ESI Ships ProCAST 2013.5 for Casting Process Simulation

ESI Group announced the release of ProCAST 2013.5 along with its dedicated user environment, Visual-Cast 9.0, both designed to enable foundries to improve casting yield and quality with more efficient processes and solvers, the company says.

ProCAST, ESI's casting simulation software, is adapted to predict distortions and residual stresses after casting and addresses specific processes including core blowing, centrifugal, lost foam, semi-solid and continuous casting.

"ProCAST empowers foundries to address the most technically demanding tasks in casting, while reducing lead time, increasing productivity and controlling cost. This release offers best-in-class casting simulation in a single, integrated and customizable environment. The new fluid flow solver delivers twice faster turnaround time and improved accuracy," said Marco Aloe, product manager, ESI Group.

According to the company, ProCAST 2013.5 features a new version of the fluid flow solver that benefits from the accuracy of the finite element method (FEM), the efficiency of the finite volume method (FVM), and the speed of the multi-grid linear solver used by many CFD software packages.

ProCAST's user environment, Visual-Cast 9.0, provides improvements in turnaround time, offering faster handling capabilities, the company says. In addition, foundries can now design their own workflows, encapsulating practices and adjusted to particular needs.

The release incorporates the time-temperature transformation (TTT) and continuous cooling transformation (CCT) approaches for modeling heat treatment, and the full integration of the CAFE module to model grain structure. New capabilities dedicated to specific processes are also introduced, including a die locking force indicator, a new turbulence model, and an improved misrun prediction model.

For more information, visit ESI Group.

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