Reinforcing Composites Leadership with Acquisition of Simulayt Limited

VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, France — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 3, 2011 — Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, announced today the acquisition of leading composites simulation and advanced draping simulation technology provider Simulayt Limited. This acquisition reinforces Dassault Systèmes longstanding leadership in providing PLM composites solutions for sustainable innovation, addressing a key challenge facing manufacturers in industries ranging from aerospace and automotive to consumer goods and energy ─ how to predict and optimize the behavior of materials, minimizing their weight while increasing their performance.

For industrials to take full advantage of composites lightweight and performance properties, requires harmonization of processes, methods, and solutions to support an end-to-end process that spans design, simulation and manufacturing within a single environment, while providing a compelling user experience.

Dassault Systèmes has long been collaborating closely with major industry leaders to provide the only integrated end-to-end PLM composites solution addressing these requirements.

Simulayt’s technology and expertise were essential to the efficient integration of CATIA Composites with BMW’s existing analysis processes, as well as to make advanced fiber simulation accessible to designers.

From fibers to zero default built products

CATIA Version 6 and CATIA Version 5 composite solutions allow users to virtually design, experience and manufacture any composites products. Simulayt adds the proven manufacturability simulation technologies needed to better understand and accurately predict materials behavior, assess manufacturability, and optimize manufacturing processes.

“As the only credible PLM vendor with a thorough understanding of the composites market and the most complete composites end-to-end solution, Dassault Systèmes was clearly a natural choice for us,” commented John Klintworth, CEO, Simulayt Limited. “I am very excited to actively contribute to Dassault Systèmes’ leadership in this market, and to focus my efforts on further advancing the next-generation PLM design to simulation to manufacturing composites solutions.”

Dominique Florack, Senior Executive Vice President, Products, R&D, Dassault Systèmes added: “Simulayt’s strong technical expertise is widely recognized and its manufacturability simulation technology is systematically winning in all benchmarks. The ability to further integrate this technology within our Version 6 platform is critical in addressing the composites materials and processes of tomorrow, with lifelike modeling and product/production simulation experiences.”

Version 6 multi-process and multi-industry

Leveraging its Version 6 platform, Dassault Systèmes combines unique design-to-manufacturing user experiences such as composites, sheet metal, and assembly fasteners design and simulation, spanning many industries – such as automotive body-in-black, aero structures and engines, wind turbine blades, medical devices, construction and sports & leisure.

Core technology and research investment

As research advances, the complexity of composites materials increases. In turn, processing technologies, from manual to automated, become more sophisticated. Dassault Systèmes is committed to continually invest in forefront technologies to addressing these growing requirements.

Building strong partnerships with leading composites academic institutions, research centers, and industry clusters worldwide is also a key focus for Dassault Systèmes to remain at the leading edge of technological innovation and constantly reinvent the PLM solutions of the future. John Klintworth’s extensive network and wide recognition in the global composites community will be instrumental in reinforcing Dassault Systèmes thought leadership and targeted partnerships.

Version 6 openness – early adoption of standards and long-term archiving

Dassault Systèmes’ PLM composites solution is unique on the market today, delivering comprehensive support of composites digital assets in the standard STEP format, for exchange and long-term archiving, a major industry requirement, especially in the aerospace sector. Dassault Systèmes has been leading the industry by adopting these standards ─ another prime example of the leadership that provides Dassault Systèmes’ customers with a strategic competitive advantage.

About Simulayt Limited

Simulayt develops and licenses the Layup Technology, which incorporates advanced fiber simulation and ply modeling capabilities. This technology allows the efficient and integrated design, analysis and manufacture of fiber reinforced products. By simulating manufacturing processes and linking this data to analysis and design models, the engineer can develop better products with greater robustness at lower cost.

About Dassault Systèmes

As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 130,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes applications provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - DELMIA for virtual production - SIMULIA for virtual testing - ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, EXALEAD for search-based applications- SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences. For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com .