Pre-Print · OCO v0.94 · Juni 2026
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A Layered Architecture for Reusable Materials Ontologies — The OntoCrafter Ceramics Ontology (OCO) as Reference Implementation
Pannek & Grond (2026).
Abstract
The Materials Science and Engineering ontology landscape is fragmented along multiple axes simultaneously. Horizontally: a recent survey identified 94 ontologies of which over 40 are structurally incompatible; each new application domain — ceramics, polymers, batteries, smart materials — typically restarts ontology design from scratch. Vertically: EU regulation (CSRD, CSDDD, PPWR, CBAM, R2R, AI Act, ESPR) forces material, manufacturing, supply-chain, and lifecycle data into integrated digital product passports, leaving ontologies that only address horizontal fragmentation incomplete for any contemporary consumer. And mechanistically: a vocabulary that records that BNT-BT has pC/N stores a fact but cannot surface why — Bi-6s lone-pair stereo-activity, anomalous Born effective charges, soft modes, defect chemistry — without a systematic explanation skeleton. We propose a multi-level modular architecture with two independent classification axes — level of abstraction (L0 bridges, L1 material-agnostic laboratory-notebook, L2 material-class-specific, L3 categorical reasoning) and consumer audience (material vs. compliance) — in which the material-specific level is internally organised by a seven-tier mechanistic-explanation skeleton (Symmetry, Energy/DFT, Thermo/CALPHAD, Kinetics, Microstructure, Defect chemistry, Bonding) applicable to any crystalline ionic oxide. The level-and-audience modularity dissolves the horizontal fragmentation, the compliance audience absorbs the vertical regulation pressure, and the seven-tier organisation of Level 2 delivers the mechanistic explanation depth. We instantiate the architecture as the OntoCrafter Ceramics Ontology (OCO v0.94): 5,196 classes across 44 modules; 167,348 OWL axioms (40,454 logical); 1,674 properties; 829 cross-ontology bridge mappings; 1,172 SHACL shapes; 163 published competency questions.
Keywords: materials ontology, layered architecture, three-axis architecture, functional ceramics, LIMS/ELN integration, EU compliance, mechanistic explanation, competency questions, BFO, PMDco, interoperability, reasoning.
Zitation
BibTeX
@misc{pannek_grond_2026_ontocrafter,
author = {Pannek, Thomas and Grond, Wolfgang},
title = {A Multi-Level Architecture for Reusable Materials
Ontologies -- The OntoCrafter Ceramics Ontology (OCO) as Reference
Implementation},
year = {2026},
eprint = {2606.14814},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
primaryClass = {cond-mat.mtrl-sci},
doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2606.14814},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.14814},
url = {https://w3id.org/oco/}
}