Acquisition enables solver integration

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 18, 2006

Altair Engineering has completed its acquisition of the Mecalog Group and its Radioss product family of computer-aided engineering software technology.

Altair Engineering has completed its acquisition of the Mecalog Group and its Radioss product family of computer-aided engineering (CAE) software technology.

Mecalog, based in Antony, France, is a leading global developer of transient, nonlinear CAE technology to simulate safety-related performance as well as other impact events.

The expanded Altair HyperWorks CAE technology suite now contains robust solver solutions for linear, nonlinear, fluid and fluid structure interaction, structural optimisation and multibody dynamics applications, while delivering best-in-class modelling, visualisation and process automation solutions.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"During the entire acquisition process, we identified new and innovative technology applications from our combined solution set", said James R Scapa, President and CEO of Altair Engineering.

"The exciting potential for technology 'firsts' reinforced by a positive client response will deliver wide-ranging benefits for the PLM community".

"I appreciate the employees in both organisations for their valued contributions to Altair and the advancement of HyperWorks as the preferred solution for the desktop and enterprise".

"Faurecia is pleased to see the merger of Altair and Mecalog, two of its historical suppliers for the automotive seats virtual design process and safety simulations", said Laurent Guerin, Manager, Faurecia ASPG-R and D.

"By combining their forces, it will allow them to deliver a unified engineering solution that will help their customers to face the continuous reduction of development time in the automotive industry and growing demand regarding accuracy of virtual testing compared with physical testing".

Francis Arnaudeau, Chief Technologist and cofounder of Mecalog, joins Altair as Managing Director of the Radioss development organisation.

He will continue to oversee Radioss software development and lead the advancement of this technology.

"Integrating Radioss and HyperWorks technology offers our mutual customers a complete CAE solution", said Arnaudeau.

"Those tools, combined with the comprehensive customer support for which Altair has become globally recognised, will provide a real competitive advantage in their ability to help efficiently deliver robust products to the marketplace".

The combined HyperWorks and Radioss product families are expected to give Altair one of the most comprehensive, open-architecture CAE solutions in the industry, offering best-in-class modelling, analysis, visualisation and performance data management solutions for linear, nonlinear, fluid and fluid structure interaction, structural optimisation, and multi-body dynamics applications.

Committed to an open-systems philosophy, Altair continues to lead the industry with the broadest interoperability to the PLM market's CAD and CAE solutions.

The acquisition provides Altair with more than 30 offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, with a combined workforce exceeding 1000 employees.

"I am looking forward to seeing these two dedicated, competent suppliers work together to build strong, complete analysis products for the pre- and post-processing and solver market", said Jyrki Majamaki, NH90 Crashworthiness, EADS Eurocopter Deutschland.

"Leveraging the best-in-class resources of both companies will enable Altair to provide alternative solutions to those offered by traditional software companies".

"This will be particularly valuable to industries such as ours".