|
CAD - CREATIVE AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN
Significantly, MIRA has its own definition of the term ‘CAD’ which is
referred to as ‘Creative Automotive Design’, and is the name given to its
specialist engineering design team which is part of its product engineering
service. This team boasts vast experience in the creation of design concepts,
engineering feasibility and in the development of these concepts through to
production. Their goal is ‘right-first-time’ solutions in the shortest of
timescales.
The product engineering team constitutes a
centre of excellence for automotive engineering
which includes design, development and validation.
From styling, concept and engineering
design through the full range of simulation and
development to final validation & sign-off testing,
MIRA specializes in evolving an idea into a
fully-certified product. The company dates back
to the foundation of the Institution of Automobile
Engineers in 1899. With heritage like that, it is
not surprising that the company is at the forefront
of technology today. MIRA has access to various software tools for
the development of passenger car and commercial
vehicles for its OEM clients. Mr Ken
Anderson is MIRA’s Engineering Design
Manager at Nuneaton. He explains ‘Being
effectively a service company, we typically have
to use the tools as dictated by our clients. But
whenever we have a choice, we prefer to use
CATIA V5. We use CATIA V5 extensively for
Body and Trim work, and also for Chassis and
Suspension projects. Of course this software is
renowned for its excellent modelling and surfacing
capabilities, but we also use numerous
other functions including Kinematics and Fitting
Simulation for manufacturing feasibility studies’.
Since the size of the design team on any particular project can vary enormously, MIRA, like many
other companies uses outside contractors
where necessary. Now that CATIA V5 is more
commonly used in the Auto industry, it has
become a familiar design language, so it is not
too difficult to find good skills in the marketplace.
MIRA has been using CATIA V5 since 2000 and
today has around 30 seats in operation. At the
end of 2005 it also installed SMARTEAM. THE NEED TO CONSIDER MULTIPLE
ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES
Mr Anderson continues, ‘One of the major
benefits of CATIA V5 is the ability to do rapid
design changes and updates, and to see the
impact of changes so quickly. We do numerous
iterations as we progress through a project. We
have to take into account the requirements, as
well as the limitations, from the many engineering
disciplines at MIRA such as Vehicle
Crashworthiness and Safety, NVH (Noise Vibration and Harshness), Vehicle Dynamics is a great deal more potential for us to tap into’)
and Aerodynamics to name but a few. CATIA
V5 enables us to make changes for any consideration,
and to see the impact and ramifications
very quickly’. WORKING WITH TRANSCAT PLM Says Mr Anderson, ‘We have been well supported
by the IBM/DS Business Partner
Transcat PLM, who has provided installation,
training and consulting services. We use
Transcat PLM’s Measured Development
Training, which assesses the specific needs of
individual users, and delivers web-based training
focused on the individual’s main knowledge
‘gaps’. Using that tool, we have been
able to evaluate our in-house design engineers
and contractors.’ In such an environment, vast amounts of data
are generated, and managing this data is
clearly an important task. Simply keeping track
of the numerous design changes and iterations
can be a big headache. In addition, each of the engineering functions needs their own
view of the data which has to be managed
and controlled.
Mr Anderson explains, ‘Two years ago we
trialed SMARTEAM and found it to be the
most cost effective system on the market for
our requirements. Recently, we installed the
software and our partner Transcat PLM tuned
the system to take into account our own
particular requirements. We will be using it
for traceability and version control. We know
that initially we will only be using part of its
potential, and possibly the next step will be to
use it for electronic sign-off of drawings and
to extend its use throughout the rest of MIRA
to control data on large projects which require
many different engineering disciplines. DMU FOR EARLY VERIFICATION
Today, many of our designers are able to do
an initial component analysis. By using the
GPS (Generative Part Structural Analysis)
package of CATIA V5 the designer can do an
80% to 90% verification before the design is
passed to our FEA (Finite Element Analysis)
team for more detailed analysis. One of
the major benefits of CATIA V5 is DMU. For
feasibility studies we would assemble a
complete Body-in-White, or front end, or
a zone of the vehicle.’ MIRA is now gaining more and more business
from the Far East, since that region continues
to emerge as a major player. Countries like
China and India are growing rapidly, and MIRA is finding that China is surprisingly up-to speed
with CATIA V5. PLENTY OF POTENTIAL Concludes Mr Anderson, "As for the future, we will
continue to exploit more of the benefits of the DS PLM Solutions. In CATIA V5 for example, we plan
to capitalise on the power of Knowledgeware.
Also, we often exchange large amounts of data
with our clients and suppliers so 3D XML, the lightweight
format for quick and easy sharing of 3D
data, is of great interest to us. We know that there
is a great deal more potential for us to tap into. " More information about MIRA on
www.mira.co.uk
The IBM logo is a registered trademark and the IBM Business
Partner emblem is a trademark of International Business Machines
Corporation and are used together under license.
| 
