PZFlex® Establishes European Base in Scotland

Weidlinger opened a PZFlex® office in Glasgow on September 1, headed by former Rolls-Royce principal technologist Gerald Harvey.

Glasgow, UK – PZFlex® announced the establishment of an office in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland and the third most populated city in the United Kingdom, and appointed Gerald Harvey, PhD, as PZFlex Sales Manager, Europe. In this new role, Dr. Harvey will be responsible for coordinating all activities and sales of the 3D virtual prototyping software related to mainland Europe (all EU countries), including support and training of customers and the development of new business lines.

“We look forward to working with Gerry on expanding PZFlex’s market presence abroad,” said Business Group Director Dr. Paul Reynolds. “Last year, European companies accounted for 25% of PZFlex sales, and we aim to grow that number by providing active support in the region. We have identified non-destructive testing (NDT), sonar, medical imaging, medical therapeutics, and industrial sensors as the application areas with the most potential for driving business growth.”

In 2008, Gerald Harvey received a PhD from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow for “An Investigation into the Simulation and Measurement of High Intensity Ultrasonic Systems.” He has worked on the development of novel conformable piezoelectric transducers for the non-destructive evaluation and testing (NDE/NDT) industry in addition to several consultancy programs in transducer design and product realization. In 2007, he joined Rolls-Royce Group, plc, a global business providing integrated power systems for use on land, at sea and in the air. While there, Dr. Harvey set up an NDE demonstration cell for the development of research-based NDE technologies to production-ready solutions and obtained the position of principal technologist.

PZFlex takes advantage of the availability of inexpensive, powerful computers to bring sophisticated modeling capability to designers’ desktops for predicting the performance of a product or device. The most obvious advantage is reduction of time to market and cost, as the product can be built, tested, and optimized almost entirely in virtual form. Another advantage is that the software supports the modeling of entire devices and their housings, along with their individual components.

Last year, PZFlex introduced a new version of its 3D virtual-prototyping software, PZFlex Standard, aimed at small to mid-sized businesses (SMB), to complement its best-selling PZFlex® Professional. Both versions offer seamless interface with SolidWorks, one of the most popular CAD/CAM packages available for designing prototypes and sharing technical drawings with manufacturers. This year, PZFlex® also inaugurated a student innovation competition to inspire novel uses of the software.