ESI announces the release of ProCAST and QuikCAST

New viewer Visual-Cast with multi-window and multi-studies capability including a new smooth surface rendering New viewer Visual-Cast with multi-window and multi-studies capability including a new smooth surface rendering.

Paris, France – ESI Group , a pioneer and world-leading supplier of digital simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes, announces today the release of its unique suite of simulation solutions dedicated to the foundry industry ProCAST 2009 and QuikCAST 2009.

Towards an integrated environment
Version 2009 of ESI’s foundry portfolio is a first step towards complete integration into a single environment: ProCAST 2009 and QuikCAST 2009 results are now shown in a common viewer, Visual-Cast.

Visual-Cast is a complete, productive and innovative post processing environment for foundry applications. It represents the next generation of state-of-the-art plotting and animation control solutions. The new viewer Visual-Cast boosts the productivity of foundry engineers by performing automated tasks and generating customized reports within a multiple window environment. It allows for an easy and fast interpretation of graphical results using foundry criteria and animation control.

The benefits for the user of this new common environment are an all-in-one framework speeding up data exchange and resulting in better productivity and rendering.

ProCAST 2009
ProCAST is an advanced and complete tool which is the result of more than 20 years of collaboration with major industrial partners and academic institutions all over the world. The ProCAST solution offers an extensive suite of modules and foundry tools to meet the most challenging industrial requirements. The software, based on powerful Finite Element technology, also enables the prediction of deformations and residual stresses and can address more specific processes like semi-solid, core-blowing, centrifugal, lost foam and continuous casting.

ProCAST 2009 hosts a variety of new features and improvements. In addition to building the adequate bridges between casting and the major structural analysis software, version 2009 is focused on microstructural prediction:
* The formation of microstructures associated with solid state phase transformations during cooling or during heat treatment can now be simulated using models based upon Time-Temperature-Transformation or Continuous Cooling-Transformation diagrams.
* For a stress calculation, ProCAST allows now to define mechanical properties which are not only temperature dependant, but also microstructure and/or defects dependant.

ProCAST 2009 is also entirely available with a scripting language. This method is very convenient for automatic repetitive set-up, and Visual-Environment modules such as Visual-Process Executive for process customization and automation or Visual-OPT for optimization.

QuikCAST 2009
QuikCAST is a fast and efficient solution for complete process evaluation. The tool focuses on the basics of any casting process: filling, solidification and porosity prediction including core blowing and semi-solid modeling. QuikCAST validated technology is based on Finite Difference solvers with efficient self-correction features which yields in realistic results with high mesh independence. QuikCAST has proven to be an indispensable tool in foundries to validate decisions during prototyping, to improve yields, and to reduce manufacturing costs.

QuikCAST 2009 has undergone numerous improvements in product functionalities and also contains new features which drastically reduce turnaround time. In addition to the new post-processing capabilities, other main improvements were achieved: acceleration of automatic grid generation, new graphical tools to monitor calculations, an improved porosity model, and optimized solver performance based on recent hardware evolution.

“In the current economic environment, product excellence, innovation and shorter time-to-market are the mottos of any successful foundry”, said Marco Aloe, Casting Product Manager. “With the 2009 releases, we achieved the first step in providing a complete and best-in-class solution in a common environment to meet the wide casting market requirements. In addition, we have made improvements in numerical modeling such as predicting defects at a microstructure level and providing integrated value chains to predict realistic testing variation effects on product performance,” he added.