Altair Acquires DEM Solutions

Altair announced the acquisition of DEM Solutions, makers of EDEM Discrete Element Method (DEM) software for bulk material simulation.

Altair’s solutions for machinery and materials simulation will be enhanced with the addition of EDEM for bulk materials simulation by offering new tools that can provide insight to the interaction between materials such as pellets, tablets, powders, coal, soil and rocks with machinery, Altair reports. This systems-level simulation capability will provide insights for optimizing machinery design, material handling and manufacturing efficiency in various industries including pharmaceutical, chemical and food processing, agriculture and heavy engineering such as mining.

With this acquisition, Altair customers now have the ability to design and develop power machinery while simultaneously optimizing how this equipment processes and handles bulk materials.

“Altair continues to broaden our solution portfolio to offer our customers the best software stack in the business,” says James Scapa, Altair’s chief executive officer and founder. “With DEM Solutions, we will expand into DEM, helping our customers improve their business operations and productivity through this holistic system view.”

Blue-chip companies around the world use EDEM to reduce costs of operations, shorten product development cycles and drive product innovation. In addition, EDEM is used for research at more than 300 academic institutions worldwide.

“We are thrilled to join the ranks of such a globally relevant and growing software player,” says Ian Williamson, chief executive officer of DEM Solutions. “The possibilities to scale our solutions by integrating them with Altair’s broad physics solver portfolio alongside their deep technical bench is incredibly exciting.”

First introduced to the market in 2006, DEM Solutions software is used for simulation and development of equipment that handles or processes bulk material and is based in Edinburgh, UK with offices in Japan, Korea and the US.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.