News
FilmDoctor is the ultimative software for mechanical analysis or optimization of sophisticated surface structures under pratical load conditions
December 6, 2011
60% off on FilmDoctor Studio ISA Edition only through 12/31/2011
Our ultimative software for mechanic surface analysis and surface optimization, the FilmDoctor Studio, is on sale in online shop now. It calculates stress-strain fields of almost any pratical contact or load situation on sophisticated surface structures within a few minutes as it is based on an analytical model. FilmDoctor Studio enables you not only to analyze contact measurements (e.g. nanoindentation or scratch test), but also to simulate realistically complex contact or load situations (see figure).
Save 60% as opening offer on the FilmDoctor Studio ISA Edition which allows you in addition a comfortable automatic analysis of suitable contact measurements. This offer is good through December 31, 2011 and only while stocks last.
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example figure, which was made utilizing the new 3D graphics mode, of a scratch test showing the von Mises stress
November 23, 2011
Illustrative graphs and easier analysis as a result of the new 3D graphics mode
We developed a new 3D presentation mode which shows the contact field not only in one plane but in two or more planes. Thus, it facilitates the analysis of these graphs. Additionally, more measurement data is taken into account for the new depiction of 3D graphs. For instance, the scratch track is also shown based on the post scan data of a scratch test. Therefore, the measurement process and its effects can easier be comprehended.
You are welcome to test the advantages of our new 3D presentation mode upon request.
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November 21, 2011
Better meets your requirements
Our product portfolio has been cleared out for you and the products have been better geared to your needs. Therefore, our online shop is clearer now. Additionally, a more consistent naming facilitates you searching your most suitable software edition.
Moreover our webshop provides an automatic quotation features now which generates automatically firm quotations of your shopping cart at the touch of a button.
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July 13, 2011
Our website got a face lifting
The design of our website was slightly outdated and the usability needed also an improvement. Hence, we thoroughly revised our website and proudly present it to you with a new design. We wish you a successful and easy search on our new website!
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March 18, 2011
Up to 80% off on all softwares are granted Japanese companies as construction support
As a small contribution to the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the recent earth quake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in the north of Japan we have decided to give 60% discount (until 30 June 2011) resp. 50% (until 31 December 2011) discount on all our software products to all Japanese companies, if the supported workplace is situated in Japan.
If the purchaser could confirm that the supported workplace is situated in an area of Japan directly affected, we will even grant 80% off (until 30 June 2011) resp. 70% off (until 31 December 2011) on all our software products.
Take a look at our webshop to find a suitable software and apply for your respective discount. Note, that discounts are valid only for orders received until corresponding deadlines.
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The ICMCTF 2011 in San Diego, California.
February 28, 2011
The SIO is again main sponsor of and exhibitor at the ICMCTF 2011.
The International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films 2011 (ICMCTF 2011) in San Diego, California, is sponsored by the Saxonian Insitute of Surface Mechanics (SIO). This well-known conference has seven world-class technical symposia in the field of thin film engineering and characterization. More than 700 attendees learn about the latest research results on new coating materials and coating processes, film growth, tribology, physical characterization, as well as modelling & simulation each year.
The SIO sponsors the conference with its symposia and exhibition, but particularly the Bunshah Award prize, several raffle prizes, and the introductory evening reception.
Some very interesting talks will be given by researchers of the SIO or its partners! You should mark up the following presentations in the conference program:
- Talk B1-1-9: "Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Hard Ceramic Coatings
Deposited by Arc Plasma Acceleration Process", V.N. Khominich, Tuesday, 3 May 2011, 10:40am
- Talk B6-1-12: "Simulation of a Variety of Applications for Complex Coating Structures", N. Bierwisch, Wednesday, 4 May 2011, 11:40am
- Talk B6-2-8: "Application-Driven Design of Wear-Resistant Coatings by Means of an
Integrated Multi-Scale Coating Design Tool", M. Fuchs, Wednesday, 4 May 2011, 3:50pm
- Talk E2-1-3: "Time Resolved Mechanical Surface Testing and Subsequent Physical
Analysis", N. Schwarzer, Thursday, 5 May 2011, 8:40am
- Talk E2-1-7: "Investigation of the Mechanical Properties of DLC-Coatings by Means of
Nanoindentation and It's Modelling", A. Gies, Thursday, 5 May 2011, 10:00am
- Talk E2-1-9: "Correcting Time Dependent Displacement Effects in Nanoindentation
Analysis", M.I. Davies, Thursday, 5 May 2011, 10:40am
- Poster TSP-10: "Why Taking Creep Material Behavior Into Account is of Great Importance", P. Heuer-Schwarzer, Thursday, 5 May 2011, 5:00pm
- Talk E2-3-1: "Optimization of the Scratch Test for Specific Coating Designs", G.
Favaro, Friday, 6 May 2011, 8:00am
Additionally, an two-day industrial exhibition with more than 40 exhibitors shows cutting-edge technology and materials. The SIO is going to present the state-of-the-art in physical evaluation of indentations measurements and scratch tests on joint booth #305 with CSM Instruments. You are sincerely invited to visit us and watch live evaluations of scratch tests!
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January 3, 2011
Step-by-step physical analyses of mechanical contact measurements
A lecture on mechanical characterisation of thin hard films including a workshop will be given by Mr. Fuchs on 12 January 2011. As a special highlight of this workshop the participants will conduct physical analyses of contact measurements (like nanoindentations and scratch tests) by theirselves using our versatile analysis software ISA. This workshop ist part of the Structural Ceramics and Hard Coatings short course at the University of Surrey.
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October 22, 2010
Dr. Schwarzer is going to give a talk on 27 October at 12 o'clock
On this year's CSM User Meeting in Chexbres, Switzerland, Dr. Norbert Schwarzer is going to give a talk about "Physical scratch test".
Attention: The program committee has changed the program! The talk will be on Wednesday, 27 October 2010, at 12 o'clock.
What exactly is a classical scratch test with respect to its physical meaning?
Only by answering this question sufficient correctly we can be sure to model and analyze a scratch test such a way, that meaningful generic parameters can be extracted. Thus, first of all a scratch test is a multiaxial contact test not only coming with normal and lateral loads, but also with tilting and twisting moments. While local normal and lateral loads are measured directly with most scratch test devices, the consideration of tilting and twisting moments requires somewhat more sophisticated means. A so called pre-scan with a near-zero load or even a complete surface scan (e.g. with an AFM) is necessary in order to obtain the surface structure before the scratch. This surface structure or geometry information (roughness) will later help to evaluate the local loading conditions at each position of the indenter in an highly accurate manner. In addition information about the amount of plastic deformation is required. Here a post-scan can help. But great care is necessary with its interpretation in case the scratch tip itself has been used for this measurement step, because not always does the scan depth present the maximum residual depth. This is simply due to the fact, that lateral inaccuracy, bluntness of the probe and smallest particles laying in the scratch trench compromising the residual depth result. A way out of this can be a proper combination of the scratch test with nanoindentation and highly sophisticated modeling. With such a comprehensive measurement approach also temperature effects and even rather complex structural information and failure mechanisms can be evaluated, discussed and used for later material optimization procedures.
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July 27, 2010
SIO exhibits at PSE 2010 and gives talks
We will exhibit on the upcoming PSE (International Conference on Plasma Surface Engineering) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, again and will present some cutting-edge developments in the field of physical surface analysis and surface engineering. As usual, we will underpin our latest developments by scientific contributions:
- Dr. Norbert Schwarzer's lecture: "Analyzing Nanoindentation data: About a possible Oliver&Pharr method for pile-up, sink-in and creep behavior" (OR2603)
Friday, 17 September 2010, at 10:35am
- Marcus Fuchs' poster: "Quicker from Science to Society - About a Design Tool for Optimum Multi-Scale Film Structures" (PO3001)
Wednesday, 15 September 2010, at 3:15pm
- Nick Bierwisch's poster: "Mechanical Surface Stability and Reliability under High Temperature Fields" (PO4090)
Thursday, 16 September 2010, at 3:15pm
You are welcome to visit us at booth no. 11 and learn more about physical analysis of scratch tests and nano indentations at high temperatures in terms of animated contact-stress fields and about the advantages of physical analysis of contact measurements for the surface development and surface optimization!
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May 8, 2010
Dr. Schwarzer gives plenary talk at 6th ThGOT on 8 September 2010
Based on the latest theoretical knowledge in mechanical loading of treated surfaces not only better modeling and simulation possibilities have been created, but also entirely new test methods were suggested. Theses tests should be developed in the framework of two new Europe-wide projects in order to extract new standards. The major objectives are, on the one hand, enhancing accuracy and reliability of experimantal results and, on the other hand, particularly evaluation of real and sustainable physical parameters. Instead of " stands up" or "fails" statements real quality and lifetime predictions should be facilitated. Therefore, better tailoring of tests to intended applications as well as using models perfectly adapted to experiments is necessary. These models enable one not only to obtain physical parameters from complex surface measurements, but also to extrapolate to intended applications.
Dr. Norbert Schwarzer talks about current state of this work and its advantages for practice in his plenary lecture "Next generation of multi-axial mechanical surface measurements and better modeling possibilities" on 8 September 2010 at 08:30am at the 6th ThGOT in Gera, Germany.
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April 21, 2010
SIO's new web shop is now online! Check out today's deals and all other hot products!
Today SIO's online shop opens its doors. You are welcome to check out today's deals and all other of more than 30 hot products. As opening offer, some of the products are available at great discounts!
Most of our large product portfolio is already available for sale in our online shop - and only there! Benefit from the advantages of our quick and easy-to-use software based on analytical maths. The FilmDoctor® Light packages, for instance, enable you to properly dimension your indentation measurements by means of modeling them in advance. Or the range of O&PfC® softwares allows you to evaluate your (nano) indentation or impact measurements quickly and determine generic mechanical material properties like a coating's real Young's modulus and Yield strength. And our SSA® software packages enable you to analyze scratch tests - not phenomenologically but physically in terms of investigating stress distributions in the sample during the scratch test! Of course, you can befinit from the advantages of both, O&PfC® and SSA®, and save money with ISA, too.
No matter how you will decide, now you can gain more information out of your surface measuremets thanks to physicalization by our analytical-based models!
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April 20, 2010
SIO is again sponsoring the ICMCTF and will give lectures, present posters, and exhibit
The ICMCTF 2010 will not only be sponsored by SIO, but we will also be present as exhibitor, give lectures and present a new poster.
This time, we will exhibit new possibilities in the range of mechanical surface characterization and surface optimization particularly of thin films at booth #45.
Dr. Schwarzer will give the lecture E2-1-3 about "Some Unpleasant Truth About Dynamic/Oscillatory Indentation Measurement Procedures" on Tuesday, 27 April 2010, at 08:40am. If you use the CSM method of Agilent or the QCSM method of ASMEC for indentation measurements, this lecture will definitely be interesting for you.
The lecture E1-1-10 about "Sophisticated New Analyzing and Simulation Tools for Scratch, Impact, and Wear Tests" will be given by Mr. Fuchs on Thursday, 29 April 2010, at 04:30pm. He will show you, how one can easily perform sophisticated analyses of scratch tests, impact tests, and wear tests by means of our software ISA.
And Mr. Bierwisch will present a poster about "Why Measurement at Higher Temperature is of Great Importance and How the Results Should be Used" on Thursday, 29 April 2010, from 05:00pm.
As you can see, we will offer you a large package of interesting new information on the ICMCTF in San Diego, CA, USA again. We are looking forward to seeing you!
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March 22, 2010
Dr. Schwarzer will give a talk at the European Conference on Nano Films, Liege
Mr. Fuchs gives the talk "Quicker from Science to Society: About a Design Tool for Optimum Nano-Film Structures" in Dr. Schwarzer's place on wednesday at 6.10pm at the European Conference on Nano Films 2010 (ECNF) in Liege, Belgium. He will discuss the optimated computer-aided design of wear-resistant thin films in order to reduce expensive trial-and-error testing.
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February 24, 2010
Dr. Schwarzer will give a talk and Mr. Fuchs will present a poster in Saarbrücken
Based on completely analytical solutions of the governing differential equation of elasticity for layered, viscose materials an analysis method for arbitrarily layered surfaces has been developed.
It not only allows the parameter identification of Young's modulus, Yield strength, intrinsic stress of even complex surface structures (e.g. getting the true coating results, interface information and/or a property profile of the surface) but even to take the loading part of the indentation experiment into account in order to increase the accuracy of the results and to extract more surface information.
Dr. Norbert Schwarzer will give a talk about "An Oliver&Pharr-method for coatings, FGCs, viscose and intrinsically stressed surfaces" at 3.50pm on February 25, 2010 at the Nanobrücken Workshop (Nanomechanical Testing Workshop and Hysitron User Meeting).
Additionally, Mr. Marcus Fuchs will present a poster on the subject "Some unpleasant truth about dynanic/oscillatory
indentation measurements" the same day from 5.10pm to 7.00pm.
You are welcome to join us at the INM in Saarbrücken!
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January 4, 2010
Dr. Schwarzer gives seminar for free at BAM on January 28, 2010
On 28th January 2010 Dr. Schwarzer will give the seminar "About the problems of proper evaluation of mechanical properties of layered materials and the simulation of application-caused temperature fields and their influence on stability and durability of complex-coated surfaces" as part of the course of seminars "Surface technologies" organized by Dr. Griepentrog. Do not miss this unique chance to attend a seminar of Dr. N. Schwarzer for free and get to room 120, house 89 on the branch Fabeckstraße of the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (Unter den Eichen 44-46, 12203 Berlin).
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August 28, 2009
Dr. Schwarzer gives talk at Bayerisches Laserzentrum on November 26, 2009
A seminar on the topic "Simulation in der Lasermaterialbearbeitung auf dem Weg in die Anwendung" takes place on November 26, 2009 at the Bayerisches Laserzentrum. Among others, Dr. Schwarzer gives a talk about "Spannungsdesign in behandelten Oberflächen durch alternierende Laserpulsbestrahlung" at 15:20pm. You are kindly welcome to attend this seminar.
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August 27, 2009
SIO on ThGOT with 2 talks
The Saxonian Institute of Surface Mechanics participates again in "Thüringer Grenz- und Oberflächentage" from September 15-17, 2009. This time Dr. Norbert Schwarzer is going to talk about "Simulation of application-related temperature fields and their influence on stability and durability of complex-coated surfaces" at 2.20pm on Tuesday in session A and Nick Bierwisch is going to talk about "Surface optimization of artifical joint implants on the basis of recent findings about the natural example" at 4.10pm on Thursday in session A.
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August 27, 2009
Wrong picture of property profile of ultra-thin coating replaced
Due to an unfortunate mistake there was a wrong picture in one of our more important flyers about property profiling of ultra-thin coatings. Please find the corrected version at www.siomec.de/docs/2009/004.
The evaluation of the real Young's modulus and yield strength (also Hardness) profile of thin coatings is very important if one wants to understand certain failure mechanisms.
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April 14, 2009
Dr. Schwarzer gives a talk at Bayerisches Laserzentrum on May 12, 2009
A seminar on the topic "Simulation in der Lasermaterialbearbeitung auf dem Weg in die Anwendung" takes place on May 12 at the Bayerisches Laserzentrum. Among others, Dr. Schwarzer gives a talk about "Spannungsdesign in behandelten Oberflächen durch alternierende Laserpulsbestrahlung" at 15:20pm. You are kindly welcome to attend this seminar.
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April 14, 2009
SIO is sponsor of and exhibitor at the ICMCTF 2009
As a specialist in thin film deposition, modification, and characterization you surely know one of the most important conferences on these topics: the ICMCTF. We, the SIO, as a specialist on surface measurement, characterization, and optimization will be strongly represented on the upcoming ICMCTF 2009, too. You can learn more about our scientific services and software on:
- Monday: Talk E2-1-5, 11:00am
- Tuesday-Wednesday: Exhibit booth #14
- Thursday: Poster EP-1, 5:00pm
You will find more information about our talk and poster presentation in the following news.
Additionally, we are proud to be a major sponsor of the ICMCTF 2009! This results in some advantages even for you: For instance, we provide you our interesting Scientific Journal for free in the delegate's welcome packs. And if you visit us at our exhibit booth #14, you will have the chance to get a voucher for our webshop (opening soon)! But there is only a limited number of them available, so you should not come too late.
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April 14, 2009
Dr. Schwarzer about the Next Generation of Surface Testers
On the upcoming ICMCTF 2009 Dr. Schwarzer gives a talk about "Procedures and Equations for the Next Generation of Surface Testers Solving the Problem of Pile-Up, Sink-In and Making Area-Function-Calibration Obsolete" on Monday (April 27) at 11:00am. If you are interested in this topic, you will find the abstract here.
Apart from this talk, you should not miss our other presentations on:
- Tuesday-Wednesday: Booth #14
- Thursday: Poster EP-1, from 5:00pm
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April 14, 2009
The Oliver and Pharr Method for Coatings and Physical Scratch Test Analysis for Layered Materials
On the upcoming ICMCTF 2009 Marcus Fuchs presents his poster EP-1 about "The Oliver and Pharr Method for Coatings and Physical Scratch Test Analysis for Layered Materials" is presented at the poster session on Thursday (April 30) from 5:00pm.
If you are interested in this topic, you will find the abstract here. Apart from this poster, you should not miss our other presentations on:
- Monday: Talk E2-1-5, 11:00am
- Tuesday-Wednesday: Booth #14
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December 29, 2008
Free measurements incl. analyses for interesting problems!
At the moment we still have measurement contingents at leading measurement labs for interesting scientific questions of all kinds left. You ran into a difficult problem or you need measurements for your PhD-work or you haven't any possibility to characterize your specimens? Than you should take this chance and submit your request to us now! Due to the fact that the best measurement is worthless without a proper analysis, we give you the analysis incl. report for free, too!
The call for tender will have three rounds. The first round is going to end on January 31, 2009. If there are still measurement contingents left after this first round, the second round will be started and will be closed on March 31, 2009. And so on. Hence, your chance to win a free measurement (or a series of measurements) including high-end analysis drops from round to round. Has the economic crisis even affected your organisation? Then you should not waste more time but submit your request formless to us immediately!
Because innovation must not stop!
The only condition to be able to win such a free measurement including apropriate analysis is, that the results are allowed to be published.
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October 13, 2008
Up to 50% discount on software until December 31, 2008!
We are of the opinion that even in the biggest crisis innovation must not stop. That is why we have decided to support all those who still invest into new technologies, product optimization and future development. We fight the crisis by granting a special discount on all our scientific software packages (except Elastica, prototypes and special versions).
Order until December 31, 2008 and get one of the following discounts:
50% when Dow Jones is below 9000 Points
25% when Dow Jones is below 11000 Points
Decisive is the opening price on the day we get your written order.
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September 15, 2008
Dr. Schwarzer will give 2 talks at the ThGOT
Dr. Schwarzer gives talks very seldom only. Now he will give even two talks at the ThGOT conference (Thüringer Grenz- und Oberflächentage). The first on Tuesday in the surface analysis session about "Korrekte mechanische Charakterisierung von Schichten und Schichtsystemen mittels Indentertechniken und Vorhersagemodellen für den Einsatzfall" and the second on Thursday in the plastics session about "Kontaktbelastungen beschichteter Kunststoffe für den optischen Einsatz".
So, if you are interested in one or both of this topics you should not miss this top-class symposium.
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September 9, 2008
Visit us at booth #14 and #32 and our presentations in poster session 2.
Also on the PSE 2008 conference we are going to present new knowledge in the field of physicalisation of mechanical measurements.
If you would like to learn more about the new Oliver&Pharr for Coatings method (aka: Extended Oliver&Pharr method, abbr.: OPfC) and our same-named software, you should visit our poster presentation PO2009 in poster session #2 on Tuesday or at booth #32 of Helmut Fischer GmbH.
But if you are more interested in the physical analysis of scratch-tests of coated materials and our corresponding software Scratch-Stress Analyzer (abbr.: SSA), you will learn more about interesting new developments at poster PO2010 likewise in poster session #2 or at booth #14 of LOT-Oriel GmbH.
We are looking forward to seeing you on the PSE this year!
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August 8, 2008
New paper about elastic indenters and layered samples online!
Dr. Norbert Schwarzer has published an new scientific paper about "Basic Equations for the next Generation of Surface Testers for the Case of an elastic Indenter and a layered Sample" recently. It is available free of charge on our website through static url www.siomec.de/pubs/2008/001.
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April 30, 2008
New demo version of our enhanced FilmDoctor is online!
We have worked hard in the past few days in order to provide a up to date demo version of our permanently enhanced premium software FilmDoctor®. Now you can see nearly all important new features and, therefore, get an impression of the currently provided capabilities of FilmDoctor®. Try the time-unlimited demo version for free!
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November 1, 2007
Visit us at booth A04. Win 1 of 10 tickets!
The specialized fair NanoSolutions will take place from November 21-23, 2007, in Frankfurt within the "nanotech+material week frankfurt". Of course, you will find us on this show at booth A04, too. We will show you interesting demonstrations of problem solutions from real life and our lightning live calculations.
You can win 1 of 10 tickets again! If you register by midnight of November 14, 2007, or are already registered on our website, you will participate in this raffle. Note, that your full address is required as we are going to send you your tickets on the very next day to you by mail.
Good luck! We are looking forward to meeting you in Frankfurt!
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September 22, 2007
Win 2 VIP tickets for nanoTX and visit us at booth #517!
Register yourself on our website now (client area) and win one of two VIP tickets each of $1065 value for nanoTX conference in Dallas, Texas, USA!
If you are already going to attend this conference we would be pleased to meet you at our booth #517 and show you the benefits of our products and services for you and your company. Don't miss our live modelling and calculation and evaluation presentations!
We are looking forward to seeing you in Dallas!
PS: If you are already registered you will participate in the raffle automatically.
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September 21, 2007
A new documentation for our premium software FilmDoctor® is available.
The former manual of our software FilmDoctor® was partly not useful anymore due to the pushing development of the software in the last months. Therefore, we have updated this documentation completely. Now you can download the up-to-date manual from the FilmDoctor® page on our website.
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June 25, 2007
Easy-to-use and fast wear analysis software with result animation.
We proudly present a new product in our portfolio: OptiWear. It is a user-friendly and extremely fast wear analysis software including a comfortable animation of the simulated wear process. As all our software products it allows you to analytically evaluate the wear using arbitrary structured (un)coated materials due to be based on the Extended Hertzian Approach. In order to show the wear process it simulates a pin-on-disc experiment.
Try the time-unlimited demo version for free!
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June 25, 2007
Recently updated demo versions of our software products are now available.
On the one hand we improved our software packages in the last weeks as usual and fixed several bugs reported by our software users (thank you for your efforts). Therefore, we are proud to provide you with the latest software versions now.
On the other hand we talked with Sophos, the distributor of the only virus scanner which detected a virus in our software products by mistake (false positive), in order to prevent such false reports in the future. Well, by now you shouldn't be bothered with such false positive alerts from Sophos Anti Virus again as they updated their malware recognition files which are downloaded usually automatically every day by your virus scanner.
So enjoy using our software!
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April 27, 2007
A brief presentation summarizes important application examples of the SIO.
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March 4, 2007
Now we provide our website in English and German for all of our worldwide located clients.
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January 18, 2007
We offer you several new interesting seminars in 2007 about various topics.
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September 28, 2006
We provide now a download of the latest Elastica software (version 3.0.5) for you.
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July 14, 2006
Registered users can now use or online services with more features and options.
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June 21, 2006
On 15 June 2006 the beta version of our mechanical surface analysis and optimisation serivce has been released.
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May 18, 2006
Parts of the preview version are working now, so it is already possible to test a some features.
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April 20, 2006
Since 20 April 2006 the new website of the Saxonian Institute of Surface Mechanics is online.
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