Flow Science acquired by owner of MAGMA and SIGMA
Dr. Flender Holding GmbH announced this week that it acquired 100% of the shares of Flow Science, Inc. in December 2021. Flow Science makes Flow3D, but Flender who, you might ask? (I certainly did.) Turns out that Flender Holding also owns MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH, makers of MAGMASOFT, and SIGMA Engineering GmbH, makers of SIGMASOFT. The statement said, “With the acquisition of Flow Science, Inc., the Dr. Flender Holding group … portfolio now covers a wide range of applications and industries. This includes metal casting and metallurgical processes, civil and environmental, aerospace, automotive, additive manufacturing, laser welding, micro- and bio-fluidics, plastics, consumer products, electronics and chip making, maritime and energy.” No details were given, but the acquisition closed in December.
MAGNA and SIGMA are well known; their holding company was new to me. So a bit of research shows that Dr. Erwin Flender received wrote a PhD thesis in 1985 on “Computer-Aided Simulation and Modeling of the Hot Cracking Behavior during Solidification of Heat-Resistant Cast Steel Grades” — in 1985, remember, computers were big, expensive and the ones capable of CAE-type processing were rare. This was a big deal. In 1988, Dr. Flender and his partners founded MAGMA; in 1995, a MAGMA project to model and simulate the forming of aluminum and magnesium alloys led to the creation of SIGMASOFT, which was spun out of MAGMA in 1998.
Anyway, according to Dr. Flender, “We were always impressed by Flow Science as one of the pioneers in the CFD industry as well as the level of innovation and competition that they have brought to the market for over 40 years … this acquisition strengthens our presence in the market and opens new doors for us in other markets and application areas.”
Dr. Amir Isfahani, CEO of Flow Science, said “Our customers can expect an expanded product development pipeline as well as the same best-in-class support that we have always strived to deliver.”
