Press Releases

HTRI and Virtual Materials Group Announce Agreement to Deliver Comprehensive Physical Properties (VMGThermo) with Xchanger Suite 4.0

College Station, Texas, USA and Calgary, Alberta, Canada
May 24, 2004

Heat Transfer Research, Inc. (HTRI) and Virtual Materials Group, Inc. (VMG) today announced that HTRI will incorporate VMGThermo as the built-in thermodynamic phase equilibrium and physical property system for Xchanger Suite. The availability of VMGThermo to all users of Xchanger Suite translates into a significant improvement in the capability of the software.

VMGThermo will be shipped with all copies of Xchanger Suite. Users will be given the option to include VMGThermo during installation of Xchanger Suite without incurring additional fees. This expanded and accurate physical property system for pure fluids and mixtures will be available to all HTRI users with the release of Xchanger Suite 4.0 later this year.

HTRI Xchanger Suite is an integrated graphical user environment for the design and rating of heat exchangers. Components of the suite — Xace, Xist, Xphe, Xtlo, Xvib — handle calculation of shell-and-tube heat exchangers, air coolers, economizers, plate-and-frame heat exchangers, and rigorous flow-induced vibration.

VMGThermo is a comprehensive software plug-in component that provides accurate and robust physical properties of pure fluids and mixtures. It accurately predicts phase equilibria and physical properties for most mixtures found in the refining, oil and gas, petrochemical, and chemical industry. The physical property database of VMGThermo contains data for more than 1700 pure components and about 100,000 regressed binary pairs. For added flexibility, the user can select from a number of equations of state and activity coefficient methods.

About HTRI
Heat Transfer Research, Inc. (HTRI) is the global leader in process heat transfer and heat exchanger technology. Founded in 1962, our industrial research and development consortium serves the engineering needs of over 500 corporate member sites. HTRI conducts application-oriented research on industrial-scale equipment at its state-of-the-art facility. HTRI staff use the proprietary research data to develop methods and software for the thermal design and analysis of heat exchangers and fired heaters. In addition, HTRI provides technical support, and offers training, consulting, and contract services. HTRI's dedication to excellence assures its customers of a distinct competitive advantage and high level of operating confidence in equipment designed with HTRI technology. For more information about HTRI, visit our website at www.HTRI.net.

About Virtual Materials Group
Virtual Materials Group (VMG) is focused on developing high quality and cost-effective software for the Process Industries. The products offered by the group include VMGSim, VMGThermo, Sulfuric++, Urea++ and Fatty++. For many years, VMG has provided proven, validated and robust thermo-physical property prediction packages for the hydrocarbon, chemicals and petrochemical industry to our clients. VMG thermodynamic models are backed by extensive experimental data and support provided by our technical support team. The power of VMG's thermodynamic packages are now available in VMGSim, a powerful and easy to use interactive steady-state process simulator. For more information about Virtual Materials Group, Inc., visit our website at www.virtualmaterials.com.

For additional information, contact

Fernando J. Aguirre, Ph.D., P.E.
Vice President, Business Development
Heat Transfer Research, Inc.
150 Venture Drive College Station, Texas, USA
+1-979-690-5095 voice
+1-979-690-3250 fax
FJA@HTRI.net

Gerald Jacobs
Virtual Materials Group, Inc.
32502 Westminster Drive
Fulshear, Texas, USA
+1-281-346-1200 voice
+1-281-346-0288 fax
gerald@virtualmaterials.com