If you are involved with producing or using metal castings, you know that making reliable, high-quality cast parts is the key to success. In today's competitive world, casting producers must find ways to improve quality, reduce lead times and cut costs in order to succeed. Foundries relying on the traditional trial-and-error methods of the past to design casting processes are finding it more and more difficult to compete. Customers will no longer accept high levels of scrap or long lead times.

Casting simulation is a new technology that allows you to design your casting process on the computer, before making expensive molds or patterns and before producing scrap parts. Using simulation, you can import your customer's 3D models and have the system tell you how many risers are required, where they should be placed, what size they should be, and what size and shape to use for sprues, runners and gates. Then you can simulate and visualize, on the computer screen, the entire process of casting the part, including pouring, solidification and shrinkage formation. Using this information, you can fine-tune your design to produce the best casting possible, at the lowest cost. You can even have the system automatically redesign the process, using optimization techniques to search for the design which gives you the optimum in quality and yield.

All of this can be done in a fraction of the time that it takes to build equipment and make sample castings. This means that, when you do build molds or patterns and make your first castings, you will have a much higher success rate, fewer process changes, and less scrap. To your customer, this means reduced lead times, better first-time castings, higher quality over the life of the casting, and lower costs. This is the formula for success in today's manufacturing environment.

First of all, we invented PC-based casting simulation back in 1985. We've been applying our experience to continuous improvement of the software ever since then. Unlike other developers who come from academic backgrounds, we have actual experience in foundries and know the challenges of working day-to-day in the foundry. This means that we've concentrated on developing the features that make our software the most practical for most foundries in the world:

• Ease of Use : SOLIDCast and FLOWCast are by far the easiest to use, and most user-friendly, of any casting simulation package. You don't need operators with advanced degrees to run the software. In almost all companies who have implemented this software, existing personnel were trained and capable of operating the system productively in just a few days.

• Speed : Our systems are fine-tuned to run at maximum speed, as compared to other systems where simulations make takes 10X longer to run. This is because it is important for the foundry to be able to evaluate multiple design alternatives within a short period of time. Often, you can evaluate more than half a dozen design iterations in less than a day, using SOLIDCast. This just isn't possible with most other systems. We allow you to concentrate on throughput: To analyze as many different parts and designs as you need, so that you can fully utilize the benefits of casting modeling.

• Accuracy : With more than 17 years of experience and enhancements, our system provides amazing accuracy for prediction of most foundry defects in most foundry processes.

• Reasonable Cost : Compare our cost to any other available systems. With the ease of use, power and accuracy of Finite Solutions software, combined with our low cost, we offer the most affordable and reasonable solution to your casting simulation needs.

• Customer Support : Supporting our customers is our Number One Job. When you have questions, you can talk to the actual developers and get real answers. We partner with casting experts around the globe who can help you with application questions and also provide sound, real-world advice. Our support has been called "World Class" by our customers.

• Site Licensing : SOLIDCast, our basic simulation product, is available as a Site License, which means that by purchasing the package you can install it on an unlimited number of machines at your site, at no additional cost. This means that you can provide casting simulation to all of your engineering and technical people, right on their own desktop, and multiply the benefits of applying casting simulation.

• Worldwide Installations : We have installed our software in more than 430 organizations in more than 40 countries around the world, making Finite Solutions the world leader in PC-based casting simulation software.

• Continuous Development : We offer software upgrades with new features and enhancements on a continuous basis. Upgrades are available for downloading from our website, so you can keep your software updated easily and quickly as new features are released.

• Multiple Process Capability : Our software can be applied to most casting processes such as sand casting, shell molding, investment casting, permanent mold casting and variations of each. We offer a built-in database of over 200 alloys and mold materials which can be fully customized with your own materials. Special features for simulating each type of process are totally integrated into the system.

• The Fastest Fluid Simulation Available : True CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is used to model the flow of molten metal, using specially-developed techniques to provide the fastest and easiest-to-use flow modeling around.

• Automatic Optimization : OPTICast is the only true casting design optimization system on the market. Using the HyperOpt® system from Altair Engineering, OPTICast can actually redesign your process totally automatically, to produce the optimum yield and quality possible.

With SOLIDCast, FLOWCast and OPTICast, you can take advantage of the latest in casting process design technology to improve quality, reduce lead times and lower costs. This means that your foundry will be more competitive and more profitable.

For more details please contact marketing@edstechnologies.com