Wind to Energy (W2E) Uses MSC.Software's Marc, MD Nastran, Adams and SimXpert

SANTA ANA, Calif - MSC.Software today announced that Wind to Energy GmbH (W2E) will use the company’s Marc, MD Nastran, Adams and SimXpert software products to achieve significant quality improvement company-wide. Using CAE to optimally utilize development resources is expected to achieve greater flexibility in the development of ambitious solutions in the wind energy sector.

W2E deployed MSC.Software solutions in April 2009 and saw results almost immediately. The company has been able to showcase innovation and drive the wind energy industry forward with their patented LARUS Compact® drive train concept. In this concept, virtually the only force acting on the gearbox is the drive torque necessary for energy production. This leads to considerably more favorable loads on the gearbox components and in turn to a considerable increase in service life.

“Before we deployed MSC.Software’s simulation solutions, we outsourced calculations to external providers,” said Jan Weihert, responsible for structural simulation at W2E. “For a company like W2E it is important to bundle core competences in house. The decision to use MSC.Software was influenced, apart from its superior performance reputation, by its flexible licensing that allows us access to the entire range of MSC.Software products while keeping costs manageable. Today we use Marc to calculate every structural component we develop.”

The flexible licensing system of MSC.Software is called Enterprise Advantage. It provides access to more than 170 solutions from the MSC.Software product portfolio including MD Nastran, Marc, Adams, and SimXpert.

About Wind to Energy (W2E)
Wind to Energy was established in 2003 by six specialists in the wind energy industry. In view of the company’s present size of 21 employees, the company abstained from establishing its own production line and instead focused on the development and certification of wind turbines and bringing them to a stage ready for production. The current family comprises three wind turbines: W100, W90 and W80, where the numbers indicate the rotor diameter. All three members of the family represent 2.5-MW turbines for different wind classes. The turbines developed by W2E are manufactured and distributed by Fuhrländer AG. A 2-MW turbine with a 93 m rotor diameter is currently nearing certification. It will also be licensed worldwide; the first licenses have been sold already. Besides its headquarters in Rostock, the company also has offices in the United States, which is in charge of the North American market.