ESI Group, the developer of the ProCast software platform for casting simulation, and Renault S.A., completed a collaboration agreement that supports Renault’s new strategic plan, “Renault 2016 – Drive the Change.” The automaker aims to accelerate its product development programs, and ESI’s expertise in “virtual prototyping” for manufacturing is seen as a basis for structuring the research and development programs that will coordinate several objectives in that effort.
Their new agreement aims to strengthen their existing relationship, and create more opportunities for creating new ESI simulation programs.
"ESI will aim at providing solutions leading Renault to go beyond their standard objectives and to implement disruptive innovations,” according to Alain de Rouvray, ESI Group’s chairman and CEO.
Renault S.A. designs, develops, and manufactures passenger cars and light trucks, and is active in 118 countries.
The goal of the “Renault 2016” initiative is to make “sustainable mobility” widely accessible. “The industrial challenge Renault faces is to improve the quality of its vehicles, while lowering prices and complying with new regulations aimed at reducing their environmental impact, especially CO2 emissions,” the automaker stated.
To do this, Renault indicated it must “accelerate innovation” by introducing new materials and processes, which must be evaluated and tested quickly and reliably.
Renault has adopted a “virtual prototyping” methodology to help it assess different options quickly, without the need for physical prototypes.
Renault started using ESI technology nearly 20 years ago to perform accurate and predictive manufacturing simulations, and to conduct virtual performance tests on its vehicles, prior to real tests.
In 2011, Renault adopted ESI’s Virtual Performance Solution (VPS) for performance engineering and optimization across multiple domains, including crash, impact and occupant safety, as well as interior acoustics and seat prototyping.
VPS works as a single software platform, on a single-core model. Renault teams are able to predict the effect of manufacturing processes and material properties on a product’s performance, without the need for physical prototypes.
Past results of Renault’s and ESI’s collaboration have supported some of ESI’s commercially available software programs, including its passenger comfort software suite, now part of the Virtual Seat Solution program that performs multi-domain simulations for seat manufacturing and performance, and provides a basis for optimizing seat design according to a single core model.