Bentley Uses Aesthetica Simulation Software
Bentley Motors has implemented Icona's perceived quality simulation software, Aesthetica, at its design and manufacturing plant in Crewe, England. It is being used to streamline and improve the process of achieving consistently high perceived quality in the company's vehicles without negatively impacting development timescales and manufacturing costs.
The software has been introduced to help overcome the difficulties of getting all stake-holders in the vehicle design and development process - styling, engineering, quality and manufacturing personnel - to agree at the most appropriate stage in the development process on the assembled conditions to which the Class A surfaces should adhere.
Jim Shaw, manager of concept engineering at Bentley, said: 'The practicalities of getting everyone involved to agree the gap and flush conditions ahead of the Class A surfacing process meant there was a reluctance to commit to them early enough in the design process. 'This was resulting in agreements only being reached after tooling prove-out models had been milled and stacked, which was leading to loops in the Class A surfacing activity that were eating into the development timeline.' Following the findings of a working group formed to look into dimensional management throughout the development process at Bentley, several techniques were identified and justified, with the implementation of Aesthetica being the final piece of the puzzle.
'In several pilot projects over recent months it has been clearly demonstrated that Aesthetica allows us to visualise the effects of all stakeholders' proposals, not just for edge conditions but also for the underlying fixing constraints,' said Shaw. Styling, engineering, quality and manufacturing people can therefore appreciate and understand each other's requirements and reach agreement at a much earlier stage in the development process than was the case before.' The use of Icona Solutions' Aesthetica software at Bentley allows the variation in key areas of the vehicle that would occur under manufacturing conditions to be visualised, studied and understood without the need for the manufacture of solid, physical models.
These key areas have been agreed with the cross-functional team that is responsible for design approval. 'Specific viewpoints that are used by the audit team have been set up in Aesthetica so that they review the virtual 3D models in the same way that they view production cars,' said Patrick Crutchley, senior engineer, surfacing, Bentley Motors. Bentley is also looking at how the software can be used in the future, further upstream in the design process to influence the early style development.
Shaw said: 'We are working closely with Icona Solutions and Bunkspeed to examine the use of Bunkspeed's Hypershot 3D visualisation software to provide photographic-quality snapshot capabilities directly from Aesthetica. 'This would take advantage of the Hypershot integration capability that Icona Solutions offers as an optional supplement to Aesthetica's in-built visualisation facilities.'.
The software has been introduced to help overcome the difficulties of getting all stake-holders in the vehicle design and development process - styling, engineering, quality and manufacturing personnel - to agree at the most appropriate stage in the development process on the assembled conditions to which the Class A surfaces should adhere.
Jim Shaw, manager of concept engineering at Bentley, said: 'The practicalities of getting everyone involved to agree the gap and flush conditions ahead of the Class A surfacing process meant there was a reluctance to commit to them early enough in the design process. 'This was resulting in agreements only being reached after tooling prove-out models had been milled and stacked, which was leading to loops in the Class A surfacing activity that were eating into the development timeline.' Following the findings of a working group formed to look into dimensional management throughout the development process at Bentley, several techniques were identified and justified, with the implementation of Aesthetica being the final piece of the puzzle.
'In several pilot projects over recent months it has been clearly demonstrated that Aesthetica allows us to visualise the effects of all stakeholders' proposals, not just for edge conditions but also for the underlying fixing constraints,' said Shaw. Styling, engineering, quality and manufacturing people can therefore appreciate and understand each other's requirements and reach agreement at a much earlier stage in the development process than was the case before.' The use of Icona Solutions' Aesthetica software at Bentley allows the variation in key areas of the vehicle that would occur under manufacturing conditions to be visualised, studied and understood without the need for the manufacture of solid, physical models.
These key areas have been agreed with the cross-functional team that is responsible for design approval. 'Specific viewpoints that are used by the audit team have been set up in Aesthetica so that they review the virtual 3D models in the same way that they view production cars,' said Patrick Crutchley, senior engineer, surfacing, Bentley Motors. Bentley is also looking at how the software can be used in the future, further upstream in the design process to influence the early style development.
Shaw said: 'We are working closely with Icona Solutions and Bunkspeed to examine the use of Bunkspeed's Hypershot 3D visualisation software to provide photographic-quality snapshot capabilities directly from Aesthetica. 'This would take advantage of the Hypershot integration capability that Icona Solutions offers as an optional supplement to Aesthetica's in-built visualisation facilities.'.
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