ESI Group Announces WELD PLANNER

The Efficient New Solution for Welding Distortion Engineering at the Early Stage
of Conceptual Planning
PARIS--(Business Wire)--
ESI Group (ESINFR0004110310), a pioneer and world-leading supplier of digital
simulation software for prototyping and manufacturing processes, announced today
the release of WELD PLANNER - an innovative software that enables you to
evaluate and control Welding Distortion Engineering at the early stage of
Preliminary Design and Planning. ESI Group`s WELD PLANNER allows you to
considerably reduce time-to-production and hereby save in production costs.

The new WELD PLANNER is a milestone in terms of simplicity. The application
provides access to welding-induced distortion simulation for people unfamiliar
with Finite Elements Simulation. Training to be fully operational is completed
in just one day. WELD PLANNER is a streamlined solution which includes fast
generation or automatic finding of weld seams between parts; convenient
definition of the welding sequence as a robot plan; typical industrial clamping
conditions; and versatile possibilities for the visualization of computed
distortion.

"WELD PLANNER is dedicated to product design and production planning. It enables
you to control welding distortion of complex welded designs in less than one
day, and consequently make significant savings in experimental try-out loops and
distortion repair cost," said Harald Porzner, ESI Group Product Manager. "WELD
PLANNER is well integrated in ESI Group`s complete Welding Simulation Solution -
you can manage your business on demand, from early feasibility to detailed weld
design and weld quality evaluation," he continued.

This breakthrough application is the result of many years of collaboration with
INPRO GmbH, and industry leaders such as Volkswagen AG, DAIMLER AG and
ThyssenKrupp Technologies AG. WELD PLANNER fulfils market needs in terms of
quick simulation response and the availability of a needed database, which are
critical to successful simulation, especially in the Preliminary Design phase.

"WELD PLANNER is an easy to use and fast predictive tool. In the future, it will
be integrated in product development at VW in Braunschweig. WELD PLANNER has the
potential tosave one to two experimental loops, meaning 10 to 20k€ per part,"
declared Hans-Werner Scholz from the Development department at Volkswagen
Braunschweig.

WELD PLANNER is now commercially available. Seize the opportunity to subscribe
to a one-day certifying training course to perform simulation-based welding
distortion engineering. Together with the training comes a one-month trial
license that can be used in production mode from the very first day.

For further information, please visit www.esi-group.com/products/welding

About ESI Group

ESI Group is a world-leading supplier and pioneer of digital simulation software
for prototyping and manufacturing processes that take into account the physics
of materials. ESI Group has developed an extensive suite of coherent,
industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product`s behavior
during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired
product performance, and to evaluate the environment`s impact on product
performance. ESI Group`s products represent a unique collaborative and open
environment for Simulation-Based Design, enabling virtual prototypes to be
improved in a continuous and collaborative manner while eliminating the need for
physical prototypes during product development. The company employs over 700
high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is
listed in compartment C of NYSE Euronext Paris. For further information, visit
www.esi-group.com.

ESI Group
Elise Lavoue, +44 (0) 1865 784 833
Elise.lavoue@esi-group.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009