ANSYS Buys Composite Analysis Software Developer EVEN

Recent mergers and acquisitions in the simulation market reveal a growing appetite for composite expertise. The explanation is simple (and it's going to sound like a pitch from a diet program): by gobbling up composite content, you can master the art of weight loss.

In aerospace and automotive, manufacturers aggressively pursue weight reduction because lighter products provide better fuel economy. The most recent discovery is that composite materials offer a serious advantage in weight reduction. Explaining its innovative approach to aircraft design, Airbus notes, "Composite materials maximize weight reduction -- as they typically are 20% lighter than aluminum –- and are known to be more reliable than other traditional metallic materials, leading to reduced aircraft maintenance costs, and a lower number of inspections during service."

Everyone in simulation wants a piece of the composite action. This has led to Autodesk's acquisition of Firehole Technologies, Siemens PLM Software's acquisition of Vistagy, MSC Software's acquisition of E-Xtream, and more. This week, ANSYS joined the gold rush by gobbling up EVEN, based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Announcing the acquisition, ANSYS says, "Because they combine light weight, high strength and outstanding flexibility, composites have become standard materials for manufacturing in a range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, energy, marine, motorsports and leisure. As a result, the use of composites has grown dramatically in the last decade. This popularity has fostered the need for new design, analysis and optimization technology. Since EVEN is a leader in composite simulation, this acquisition emphasizes the high priority ANSYS is giving to this emerging technology."

Oliver König, Marc Wintermantel, and Nino Zehnder founded EVEN in 2004, as an offshoot of their PhD theses in the field of Structural Optimization at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The company is known for OpLyX software, an optimization platform compatible with widely adopted simulation software packages like CATIA, ABAQUS, ANSYS, NASTRAN, and MATLAB. The software is deployed by Formula 1 design teams because, according to EVEN, "ComPoLyX provides advanced composite failure analysis including some unique algorithms that allow to calculate inter-laminar shear and normal stresses out of standard layered-shell FEM-models."

EVEN is also a partner developer of ANSYS. The technology footprint of EVEN is found in ANSYSComposite PrepPost, tightly integrated with ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS Mechanical APDL. According to ANSYS, "ANSYS Composite PrepPostis a pre- and post-processing solution for layered composite materials... The solution empowers users to efficiently model the most complex composite structures and, at the same time, fully understand the potential failure of product models. Users can subject product designs to simple physical stresses and compute progressive damage, delamination and cracking."

For more, you can visit ANSYS blog post on the acquisition.