NK-EXA joins Dassault Systemes’ Software Community Program

DS and NK-EXA join forces to further extend the design automation of inner shape design of molded parts for Product LifeCycle Management (PLM)

Tokyo and Paris, 11 July 2001 —NK-EXA Corporation, a leading solutions provider to the electrical and electronics (E&E) industry worldwide, and Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) announce a Software Community Program agreement under which NK-EXA, as a Gold Partner, will provide a strategic component of the end-to-end V5 PLM “style to manufacturing” solution for plastic molded parts. NK-EXA will deliver V5 integrated solutions addressing the demanding challenges in the E/E and Consumer Goods industries for the creation of thin-walled shell parts from the styling data. DS will continue its focus on the styling, detailed design, feasibility analysis, mold design and manufacturing steps required for the complete process coverage. Together with its partners DS is building on the V5 technology the most comprehensive solution available today for plastic molded parts.

 

NK-EXA has accumulated extensive expertise and know-how in design automation for the inner shape design of molded products, particularly required for the demanding Japanese market. Inner shape design is a critical step in the creation of products that have a plastic or metal shell, such as telephones or cameras. NK?EXA will develop “InnerShapeDesign CAA V5 Based” fully integrated into the CATIA V5 portfolio. This innovative product will enable users to evaluate the readiness of a styling design model and automatically create a shell model based on pre-defined best practices ensuring optimized manufacturability. This will dramatically reduce the time needed to complete the inner shape design stage of the “style to manufacturing” process.

 

DS’ coordinated multi-brand – CATIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA – PLM strategy, provides applications for product authoring, manufacturing simulation, product data management and collaboration across the extended enterprise and the different supply chains. DS’ CATIA V5 has already drawn great attention from the E&E industry, with its next generation user interface, hybrid modeling, intuitive dynamic surface sculpting, and advanced 3D design of complex shapes in full?scale digital mock-ups. DS’ solutions cover the end-to-end “style to manufacturing” process, enabling rapid concept evaluation and rapid style change propagation throughout tooling design and manufacturing, leading to increased innovation, reduced time to market and closer adherence to customer requirements.

 

Shuichiroh Kominami, Solutions Executive, PLM Solutions, IBM Japan commented “This partnership announcement will strengthen the PLM strategy in delivering end to end solutions to cover the full E&E business processes. This partnership will bring to our customers high value added solutions, focusing on product innovation, optimization, as well as collaboration within the supply chain, answering the demanding time to market requirements of the E&E industries.”

Said Masahiro Ikeda, president of NK-EXA Corporation, “The combination of NK-EXA’s accumulated know-how for plastic molded parts and Dassault Systemes’ revolutionary CATIA V5 product will provide innovative solutions which enable customers to realize shorter design time, and improve productivity in the targeted E/E and Consumer Goods industries.”

 

Dominique Florack, Dassault Systemes executive vice president, research and development, explained, “DS is committed to serving the needs of the E/E industry, through partnerships with leading actors such as NK-EXA. NK-EXA has played a key role in bringing our customers best?of-class solutions, first, as a CATIA Business Partner, providing PLM consulting and system integration, and now, as a SCP Gold partner, for innovative design automation solutions for molded products. NK?EXA’s endorsement of our V5 technology and architecture confirms V5 as the standard in PLM software development, serving the Japanese industries and the global consumer goods and E/E markets.”