CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

14 April 2009

Implementation Investments

IHI Corporation Selects ANSYS Quality Assurance Services for Development of Nuclear Equipment

ANSYS, Inc. announced that the nuclear power division of IHI Corporation, a major Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer, has selected ANSYS Quality Assurance (QA) services for its development of nuclear equipment. A customer of ANSYS for over 20 years, IHI chose to incorporate complete ANSYS QA services in an effort to make its overseas operations more effective.

The ANSYS quality system meets the requirements of ISO 9001:2008, the internationally accepted quality standard for software, and United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rules and regulations, which set forth some of the most stringent software quality standards around the globe. Beyond software quality, world-class engineering simulation technology from ANSYS enables organizations in the nuclear industry to produce safer, more reliable and high-quality equipment. IHI contributes to the stable supply of electricity by providing primary equipment for thermal and nuclear power generation systems. The company has accelerated its overseas operations, strategically investing in Toshiba’s recent acquisition of BNFL USA Group, Inc. and Westinghouse Electric UK Limited. With over 150 years’ experience, IHI also has a broad business domain that includes shipbuilding, aircraft jet engine and manufacturing machinery.

In North America, which is one of IHI’s major export markets, all nuclear power equipment is required to meet stringent quality regulations established by the NRC along with consensus standards administered by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), such as NQA-1. The regulations cover every aspect of the development process, from design and testing to quality assurance of the software codes that are used to validate the reliability of products. IHI now uses ANSYS QA services to satisfy quality assurance regulations for the structural analysis of nuclear equipment, such as pressure vessels. IHI also expects to enhance the reliability of the simulation code and to minimize its maintenance cost by utilizing ANSYS QA services.

“The quality of software programs that are used for the design validation or the operation of nuclear equipment is now more critical than ever before. As software enables the ability to solve more complex problems, its quality assurance requires greater human resources, including IT experts in this domain. It is highly advantageous for our company to use the QA services of ANSYS, literally the expert group of engineering simulation software programs in this industry,” commented Mr. Miyaguchi of IHI Corporation.

Because of the strict regulatory requirements of the nuclear industry, IHI intends to use the combined expertise of software and QA services from ANSYS to optimize products the manufacturer develops for the nuclear equipment marketplace.

“Technology from ANSYS has a long history in the area of safety analysis, having been used in the nuclear industry as far back as the 1970s,” said Jim Cashman, president and CEO at ANSYS, Inc. “We’ve always been deeply aware of the importance of software quality assurance. To that end, ANSYS was the first engineering simulation software to become ISO 9001 certified. In conjunction with IHI and other key customers in this important and evolving industry, we will continue our efforts to contribute to the development of safer and cleaner nuclear energy technologies.”

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