ESI Live

9 December 2020 Paris, France
ESI Group Gathered Industry Leaders in a Global Digital Event to Discuss Transformation and Cross-fertilization of ideas across industries

ESI Group, global player in virtual prototyping software and services for industries, launched its first global digital series of events with leaders of various industries – ESI Live. The objective: share experiences in digital transformation, across industry sectors. Globalized competition, shorter lead time, costs pressure, stringent environmental regulations, and the COVID-19 pandemic drive manufacturers to innovate. Automotive, Aerospace, Heavy Machinery, Energy… how does each industry break new ground to better meet consumer expectations?

ESI Live started on November 5th and continued with an Americas bonus session held on November 17th. These first events gathered over 600 attendees from across the globe and from all the Group industry sectors, and even more thanks to the replays, which are available now on-demand.

Among speakers taking part of the event, in the Automotive sector:

  • Atsushi Mizutani, Expert leader, Production Engineering R&D Center at Nissan Motors Corporation, demonstrated how virtual prototyping is speeding up the development of car parts made from carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP). Light yet extremely strong, this material will be used to make safer and more fuel-efficient cars.
     
  • Dr. Weiran Jiang, Simulation & Advanced Modeling Director at Farasis Energy. The Chinese American battery provider won in record-breaking time a call for tenders made by a premium German automotive OEM. Thanks to ESI’s expertise, the reliability of the virtual prototype of the new Farasis battery model was decisive in a “zero real prototype” approach stipulating the elimination of any physical prototype.
     
  • Dr. Jiri Svoboda, from the auditing and certification organization TÜV SÜD, showed how, thanks to a method combining physical and virtual testing, to ensure the performance and safety of autonomous vehicles.

In the Aerospace industry:

  • Kaname Kawatsu, Associate Senior Researcher at Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has relied on simulation to develop risk assessment models evaluation for affordable maintenance and space system robustness.
     
  • Thierry Eftymiades, Senior Vice President Engineering at Latécoère, aeronautical equipment manufacturer, focused on the collaborative benefits of the virtual reality solution IC.IDO.Immersion in the model allows their stakeholders around the globe to quickly appropriate the future product and understand its interaction with its environment, from the first steps of the project.

For Heavy Machinery & Energy Industries:

  • Galen Faidley, Senior Engineering Project Team Leader at Caterpillar Inc., who has implemented ESI’s immersive virtual reality solution in its manufacturing processes to speed up machine development. 
     
  • Jean-Marie Hamy, Advanced Reactors & Design School Department Manager at Framatome, carried the ASTRID project for the implementation of virtual reality to design new nuclear reactors. IC.IDO made it possible to create at the same time the design of future buildings as well as their interconnection. The solution stood up thanks to its easy implementation and interoperability with CAD models coming from various sources. The results met the goals: to facilitate “zero default” conception in a collaborative way, restrict the number of physical interventions at the end of processes, enable to simulate the integration of complex systems and operational feasibility in constrained environments, and finally to allow training of the different teams involved in the project.


Mike Salari ESI Group EVP and Americas Regional Manager, facilitated a high-level discussion with David Johnson, VP Production Engineering and New Model Quality for Nissan North America, Scott Pryer, Partner at Pryer Aerospace and Beckwood Press and Marcus Paulo Nery, LATAM Virtual Integration Lead at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Cristel de Rouvray, CEO of ESI Group, hosted a thought leadership panel with Vincent Champain, SEVP Digital & IT at Framatome, and Ignacio Martin, BiW R&D General Director at Gestamp. In both panels the speakers discussed their company’s approach to digital transformation and how they’re benefiting from synergies between industries.

With this digital series, ESI reinforced its commitment to our Planet. The company estimates that by avoiding all travel, they helped save around 223 tons of CO2 in total, the equivalent of:
 

Click here to access all the on-demand content.