| When the news broke in April that
the Group Lotus had specified Delmia V5 Human, V5 DPM Assembly, and V5
Robotics digital manufacturing software, William Kimberley spoke to David
Balcombe, general manager for Vehicle Systems at Lotus, to find out the
reason behind the choice.
“Once the decision to upgrade our simulation software had been made,
it quickly became apparent that by implementing Dassault Systemes’
Catia V5 and selecting Delmia V5, we would have an integrated virtual
design and manufacturing environment,” says David Balcombe, general
manager for Vehicle Systems at Lotus. “In the future, it will be
easy to expand to a complete product lifecycle management (PLM) solution.”
Catia and Delmia V5 solutions share Dassault Systemes’ product,
process and resource (PPR) data model and it this connection between the
engineering and manufacturing hubs that will enable engineers to work
concurrently and foster the continuous creation and validation of manufacturing
processes throughout the product lifecycle. In addition, the integration
of all facets of the manufacturing engineering process will allow them
to re-use best industrial practices and help Lotus to build on its successes
from previous programmes such as the GM global 2.2 litre engine and vehicles
like the Opel/Vauxhall VX220 and the smaller Proton family.
“One of the big advantages of this program,” says Balcombe,
“is that it has dynamic clash detection whereas up until now it
has been static. For example, we have already used it to discover where
some suspension parts were going to clash, but instead of finding about
it on the assembly line and then having to go through the time and expense
of rectifying it, it can be sorted out long before it reaches that stage.”
The example he gives is of the underbody of a car in which the fuel tanks
and its straps, the anti-roll bar and the rear suspension are all checked
and assembled on the digital assembly line to see whether there are any
clashes, and if so, how they can be overcome.
The input of a 3D model is very precise and all the geometry is carefully
controlled. “What Delmia does is to take those models and our materials
and process engineers will work out the process they want, for example,
whether it should be rivets or spot welds. They can build up the assembly
with the help of the software that can then generate a movie depicting,
for example, whether there are any clashes when the engine is dropped
into the bay.
What is also good about this program,” says Balcombe, “is
that the robot system and even the weld guns can be modelled in and if
there are any clash problems, they are noted. For example, a 0.6 mm clearance
between the weld gun and the vehicle could be a problem so it is flagged
up for checking.
“We do try simultaneous engineering and the materials and process
engineers back the designers up and look at the feasibility, so when they
do a physical styling of the car in either clay or digitally, they know
just what is possible. In other words, when the customer signs his car
off, they know pretty well what it is going to look like when it comes
off the production line. There is no question that it will have to be
altered in any way to overcome production problems.”
The advantages, says Balcombe, are in the improvement in quality plus
the saving of time as a significant amount is taken out of the whole process.
“Timing is one of the key issues,” says Balcombe, “with
minimum changes downstream and doing it for the right cost.”
“We will deploy the Dassault Systemes software in both the engineering
consultancy side of our business as well as in the design and manufacture
of our own vehicles,” says David Jenkinson, materials and process
group manager at Lotus. “We plan to use this new integrated CAD/CAM
and advanced simulation environment immediately on two of our highly confidential
projects and we expect immediate benefits from concurrent engineering,
improved assembly and a shortened design cycle.”
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