20 years of computational fluid dynamics

A Mentor Graphics Mechanical Analysis Division product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 24, 2008

Flomerics has reached an age that puts it among the oldest companies involved in computer aided engineering.

Flomerics celebrates its 20th anniversary as an independent company this year, placing it firmly into a rare and elite group of companies that have prospered for such a long period.

According to Flomerics' founder, Dr David Tatchell, this landmark is a testimony to the company's high integrity, people-oriented culture and its core concept of delivering engineering simulation software for use by designers and engineers rather than just full-time analysts and specialists.

Flomerics has reached an age that puts it among the oldest companies involved in computer aided engineering, and has just completed a record-breaking fiscal year where it has achieved a new high in revenue and seen its worldwide customer base grow to over 2500 sites and over 7000 individuals.

"Over the past 20 years the market has clearly validated our approach of embedding powerful simulation software into the heart of our customers' design processes", says Dr Mike Reynell, Flomerics' Director of Marketing.

"The key is to make simulation software easy to use for the people with the responsibility for developing innovative products and processes that drive their own companies' success".

The founders of Flomerics, David Tatchell and Harvey Rosten, first worked together in the 1970s pioneering the commercial availability of CFD technologies.

As electronic devices became more powerful, it became increasingly important to know a system's precise cooling requirements at the design phase.

Taking advantage of this market opportunity, Tatchell and Rosten founded Flomerics in 1988 to develop CFD software that simulated thermal exchange at the preprototyping phase of product development.

Tatchell served as Chief Executive Officer of Flomerics until his retirement in 2006.

Rosten led the development effort for the company's first products but died tragically of a brain tumour in 1997.

The company's first product, Flotherm, was launched in September 1989 for use in thermal design for electronic systems.

Today, Flotherm remains the clear market leader in this area with a client list that includes virtually all the major electronics companies in the world.

Flomerics' second product, Flovent, was released in early 1990.

This product simulates airflow in buildings and is used to optimise heating, ventilation and air conditioning in buildings.

In 1995 Flomerics went public with a listing on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market.

In 2005, Flomerics acquired the Hungarian-based thermal test equipment company, MicReD.

The addition of this world-leading technology to Flomerics' portfolio represents an important step in providing a complete, integrated solution to customers in the electronics industry.

In 2006 Flomerics acquired the German-based company Nika together with a new breed of CFD software that is fully embedded in the mainstream mechanical design environment and enables mechanical design engineers to analyse and optimise complex fluid flow and heat transfer processes across a wide range of products and industries.

Seven key technologies distinguish the EFD product family from traditional CFD software, making it quicker and easier to use, more robust, and more accurate.

The EFD product family is tightly embedded with leading 3D mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD) software such as SolidWorks, Pro/Engineer and Catia V5.

"We are now targeting a much broader range of the engineering market while remaining true to the vision of our founders by providing CFD software with a simple interface and automated capabilities that enable it to be used as part of the mainstream product development process", Reynell concludes.

"We will continue to move forward over the next 20 years by targeting ever broader sections of the market with simulation software that accelerates product design, improves product performance and reliability, and reduces costs".