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Textile fabric cover serves as seamless outer skin on a BMW
13 Jun '08
4 min read
It must remain dimensionally stable irrespective of the temperature and air humidity it is exposed to even after severe and constant expansion. The dimensional stability helps retain the cover's surface tension for a long period of time.
The movement of individual body elements creates accurately reproducible folds in the material. In its choice of material BMW Group Design was inspired by exterior and interior architecture.
The expertise of seat pattern designers working for BMW Group Interior Design was successfully applied in order to cut the fabric webbing to size with maximum precision, determine the strategic position of attachment points and stretch the material.
As a result, the surfaces are remarkably well balanced and due to the steady tension that is retained between any two clearly defined points, the lines are extremely accurate. The special fabric is supported by a metal wire structure. At specific points, the high-strength metal is enhanced by carbon struts with a higher flexibility.
They are used predominantly for round, moving contours with a particularly narrow radius. The use of large fabric areas and the possibility of changing the surface contours by moving individual parts of the metal mesh that lies beneath it create a new relationship between form and function.
If additional cooling air is required, the BMW kidney grille at the front of the vehicle can be opened. Because the overall surface of the special fabric covering remains unchanged, the contraction at the front of the vehicle, which is necessary for functional reasons, has to be compensated for by extra tension in other areas.
The effect of the accurate surface material draping is even more impressive when the doors are opened. They swing both outwards and upwards. The high number of attachment points for the fabric cover positioned at the front of the car as well as at rear door edges creates a clearly defined and perfectly reproducible bulk of material.
The draping is confined to the area between the front door edge and the side panel. Once the doors are closed, the folds in material disappear completely, leaving a perfectly smooth, stretched material surface.
The movement of individual body elements creates accurately reproducible folds in the material. In its choice of material BMW Group Design was inspired by exterior and interior architecture.
The expertise of seat pattern designers working for BMW Group Interior Design was successfully applied in order to cut the fabric webbing to size with maximum precision, determine the strategic position of attachment points and stretch the material.
As a result, the surfaces are remarkably well balanced and due to the steady tension that is retained between any two clearly defined points, the lines are extremely accurate. The special fabric is supported by a metal wire structure. At specific points, the high-strength metal is enhanced by carbon struts with a higher flexibility.
They are used predominantly for round, moving contours with a particularly narrow radius. The use of large fabric areas and the possibility of changing the surface contours by moving individual parts of the metal mesh that lies beneath it create a new relationship between form and function.
If additional cooling air is required, the BMW kidney grille at the front of the vehicle can be opened. Because the overall surface of the special fabric covering remains unchanged, the contraction at the front of the vehicle, which is necessary for functional reasons, has to be compensated for by extra tension in other areas.
The effect of the accurate surface material draping is even more impressive when the doors are opened. They swing both outwards and upwards. The high number of attachment points for the fabric cover positioned at the front of the car as well as at rear door edges creates a clearly defined and perfectly reproducible bulk of material.
The draping is confined to the area between the front door edge and the side panel. Once the doors are closed, the folds in material disappear completely, leaving a perfectly smooth, stretched material surface.
BMW Group
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