CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
1 April 2010
Implementation Investments
METRA SpA Relies on SimXpert by MSC.Software to Optimize Design and Performance of Extrusion Components
MSC.Software announced that METRA SpA, Italy-based leading provider of aluminum components, acquired SimXpert from MSC.Software and implemented it as a standard tool in its Virtual Product Development (VPD) activities.
SimXpert is used by METRA to provide a turn-key service to its customers that includes design and application engineering as well as manufacturing. Thanks to SimXpert, METRA delivers its customers with weight-optimized extruded components, which enable them to save energy, increase load-carrying capacity and save money.
“We have substantially improved our design capabilities by utilizing SimXpert’s complete VPD capabilities in a single environment,” said Ernesto Carretta, Technical Applications Director for Metra. “SimXpert’s multidisciplinary simulation capability enables our engineers to optimize our products in the context of the customer’s design in a small fraction of the time that would be required using conventional single-discipline analysis tools.”
“We are happy to welcome METRA in the fast-growing community of SimXpert users,” says Kais Bouchiba, Senior Vice President at MSC.Software. “Once again, SimXpert is making a powerful impact on increasing user productivity by leveraging an integrated user environment and common data model across multiple simulation disciplines. SimXpert enables engineers to simulate a large number of design alternatives as part of the product development process.”
SimXpert provides a single integrated workspace environment that combines pre-processing, modeling, solving and post-processing for all of the major VPD disciplines including structural, thermal, kinematics, large displacement dynamics and crash simulation. Combining all of these analytical disciplines into a single integrated environment greatly reduces data translation and modeling requirements and enables a single analyst or design engineer to handle the full range of analytical tasks. This approach closes the collaboration gap that normally exists between designers and analysts and makes it possible to integrate simulation within the design process.
About METRA
METRA SpA specializes in providing aluminum extrusions for architectural and industrial applications. The company has 1200 employees and generates revenues of over €300 million per year. Metra’s 9 extrusion presses range from 1800 to 6050 tons and offer a total production capacity of more than 90,000 tons per year.
The company also has two foundries capable of producing 50,000 tons per year, power coating capacity of 35,200 tons per year, liquid coating equipment capacity of 6,000 tons per year and anodizing capacity of 11,000 tons per year. METRA has production sites in Italy, Poland and Canada, four logistics centers in Italy, and more than 30 dealers located throughout Europe. Key METRA products for building and architectural markets include curtain wall systems, windows and doors, architectural shell systems, sunblades, partition walls and balconies. Products for industrial markets include standard and customized aluminum profiles, railway, automotive and shipbuilding components, automation and modular systems, components for conduction of electrical and thermal energy, and indoor and outdoor furniture. For additional information, please visit http://www.metra.it/frmDefault.aspx.
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