SCIENCE

SANTA ANA, CA -- MSC.Software Corp. (NYSE: MNS), the leading global provider of simulation software, services and systems, today announced that engineers at DaimlerChrysler's Auburn, Michigan development and testing facilities have been able to dramatically reduce the time and cost associated with obtaining road loads by combining a hybrid testing approach developed with MSC.Software's MSC.ADAMS technology and MTS Systems Corporation (NASDAQ: MTSC). "We take great pride in helping our customers like DaimlerChrysler reinvent their business practices and reduce their design time and costs," said Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. "We continue to execute on our strategy of increasing our work within our existing customers and we look forward to continuing to help DaimlerChrysler engineers around the world." In order to ensure that automotive chassis components and systems meet fatigue and durability requirements, reliable information is needed about the stresses, or loads, the components experience while in use. The traditional method of testing prototypes, called `mules,' includes manually instrumenting the mules with strain gauges and sensors and then testing and retesting the prototypes. This process is both expensive and time consuming, especially considering that each time a design change occurs, the process must be redone. In recent years, automotive manufacturers like DaimlerChrysler have increasingly turned to virtual prototyping to simulate the operation of cars, trucks and vehicle subsystems. At DaimlerChrysler, a new hybrid approach has been developed to combine the best features of virtual prototyping and physical testing. By combining the use of physical testing loads generated from MTS Systems testing rigs and inputting those loads into the MSC.ADAMS virtual prototyping application, DaimlerChrysler engineers can quickly and accurately calculate the loads in all of the other components within the prototype. Overall, the new hybrid approach requires about one-fourth of the time and one-third the cost of the traditional approach, allowing DaimlerChrysler to create full vehicle models in days rather than weeks. "Management at DaimlerChrysler has gotten strongly behind the hybrid physical/virtual approach to prototyping because they recognize the time and cost savings that it can provide," said Sudhakar Medepalli, lead engineer of the Loads Analysis group at DaimlerChrysler. "This new hybrid approach provides dramatic time and cost savings while providing accuracy as good as, if not better than, the previous physical testing methods." "Our EDM software technology takes physical test data and applies it to the modeling of nonlinear behaviors of parts and materials," said Sidney Emery, Jr., chairman and CEO of MTS. "As a result, engineers can put more trust in their software models and move their projects more quickly from the drawing board to the test track. We look forward to continuing this work with DaimlerChrysler and helping them advance their vehicle development processes." For more information on visit www.mscsoftware.com/products/.