CASA Chooses KTI's Technologies To `Stretch Their Knowledge'; New Applications Will Revolutionize Stretch Form Tooling for the Aerospace Industry.

Business/Technology Editors

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 6, 2000

Knowledge Technologies International (KTI) announces that Spain's Construcciones Aeronauticas S.A. (CASA) has started this millennium with a new application designed to further secure its competitive position in the international aeronautical marketplace. Based on revolutionary Knowledge-Based Engineering software, this application is likely to change the way the industry develops stretch form tools forever.

KTI's product family, The KBO Environmenttm with `ICAD(R) built-in' allows engineers to capture and deploy human knowledge to create optimized designs, by specifying function. It brings the `best-ever team' of experts to any task, freeing engineers and designers to be creative.

As Spain's principal aeronautical company, designing and manufacturing empennages, wings and other substantial components for most of the world's major aircraft companies and consortia (including Airbus, Boeing, Eurofighter, Saab), CASA's Stretch Form Tool application will help to get many future commercial and military aircraft into the air much sooner. The application, now in production, is used to manufacture leading-edge sheet metal parts for aircraft wings and empennages. It enables the design of stretch form tools, which previously would have taken at least 10-15 days, to be completed within a day.

According to Pedro Munoz Esquer, Manufacturing Engineering Director, the main benefits of using The KBO Environment have been in "manpower and cycle time reduction, repeatability and standardization, in the sense that there is no ambiguity from one designer to another. Formerly, the people who designed the tool might have interpreted the design in different ways, but now all tools are produced to the same design criteria. It has also enabled us to accurately document the process for the first time."

The viability of the stretch form tool application has led CASA to invest in further ICAD licenses, and together with the Universities of Madrid and Seville, who will act as a development body for future applications, CASA plans to develop applications in other areas, such as composite tooling. They will also start to use The KBO Environment tool at the front end of their processes in order to be able to make `manufacturability' assessments at an early stage, as well as for downstream activities, preparing more information for the shop floors.

CASA's current involvement with the major commercial and military aircraft programs, as well as future development of its work with transport military aircraft, means that the stretch form tool application can potentially be used on any aircraft anywhere in the world. It bears out CASA's commitment when it started to invest in KTI's technology last year, to "offer the best products in the shortest timescales."

According to Garreth Evans, KTI's CEO, "CASA's rapid development has enabled them to take a leap in competitiveness that would have been impossible without employing Knowledge as the main foundation. Now, in good company with all the other major Aerospace companies around the world, CASA have proven that ICAD is the only true Knowledge-Based Engineering system on the market with proven ROI. Congratulations to CASA for their excellent developments."

About The KBO Environment

KTI's The KBO Environment(TM) with `ICAD(R) Built In' is the advanced Knowledge-Based Organization (KBO) software tool for the intuitive management of complex processes. It enables a KBO to harness product definitions along with the knowledge base of its experts, product rules, performance data, legislative and safety codes and design best practices. It automates product development from concept to production. KTI's KBO technology has been proven in countless process automation applications for world-leading companies in automotive, aerospace and manufacturing industries providing the most advanced knowledge deployment environment and regularly provides returns on investment of over 100% and productivity gains in excess of 50%. The KBO Environment is a new family of KTI's Knowledge-Based Products comprising several inter-operative elements:

-- Knowledge-based Process Modeler (KPM) -- Comprehends, initiates, controls and dynamically monitors complex and even fragmented enterprise-wide processes

-- Knowledge Server -- Easily captures and serves knowledge with (`ICAD Built In')

-- Knowledge Portal -- Intelligently searches for, delivers and archives knowledge

-- Knowledge Browser -- An intuitive environment to access and integrate your KBO applications

-- Knowledge Backbone -- Integrates distributed heterogeneous knowledge sources

About KTI

KTI is the technology powerhouse behind the knowledge revolution and the world's most successful provider of software and services empowering the Knowledge-Based Organization (KBO). KTI's technology allows enterprises to capture their Intellectual Capital and deploy it intuitively to control complex processes. The benefits are massively compressed time scales, huge cost savings, enhanced creativity and optimized products, resulting in `audited', documented, repeatable and fully understood processes and best practices. KTI's technology is now considered by many companies to be a vital asset in the drive to constantly improve their offer and keep ahead of the competition. Using KTI's software, global market-leading companies in aerospace, automotive and other manufacturing industries have become pioneers in creating customer-driven products, right first time - every time.

Registered in Luxembourg the company operates from offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. KTI's world-wide client base includes Airbus Industrie, Airbus UK, AP Parts, Benetton Formula 1, Corus, Daelim, Fiat, Ford, GM, IPTN, Jaguar Cars, Lotus Cars, Pratt & Whitney, Ricardo, Rolls-Royce, Sikorsky, Tata, Trico and many others. For more details see: www.KTIworld.com. Note: KTI initiated and is prime sponsor of the KBO conference. Sponsors have included Sun, Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics. For details on the recent European KBO conference in Paris, February 2-3rd 2000 and future International KBO Conferences see: www.KBOworld.com.

About CASA

Construcciones Aeronauticas S.A. (CASA) was founded in 1923 and is Spain's leading aeronautical company. With 7,500 employees, 20% of them graduates, and an annual turnover of 120,542 million pesetas ($818.51m), it operates from 7 industrial centers and exports 87% of its sales. More than 830 CASA designed and manufactured aircraft have been sold to 110 operators in 50 countries. CASA is a member of the AIRBUS, EUROFIGHTER, A.M.C. and ARIANESPACE consortia. CASA's main shareholder (99.28%) is SEPI, the leading Spanish industrial holding company. For more information, see: http://www.casa.es.