ESI Group, a leading provider of virtual prototyping solutions,today announced the release of SYSWELD 2000. The software enablesusers to build a compute model, simulate the heat treatingprocess, and evaluate the influence of the process on partslifetime. It is uniquely suited to simulate continuous welding,resistance welding, quenching, induction hardening,thermo-chemical treatment and surface treatment.

SYSWELD 2000 newdatabase of engineering know-how guides the users to realisticwelding and heat treatment process simulation.

Other majorenhancements include, improved case hardening simulation, steadystate welding process, and faster solvers for Compaq, HP, and SGIplatforms.

According to Dr.Ludwig Sporer, Manager of theoperating strength testing chassis, BMW, 'SYSWELD gives goodresults on distortions and residual stresses, very close to realmeasurements on the part.

With the virtual prediction ofdistortions and residual stresses of the welded part, we can nowoptimize the welding process in the early stage ofprototyping.' SYSWELD 2000 includes a large database ofengineering expertise that supports the user through real weldingand heat treatment process simulation.

This unique knowledgedatabase will help users save time for setting-up welding andheat treatment simulations, and ultimately reduce the time tomarket by optimizing the quality of the parts.

Improved casehardening simulation allows users to decrease process cost andoverdesign, respectively taking care of lifetime and noisereduction constraints.

SYSWELD 2000 helped reduce the necessarycase hardening time by a factor of 3 still keeping the limits ofdistortion for a gearbox component.

The steady state weldingprocess computation facilities have been enhanced.

A steady statewelding computation enables users to predict, within onecomputation step, all necessary data, such as temperature field,phase distributions, distortions and residual stresses.

SYSWELD2000 allows selected parts, within arbitrary structures to bedeclared as stationary area, providing faster distortionprediction.

In addition to the SGI solver, new fast solvers forCompaq and HP platforms are now available.

Optimized solversprovided by hardware vendors speed up computation time by afactor 10, compare to hardware independent equation solvers.Nonlinear computations options have been improved, reducingdrastically simulation cost.

Due to code optimization, the globalperformance of version 2000 has been improved by a factor 2.SYSWELD is available on PC (Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000) and onUNIX workstations from Compaq, HP, IBM, SGI, and SUN.

Pioneer ofvirtual prototype testing software, ESI Group is a leadingprovider of simulation solutions that enhance product design andmanufacturing process.

ESI Group's collaborative softwareenable engineers to simulate realistic product behavior undertest and their impact on the environment, as well asmanufacturing processes such as stamping, casting, and welding.As engineers are able to explore more alternatives without havingto build and destroy multiple physical prototypes, ESIGroup's virtual prototype testing software helpmanufacturers to reduce development costs and time to market.