Ask HN: Materials science collaboration software?

Do you know of any collaboration software / web service for materials science businesses?

- I run the US sales and marketing for a materials science company. - We need some sort of software collaboration tool that helps us track materials science samples. - Yes, we've STFW. - We make 200 - 400 samples per year for customers, almost all technical textiles. It could be an A4 sheet to 1.6 meters wide x 2 kilometers in length. - Our customers will then test, evaluate and modify the materials, which they will then share with their customers... (turtles all the way down) - I'd be willing to pay for this by the month (if we were SFDC users, it could be a plug-in, but we are not). - I've seen similar attempts at life science products - but nothing that has been close enough to merit an attempt to modify. - We've had custom builds done in the past (RoR, .net, etc.), but this seems like it would be useful to groups beyond ourselves.

Any leads are greatly appreciated. And yes, if someone was looking for an initial customer, we could be that group.