New £25m Centre for Advanced Composites Industry Selects 3D Experience Platform

PARIS & BRISTOL, United Kingdom — (BUSINESS WIRE) — March 29, 2012 — Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, and the UK National Composites Centre (NCC), today announced the signature of a partnership to create a collaborative environment where the NCC and its partners will work on tomorrow’s advanced composites products, thanks to Dassault Systèmes’ Version 6 3D Experience platform. As the first official Associate Member, Dassault Systèmes joins other companies and enterprising academics, to develop new methods and technologies to become the UK’s hub for design and rapid manufacture of high quality composite products.

National Composites Center in Bristol (Photo: Business Wire)

Inaugurated in November 2011 and located in the Bristol & Bath Science Park (UK), the NCC provides its members with a collaborative modeling and simulation environment based on Dassault Systèmes’ V6 solutions to develop innovative composites products in a neutral space, with unique design-to-manufacturing user experiences. Companies working together with academics will be able to explore, test, and validate design, as well as engineering and manufacturing options. Processes, methods, and solutions will be harmonized, spanning design, simulation and manufacturing within a single environment, while providing a compelling user experience.

Peter Chivers, Chief Executive, National Composites Centre, said, “We warmly welcome Dassault Systèmes as an associate member of the NCC and are appreciative of the support and expertise that they bring. With Version 6, Dassault Systèmes provides NCC with a complete, open and fully integrated design, simulation and virtual manufacturing 3D Experience system. Our mission in developing composite product manufacturing knowledge excellence will be greatly helped by Dassault Systèmes who will in return benefit from NCC’s industry knowledge. The NCC also has key connections with other world-leading technology & innovation centres as a part of the new High-Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre.”

With a £25m investment supported by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (£12m), South West Regional Development Agency (£4m) and the European Regional Development Fund (£9m), the NCC connects the dots between universities and industry by co-coordinating a strengthened network of regional composite manufacturing excellence centres. The NCC’s steering board comprises representatives from various industries, including Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Vestas, AgustaWestland, GKN, Umeco and the University of Bristol.

Dassault Systèmes has a longstanding leadership in providing composites solutions for sustainable innovation, addressing key challenges in industries such as aerospace, automotive, marine and energy. At the NCC, elite manufacturers will benefit from this composites knowledge for better achievements.

“We are proud to become an associate member of the National Composites Centre,” commented Philippe Laufer, Vice President Research & Development, CATIA, Dassault Systèmes. “The NCC is critical to global composite industry development, and is an ideal partner for us. Building strong partnerships with leading composites academic institutions, research centers, and industry clusters worldwide is a key focus for Dassault Systèmes to remain at the leading edge of technological innovation.”

About the NCC

The NCC is located on Bristol & Bath Science Park and is owned and operated by the University of Bristol, and draws on established links to world class composites research at Bristol and other UK Universities. The NCC is part of the first Technology and Innovation Centre – for High Value Manufacturing. The HVM TIC will provide an integrated capability and embrace all forms of manufacture using metals and composites, in addition to process manufacturing technologies and bio-processing. It will draw on excellent university research to accelerate the commercialisation of new and emerging manufacturing technologies. This was the first of an elite network of Technology and Innovation Centres that are being established by the Technology Strategy Board with over £200m of Government investment overall.

The NCC’s mission is ‘To be an independent, open-access national centre that delivers world-class innovation in the design and rapid manufacture of composites and facilitates their widespread industrial exploitation.’

In November 2009 the Government launched the UK Composites Strategy. This highlighted the importance of composites to the future of UK manufacturing and the Government’s plans for ensuring that the UK has the means to succeed in intensely competitive global markets.

The High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre is a business-focused consortium of centres that makes world-leading technical capability available to businesses to address their manufacturing challenges, giving access to world-leading manufacturing technology & expertise, and capability to undertake collaborative R&D projects & contract research, as well as skills development at all levels

A key part of this strategy was the establishment of the National Composites Centre (NCC), which brings together dynamic companies and enterprising academics to develop new technologies for the design and rapid manufacture of high-quality composite products. The combination of academic and business strengths will speed progress from laboratory to design to factory and into products.