets click Checkout. On the next page a final overview of your data cart will be presented. This will be the last possibility to update your cart (see B-4). Click finally Order to proceed to the download page.

If you are not logged on already, now at first a SSL secured page will ask for your username and password. The page is certfied by Thawte. To view the certificate you may click on the thawte site seal or use your browsers capabilities to display the certificate.

Enter your username and password and click Login. A last confirmation page will show. Since you are now logged into the system you will also see the final price for each data set. (Academic) discounts will be displayed. If you may have downloaded one of the data sets already (within the actual quarter), you will that you can download once again free of charge.

Click confirm to proceed to the download page(C-2).

C-2 The different formats for downloading

You can download the data in different formats and languages.

C-3 How to download in multiple formats

To download data sets in multiple formats, choose a format and display it. Save the report to disk. Afterwards click the back button of your browser to get back to the download page. Choose another format and download again. You will only be charged once for the dataset(s).

C-4 When is my download charged to my account?

In fact your account is charged exactly at the moment the DETHERM webserver delivers the download to you. During delivery the server checks your account and records your charge.

If you have already confirmed your data cart, but not yet downloaded (because your system crashes, the Internet connection hangs, our server hangs, your boss visits you, ...) the data are still not charged to your account. The data are charged exactly when our server delivers the download.

If you download the same dataset more than once within a quarter (either in another format or even in the same format), the accounting system will detect this and not charge you twice for the same dataset(s).

D) Privacy, reporting and invoices

D-1) Do you report what I am doing?

Yes, of course. Otherwise we will not be able to charge you correctly. We are reporting:

D-2) What kind of reporting is given within the invoices?

Within the invoices you will find the information generated during download:

D-3) For what kind of purposes are the reports used?

The reports are mainly used to monitor performance of the system. They are also used to detect and/or monitor abuse of our services. The reports will be definitely not used to detect what company or party is interested in what kind of data. However, we reserve the right to sum up and store anonymized information on unsuccessful searches (that means substances, mixtures and/or related properties we do not have in the database). This may give us hints what kind of data are needed by our customers. But in no case this information will be conducted to the persons or companies originating this informations.

D-4) Are the reports passed to other parties?

No. The reports are not passed to any other party. Only in case of problems parts of this informations may be passed to the original vendor of the database segment, if the problem clarification process requires this.

D-5) When are the reports deleted?

All system usage reports are deleted after the following quarter has finished (that means the reports of quarter II are deleted at the beginning of quarter IV).

The accounting information contained in your bills is stored as long as we are legally obliged to store your invoice (actually ten years). However, since the only information stored within the invoices are the (internal) table numbers and their prices, we will not be able to say what you have downloaded. After every database update (at least yearly), these number are out of sync with the information they have belonged to.

E) Account maintenance

E-1) I have lost my password. Please help!

If you have lost your password, we will not able to tell you. We do not know your password either. Our server only knows the hash value of your password, which identifies your password undoubtfully when you login to the system.

If you have lost your password, we can only generate a new one for you. Go to the Login page and request a new password using the link Password lost?. The password will be emailed to the address related to your account name. To be sure, that the right person is requesting a new password, we also will ask for the first six characters of your registration id. This registration id you will find on the signed contract, you mailed or faxed to our hands (the last step of registration). We assume you have archived a copy of this contract, so hopefully you will be able to look this up.

E-2) How to login for account maintenance

Open the start page of DETHERM & CHEMSAFE on the web and choose Login at the menu in the upper right. Perform the login afterwards.

E-3) How to change my password

Login to account maintenance (E-2). Afterwards choose Password from the menu in the upper right. On the following page you can choose a new password. We recommend to use passwords with at least 6 characters. The password should also contain some special characters or numbers.

E-4) How to change my email adress

Login to account maintenance (E-2). Afterwards choose the Edit account button. On the following page you can alter your email address. You will have to indicate your password again to validate this changes.

E-5) How change my limit

You can limit your account. If your downloads exceed the quarterly limit, the download will be denied by the system. You are only allowed to decrease your limit. To decrease your limit, login to account maintenance (E-2). Afterwards choose Edit account. On the following page you can alter your limit. You will have to indicate your password again to validate this changes.

If you want to increase your limit, please contact us directly.

If your reported limit is -1 EUR, your account is unlimited. You may indicate any limit in such a case.

E-6) How to update my credit card information

If you have chosen to pay via credit card and your credit card is expired, you will get an automatic note after performing a login to the system.

To update your credit card information, login to account maintenance (E-2). Afterwards choose Edit account. On the following page you can indicate your new credit card information. You will have to indicate your password again to validate this changes.

Editing of credit card information will not be possible. The credit card information is not stored on the database server.

E-7) How to view my invoices

You can view your last invoices. Login to account maintenance (E-2). Afterwards click Invoices on the menu at the upper right. The available invoices will be listed. Check one and proceed with OK to display it.

E-8) How to view the downloads of the actual quarter

You can view the downloads you have made within the last quarter. Login to account maintenance (E-2). Afterwards choose either DETHERM or CHEMSAFE from the menu in the upper right. You will see the accounting information of the actual quarter. Within this report the dataset number is a clickable link. Click on a dataset number to download a dataset again.

To download all the datasets of the quarter collected within one report, simply follow the link >>> Download all records in one file <<<.

E-9) How to cancel my contract

If you want to cancel your contract, give us a notice using the contact page. However, since having an account is free of charge, there is no need to cancel the contract.

Nevertheless, DECHEMA acclaims the right to drop an account, if no usage has been detected for more than one year. But don't worry, currently we still will maintain your account even longer than one year, even if you do not use it. But if the account is not used for e.g. three years and if it is also combined with an outdated credit card, you should not expect to find it present and/or active after that time.

F) Fees

F-1 The pricing model

Free of charge are:

On charge available is the download of data sets in various formats (see C-2). The prices for downloading a data set depend on the size of the table (the number of lines within the table). The actual prices you find for each system on a separate page:

G) Registration

G-1 How to start the registration

Registration is a five step process:

  1. Indicate all required information (address, billing, etc.)
  2. Review this information
  3. Accept terms of use
  4. Choose login name and password
  5. Print the generated registration form, sign it and fax it to our hands

G-1 How to finish registration

As mentioned above, without sending us a signed contract (by post or mail), we will not activate your account.