FEM package covers many casting processes

A comprehensive finite element software package for foundry simulation provides fast optimization of designs for many processes, from pressure die casting to sand and investment casting.

A comprehensive finite element software package for foundry simulation provides fast optimization of designs for a wide range of processes, from high- and low-pressure die casting to sand casting and investment casting.

ESI Group is releasing ProCAST 2004, a comprehensive finite element software package for foundry simulation.

ProCAST provides fast optimization of designs for a wide range of processes, from high- and low-pressure die casting to sand casting and investment casting.

ProCAST includes advanced capabilities in automatic meshing, thermal analysis, metal flow, stress and deformation, microstructure analysis and radiation effects.

The 2004 version also features a completely new user-interface as well as improved performances in speed, accuracy and processing capabilities.

"ProCAST 2004 is the first release delivered by ESI Group since its acquisition from UES," said Dominique Lefebvre, casting solutions product manager at ESI Group.

"Extensive validations complying with the ISO 9001 procedures of ESI Group have been conducted to assess the reliability and consistency of the simulation results.

ProCAST 2004 is the first step in our strategy to provide high added-value solutions to the casting industry." Several significant enhancements have been implemented in the 2004 release.

ProCAST's completely new graphical interface offers an efficient and intuitive visualization environment.

Project file management has been improved with the new software manager, which provides direct access to the various modules such as meshing, pre- and post-processing, thermal and flow solvers.

New features and tools have been added to the mesh generator to enhance CAD integration with third-party software using standard exchange formats such as Step, Parasolid and IGES.

The mesh generator is now available on all platforms supported by the 2004 release.

A new algorithm provides automatic mesh optimization for each simulation, generating fewer elements while maintaining an optimal mesh quality.

This significantly shortens computing time.

The new pre-processor offers a simplified definition and assignment of all process parameters and contains a specific thermodynamic database.

To help engineers better visualize and analyze the full process, the post-processor now includes a menu and an icon-driven interface.

New analysis results have been added to better assess the casting quality using hot tearing predictions and crack calculations, coupling stress and porosity results.

ProCAST 2004 also helps to better predict the fatigue life of the tooling concerned.

ProCAST 2004 is available on Windows NT, 2000 and XP platforms, hardware-vendor supported Linux platforms, and UNIX workstations from HP-Compaq, IBM, SGI and Sun.

About ESI Group's casting solutions - casting process simulation is now widely accepted as an important tool in product design and process development to improve yield and casting quality.

ESI Group's casting portfolio includes ProCAST, CALCOSOFT, for the fast and efficient modelling of continuous casting processes and PAM-CAST, the finite difference software for filling and solidification.

About ESI Group - ESI Group is a pioneer and world leading provider of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes that take into account the physics of materials.

ESI Group has developed an entire suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product's behaviour during testing, to fine-tune the manufacturing processes in synergy with the desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment's impact on product usage.

ESI Group's product portfolio, which has been industrially validated and combined in multi-trade value chains, represents a unique collaborative, virtual engineering solution, known as the Virtual Try-Out Space (VTOS), enabling a continuous improvement on the virtual prototype.

By drastically reducing costs and development lead-times, VTOS solutions offer major competitive advantages by progressively eliminating the need for physical prototypes.

With revenues close to EUR 43 million in fiscal year 2002, ESI Group (Nouveau March?: Euronext Paris - Software - Euroclear 6584 - Bloomberg ESI FP - Reuters ESIG.LN) employs over 400 high-level specialists worldwide.

The company and its global network of agents provide sales and technical support to customers in more than 30 countries.

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