Engineering Technology Associates, Inc. and Red Cedar Technology Form Strategic Partnership to Offer Complete Die System Simulation and Optimization Solution

East Lansing, MI, October 17, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Engineering Technology Associates, Inc. (ETA) announced today that they have formed a strategic partnership with Red Cedar Technology to offer the most complete and powerful solution on the market for die system simulation and optimization. Under the new arrangement, ETA will embed Red Cedar’s proprietary optimization technology, SHERPA, into a module of its DYNAFORM™ product. The new module will be called OP, for Optimization Platform, and will initially be focused on supporting drawbead optimization to determine proper binder force, lubrication, gage, and material. The module will also support 2D optimization of blank shape and size. Eventually, the two companies expect to offer full auto die face optimization.

The new OP module features an internal incremental solver that delivers exceptional speed using symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) on dual core and quad core PCs running Windows 7.

"This partnership brings fast and effective optimization of die systems to the desktop environment," says Bob Ryan, CEO of Red Cedar Technology. “Until now, optimizing these systems was too difficult and time-consuming to be practical for most applications.”

ETA plans to introduce this latest module of DYNAFORM™ at the end of Q4, 2012 as part of DYNAFORM™ release 5.9. The OP module will use the same common interface as the other four modules of DYNAFORM™ that include Blank Size Engineering (BSE), Die Face Engineering (DFE), Formability Simulation (FS), and Die System Analysis (DSA).

“ETA evaluated the SHERPA optimization engine while developing our proprietary Accelerated Concept to Product (ACP) Process™ during the Future Steel Vehicle program,” stated Arthur Tang, Vice President of ETA. "Based on that work, it was clear that SHERPA was the best solution for DYNAFORM optimization. We’re pleased to offer such powerful optimization capabilities in a convenient and affordable die simulation package."