CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
15 October 2004
Implementation Investments
Lamborghini's New Murcielago Roadster Comes to Market on Schedule With the Aid of ICEM's Surf Software Suite
ICEM Ltd. announced that the Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster, launched by the Italian super-car manufacturer at this year's Mondial de l'Automobile (Paris Motor Show), relied on the ICEM Surf software suite to streamline the design development process for the vehicle's body and interior.
ICEM Surf was used by Lamborghini throughout the Murcielago Roadster development project to transform the stylists' designs into the final, production-ready Class A surface model data required for the tooling development process and subsequent manufacture of all the 'customer-visible' components of the car.
"Using ICEM Surf on the Murcielago Roadster project enabled us to streamline the design development workflow process through better integration of the different design phases", said Andrea Bonfatti, Lamborghini's body development manager. "Stylists, surface design engineers and manufacturing engineers were able to work together, using ICEM Surf visualizations of the vehicle to examine and agree on various aspects of the design from an aesthetic and from an engineering feasibility viewpoint. This shortened the development time and also enabled us to reduce the number of physical models needed, which in turn, reduced the development costs."
In addition to enabling the Murcielago Roadster development team to meet Lamborghini's Class A surface quality requirements while satisfying the styling and engineering feasibility requirements, ICEM Surf model data was used in the development of the production tooling for a variety of manufacturing processes, including injection molding, laminated thermoplastics and aluminum pressing.
"ICEM Surf is an invaluable tool for us", said Bonfatti. "It enables us to design and develop complex surface shapes and to visualize them in real time at the same time as ensuring that they are feasible designs from an engineering and manufacturing standpoint. It also enables us to better integrate the body surfaces development process and the vehicle engineering design process. This helps us avoid errors which could be costly to rectify later in the development process."
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