Textile fabric cover serves as seamless outer skin on a BMW

13 Jun '08

4 min read

The key to affecting the development of tomorrow's mobility lies in our readiness to challenge what is established and in the ability to present new options. In order to meet these objectives, BMW Group Design taps into the potential of the GINA principle (Geometry and Functions In “N” Adaptions) which promotes innovative thinking by allowing maximum freedom of creativity.

The GINA Light Visionary Model has an almost seamless outer skin, a flexible textile cover that stretches across a moveable substructure. Individual functions are only revealed if and when they are needed.

With this model, BMW Group Design initiates a fundamental discourse about the characteristics that will affect the development of cars in future. The car's front and sides, including the doors, create one single uninterrupted, seamless whole that converges to form an optical as well as a structural unit.

A special, highly durable and extremely expansion-resistant fabric material stretches across a metal structure. This new material offers designers a significantly higher level of freedom of design and functionality.

The innovation of a flexible outer skin breaks new ground in automotive engineering. This revolutionary solution opens up new design, production and functionality potential. It has a major impact on the interaction between driver and car and enhances it by offering a variety of entirely new options. Some elements of the substructure are moveable.

The most striking example of this is the headlight design. In normal position, when the headlights are not active, they are hidden under the special fabric cover. As soon as the driver turns on the lights, the contour of the front end changes and the previously closed fabric cover opens to the right and left and reveals the BMW double head-lights.

The fact that the body surface is designed by means of a flexible fabric cover that stretches across a metal substructure means that the materials used must meet exacting requirements.

Industrially produced hybrid fabric made from a stabilizing mesh netting support and an outer layer that is both water-repellent and resistant to high and low temperatures is suitable for this application. Another essential material property is a maximum level of dimensional stability.

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