New York and London. November 21, 2011

CD-adapco and Access are pleased to announce the release of an exciting new version of STAR-Cast, the technology-leading simulation tool for all industrial casting simulations.

Developed in collaboration between a world-leading provider of engineering simulation technology and recognized international experts in casting and metallurgy, STAR-Cast v1.10 brings automation and ease-of-use into casting and foundry processes.

STAR-Cast provides a comprehensive and intuitive process for performing multiphase casting simulation – liquid, solid and gaseous – including conjugate heat transfer, a sharp resolution of the filling front, free-surface fragmentation, motion of trapped gas bubbles in melt, and natural convection in melt and gas.

“STAR-Cast v1.10 includes a new streamlined casting simulation process that places industrial strength simulation technology in the hands of foundrymen, casting designers and tool makers,” says Robert Guntlin, Managing Director of Access. “The addition of new tools that facilitate High Pressure Die Casting and Investment Casting makes STAR-Cast v1.10 a formidable tool that I sincerely believe will lead to unprecedented levels of innovation and cost reduction in industrial casting.”

“CD-adapco is committed to making the best advanced engineering simulation technology available for solving the most difficult problems that manufacturing has to offer,” said CD-adapco President Steve MacDonald. “STAR-Cast v1.10 is a product of our many years of simulation experience combined with the leading expertise of Access in casting and metallurgy. We are proud to be their partners.”

STAR-Cast v1.10 is now also available on the Windows 7.0 platform.

Enhancements to STAR-Cast v1.10 include:

High Pressure Die Casting: STAR-Cast v1.10 includes the ability to simulate the action of a moving piston, facilitating the analysis of High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) processes. The piston can be actuated using either a specified velocity profile or controlled dynamically depending on the pressures predicted by the simulation, and includes full heat transfer modeling between the melt and the piston wall.

Shell Molds for Investment Casting: Realistic modeling of dipping-type ceramic shell molds is crucial to accurate simulation of investment casting processes. STAR-Cast v1.10 provides a high-performance tool for calculating the outer surface of the virtual shell in close correlation to the real shape of the mold. The user-defined input parameter is the mean shell thickness. The growth and final thickness of the virtual mold are a function of local surface curvature, controlled by a full-suite of user configurable parameters.

Investment Casting Misrun Prediction: The prediction of misrun formation is based on STAR-Cast’s unique, fully coupled computational continuum mechanics approach, featuring a multiphase mold filling module. Only this combination can enable concurrent computation of fluid flow, temperature and liquid-solid transition and includes a permeability calculation for the mushy zone, which is treated as porous media: the Darcy term in the momentum equation depends on the permeability of the mushy zone; the fraction liquid curve and the secondary dendrite arm spacing are the alloy-specific input parameters.

Material Database: The precision of casting simulation results depends to a high degree on the quality and completeness of the required material data. For this reason, a dedicated material database is key to assuring quality of simulation: the data stored in STAR-Cast mat are certified and qualified according to an internal documentation scheme. For every material included in STAR-Cast mat, all the data you need to run a casting process simulation successfully is provided. For each physical property, a dataset is indicated as recommended for a simulation. Integration of data documentation into casting simulation reports is easy. Searches for and retrieval of data stored in STAR-Cast mat is executed via the GUI, which combines easy use with access to full information about datasets. Straightforward data export allows you to assemble the material dataset appropriate to the simulation problem posed and to transfer this dataset to STAR-Cast.

About CD-adapco

CD-adapco (www.cd-adapco.com) is the world's largest independent CFD focused CAE provider. Our core products are the technology-leading simulation packages, STAR-CCM+ and STAR-CD. The scope of our activities, however, extends well beyond CFD software development to encompass a wide range of CAE engineering services in fluid dynamics, heat transfer and structural engineering. Our ongoing mission is to "inspire innovation and reduce costs through the application of engineering simulation software and services."

A privately owned company, CD-adapco has maintained 17% organic year-on-year growth over the last 5 years. CD-adapco employs over 550 talented individuals, working at 21 different offices across the globe.