MG Rover goes for an aesthetic edge

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 7, 2004

MG Rover Group is deploying Aesthetica DT for use in its quality auditing process.

MG Rover Group is deploying Aesthetica DT for use in its quality auditing process.

Aesthetica will be used extensively on both new and face-lift vehicle design projects.

The deployment follows the recent successful completion of a pilot project based on the MG TF sports car.

Icona's Aesthetica software will now be used to enhance MG Rover Group's quality auditing procedures during the design process on current as well as future vehicle development programmes.

It will enable interactive 3D visualisations of non-nominal products to be produced for design review and aesthetic inspection.

"For some time now we have been searching for a resolution to this requirement", said Alan Olifent, Manager, Dimensional Quality, MG Rover Group.

"Icona's Aesthetica software is probably the only product on the market that satisfies our needs".

"It has proved its value during earlier trials and we are now keen to begin deploying the software on live programmes in order to maximise the cost and time savings that we are confident of achieving".

"This contract is a significant step forward for us", said Dr John Maxfield, Technical Director, Icona Solutions.

"We have met all our software development milestones during the past year and we are now actively marketing Aesthetica to the automotive industry, both here in the UK and in export markets".

"With MG Rover Group now pushing the current software to its limits, we are able to demonstrate both the power and the versatility of Aesthetica in the real world".

"This will be important in the discussions we are having with a number of other major companies in the automotive industry", he added.

Aesthetica is an innovative software product that provides automotive vehicle design and manufacturing engineers with a unique tool for visualising the impact of production variations on the aesthetic quality of the interior and exterior of new vehicles, early in the design process.

For the first time, engineers can use high quality virtual prototypes, rather than expensive full-scale physical model stacks, to visually assess whether or not a product will continue to meet agreed aesthetic quality targets during the manufacturing and assembly processes.