Joint Venture Contract signed between AVIC-BIAM and ESI Group

BIAM, a core scientific Research Center of AVIC (the Aviation Industry Corporation of China), is China’s only institute for research in advanced materials and manufacturing technologies for aeronautical applications. Through its subsidiary BAIMTEC Material Co. Ltd it is also an important supplier of titanium castings and other manufactured components to global companies including Airbus, Boeing and Safran-Snecma.

Within the frame of the Joint Venture, BIAM’s expertise in the manufacturing, testing and characterization of advanced materials and components will complement ESI’s strengths in Virtual Manufacturing and Virtual Testing, to support the enhancement and effective deployment of Virtual Prototyping.

Stated ambitions of the Joint Venture include providing leadership in the application of Virtual Engineering for innovative product development and serving as an example to other Chinese high technology enterprises.

The event marking the signing of the Joint Venture contract was held at BIAM’s principal establishment in Beijing and joined by an official representative of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China, by representative Executives of many business units of AVIC, including AVIC Foundation Technology Institute (AVIC TECH), BIAM, and by ESI Group.

Opening the proceedings, Dr. Dai ShengLong, President of BIAM reviewed the evolution of the collaboration over the past two years and emphasized the mission to “co-create up-to-date solutions based on innovative materials and digital prototyping” and to “continuously generate new IP with commercial potential”. The purpose of the joint venture is not only to catch up but “to leap ahead, propelled by virtual technology”.

Dr. Alain de Rouvray, Chairman and CEO of ESI Group expanded on the theme of Dr. Dai, noting that, in particular, ESI’s global and strategic automotive customers are in several important domains significantly ahead of the aerospace sector in their use of Virtual Product Engineering, allowing them to spur innovation and manage drastic reductions in product development costs and delays. “Our commitment is to apply our expertise and global resources to achieve a world leading position in delivering innovative digital based solutions, enabling China’s aviation sector to benefit from the best in class digital engineering and then gradually influencing other industry sectors as needs emerge”.

Then, Mr Rong Yichao, Chairman of the Board of AVIC TECH and President of AVIC Foundation Technology Institute congratulated the parties on the formation of the Joint Venture, especially as he recognized ESI as the leading CAE software company in Europe. He highlighted that AVIC has a strategy to actively participate in the global aviation industry chain, stating that “Our cooperation with ESI is a big step forward towards this goal, and the Institute is ready to support the Joint Venture in any manner that will assure its success”.

Finally, Mr. Li BenJian, Deputy Director of the Equipment Manufacturing Industry of MIIT likened the cooperation between AVIC-BIAM and ESI to two strong hands joining together. He reminded the audience of the government requirement to “quicken the combination of information technology and industrialization”, expressing the hope that the Joint Venture will “use and promote digital technology to upgrade the present structure of the Chinese aviation industry”. He instructed AVIC to use the Joint Venture to set an example for other industries to follow.

Subject to final approval of the relevant Chinese authorities, the business of this new Chinese Joint Venture company, AVIC-ESI (Beijing) Technology Co. Ltd. will include the commercial distribution of ESI’s Virtual Engineering standard software solutions; associated hardware for computation and immersive visualization; related technical support services and validation engineering studies. Also projects of “co-creation” will be defined that could allow emergence of new solutions with a potential for distribution both in China and through the global distribution network of ESI Group. The scope of activity will be within the Aerospace and Astronautics industrial sectors and other related and mutually agreed organizations to which AVIC-BIAM provides essential materials and technology services.

The parties reaffirmed their conviction that their many technical synergies and the spirit of team work evident since the signature of the strategic partnership in 2011 give cause to believe that the new venture will rapidly prosper and will bring sustainable success and concrete mutual benefit.

ESI Group has been directly represented in China since 2004 by a subsidiary company and currently has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, and today has customers in diverse industry sectors. In addition to activities that support business in China, ESI China maintains a team in Shanghai that is dedicated to development of advanced computer models for use in the automotive industry for passenger and vehicle safety assessment, including human models and crash barriers. ESI China will continue to develop independently its activities in China outside the aerospace and astronautics sectors, and to address directly the local needs of its global customers, most especially those in the ground transportation and energy industries.