The newest version of Weidlinger's virtual-laboratory software is significantly more user-friendly, featuring faster modeling startup. PZFlex supports innovations in medicine, energy, transportation and telecoms and is first in world markets for mediclal therapeutics and sonar.

NEW YORK, NY; MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - Weidlinger Associates announced the release of PZFlex 2.0 along with a significant increase in the software’s user-friendliness and commercial viability. Industrial designers and academic researchers worldwide who purchase PZFlex, the fastest and most accurate 3D virtual-prototyping software available, may focus less on the improvements to the graphics, user manual, and website (pzflex.com) than on the exciting new seamless interface with SolidWorks 3D CAD software, one of the most commonly used CAD/CAM packages for designing prototypes and sharing technical drawings with manufacturers.

PZFlex software is first in world markets for medical therapeutics and sonar. It is the program of choice for all major US and Japanese medical transducer manufacturers, as well as for scientists engaged in studies of diagnostic and therapeutic medical ultrasound at prominent academic institutions. The products that result, even in an academic setting, can be highly commercial, such as the recently launched Ultreo toothbrush, the first power toothbrush to combine patented ultrasound waveguide technology with precisely tuned sonic bristle action.

The Ultreo toothbrush was created in an unusual interdisciplinary collaboration that started with an alliance of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington and their Departments of Neurological Surgery and Pediatric Dentistry, which formed an association with scientists, engineers, and executives responsible for previously successful dental products.

Ultreo's ultrasound waveguide efficiently channels the ultrasound energy from the transducer in the back of the brush head directly into the bubbles. Without the waveguide, the ultrasound energy would immediately dissipate. (A power toothbrush can be defined as “sonic” if it uses a frequency within the audibility range of the human ear, or 20 Hz – 20,000 Hz; “ultrasonic” frequencies are above that range. Ultreo uses a precisely-tuned proprietary ultrasonic frequency to achieve its effects.)

PZFlex was used to model the ultrasonic effects of the ceramic element in the toothbrush’s small vibrating head, reducing the number of expensive physical prototypes required to perfect the product. The bulk of the model-building and design changes took place on the desktop. With PZFlex as the prototyping tool, designs that might otherwise have required 80 or more prototypes commonly require only 10 or fewer.

PZFlex software depends on finite-element modeling techniques to achieve its speed and accuracy. It paints a precise picture of a structure and its effects by breaking it down into millions of pieces and subjecting the pieces to real-life stresses and strains. "PZFlex offers insight into complex coupled electrical-mechanical-acoustic problems, which reduces the research and development timeframe for piezoelectric based devices," said Jay Bennett, Director of Transducer Technology, Ultreo, Inc. The program solves these multi-million-element models on a PC in a few hours, not the days or weeks of other programs.

In addition to medical ultrasound and therapeutics, PZFlex supports applications in a variety of industries: non-destructive testing, sonar, oil and gas, aerospace, rail and auto, MEMS, telecommunications, and sensors and actuators. For instance, it has recently been used to develop efficient fuel injectors and acoustic fingerprint scanners that serve as identification devices. “This latest enhancement to the PZFlex solution provides the ability to create a virtual laboratory on every desktop,” said Raymond P. Daddazio, President and Chief Executive Officer of Weidlinger Associates, Inc. “We can help businesses simulate real-world objects for a variety of purposes—from designing new engines to visualizing the effects of loads on building components.”

Developing commercially viable software is unusual for a structural engineering firm known for its high-profile structures, such as the Georgia Dome and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, but it is not surprising. The firm is distinguished by its support of basic research and the economic efficiency and elegance that is achieved with its highly technical solutions. No comparable software has the unique history and pedigree of PZFlex. Its development by a group of experts in computer modeling and piezoelectric devices means that it is perfectly matched to some of the most advanced topics in scientific research today.

PZFlex evolved out of the original FLEX code, created in the early 1980s to support Nuclear Test Ban Treaty monitoring and subsequently used to solve huge wave-propagation problems for the US government. Its initial development for analysis of electro-mechanical coupling in piezoelectric devices was supported by the US Small Business Innovative Research program. Continued sponsorship by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health has helped it solidify its position as the state-of-the-art ultrasound and piezoelectric modeling package. For larger modeling problems, a stand-alone SPFlex module that is available with PZFlex serves the growing field of medical therapeutics, providing accurate modeling of wave propagation over thousands of wave lengths in all acoustic media (air, water, and tissue)

Ultreo, Inc., headquartered in Redmond, Washington, has eight patents pending and has been awarded three research grants from the Washington Technology Center and two research grants from the National Institutes of Health. Please visit www.ultreo.com, or call 1.877.4.ULTREO (485.8736) for more information.