Beaumont Technologies Acquires Autodesk MoldFlow’s Material Characterization Business

Beaumont Technologies, Inc. has completed the acquisition of the Autodesk MoldFlow material characterization business that services North America and Europe. The operations, laboratory equipment and proprietary software will be transferred from Ithaca, NY to a new facility in Erie, PA where Beaumont is headquartered.

The material characterization services to be conducted by Beaumont are essential for identifying and understanding material properties and process performance characteristics that are required by Autodesk Moldflow and Helius’ simulation products. These services comprise the full range of tests required for the successful performance of Autodesk’s simulation programs. The tests include both specialized proprietary Autodesk methods and more conventional material characterization techniques.  Beaumont will conduct and sell material characterization services to customers in North America and Europe. Autodesk will continue to maintain its materials testing and development laboratory in Kilsyth, Australia to supply its customers throughout Asia and other global markets, as well as maintain its on-going research.

“The partnership between Autodesk and Beaumont Technologies will lead to increased testing capacity and enhanced services through access to additional expertise in polymers, injection molding processes, and dedicated local resources.  Beaumont’s American Injection Molding Institute is the preferred training partner in North America for our injection molding simulation customer” said Greg Fallon, Autodesk vice president, Simulation.  “With Beaumont handling the majority of our training and material characterization activities, Autodesk will focus on the development and validation of new process solvers, as well as characterization methodologies. This partnership is part of Autodesk’s growth strategy. The result will be a net increase in global characterization capacity, improved throughput and responsiveness as well as adding additional subject matter experts into our community.”

Beaumont Technologies was founded in 1998 by John Beaumont, the inventor of MeltFlipper, Therma-flo and other injection molding technologies. A 2014 inductee to the Plastics Hall of Fame, John is also a professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University where he helped develop and chaired the Plastics Engineering Technology Program at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. He formerly held positions as Engineering Manager for Ciba Vision Corporation and was Technical Manager for Moldflow’s U.S. operations during its early years.

Beaumont Technologies is an innovation based company that provides a broad range of unique technologies and plastics engineering services. These technologies and services include Expert Certified injection molding simulation, MeltFlipper, product and process development consultancy and lab, Therma-flo polymer molding characterization and precision material test bar molding. It is also the home of the American Injection Molding (AIM) Institute that provides advanced plastics education and training for engineers and plastics professionals.

The company welcomes the new Autodesk business as a complement to its engineering problem-solving capabilities. “We are excited by this expanded relationship as it will enable both Autodesk and Beaumont to further expand and improve our current customer services,“ said John Beaumont.

Beaumont noted that it will take a couple of months to transition the new business to its Erie facility. During this time material characterization services will be conducted by Autodesk Moldflow’s material characterization lab in Kilsyth.  It is expected that the new Beaumont material characterization lab will be fully operational by early/mid April 2017.

“It’s our intent to assure customers that we are up and running smoothly prior to taking new orders,” said John Beaumont. “After that we can promise our customers an unprecedented level of material characterization and simulation services to analyze, identify, predict and validate their investments, while saving time, eliminating costly trial and error processes, minimizing tooling investments, and speeding their products to market.”