Story
From Pixel to Real Part: Creating Infinity Light with Polycarbonate
As automotive design evolves, manufacturers face increasing pressure to innovate faster while managing costs. Digital transformation offers a solution, enabling rapid development from concept to production while maintaining premium quality and design freedom by digital product engineering.
Story · September 30, 2025
The Material Effect
From pixels to finished part. Discover how photorealistic renderings let you visualize lighting effects even before a single prototype is built. Imagio® high-quality optical material data, combined with expert digital simulation and advanced texturing, accelerates your development cycles. Let's spark brilliance in your next lighting solution.
Digital Product Development
Our comprehensive digital product development process seamlessly integrates design, optical simulation, engineering simulation, and manufacturing through:
- Makrolon® Ai automotive material solutions optimized for high-quality optical functions, customizable to customer needs at our global Color Competence Centers
- A Digital Sampling Library enabling creative exploration of color and structure effects
- Digital product design and optimization utilizing advanced material data for optical simulation and rendering workflows powered by X-Rite's TAC technology
- Global Application Development support for engineering and processing requirements
Experience the 3D Light Demonstrator
Our 3D Light Demonstrator showcases the possibilities of a fully digital product development process: premium automotive interior design enhanced by innovative lighting functions, delivered through mass-production-ready processes – rapidly developed from initial concept to injection molding solution.
- Premium appearance delivered through high-purity Makrolon® Ai, offering customizable transparency from 0-90% and versatile color options
- Striking infinity lighting effects seamlessly integrated into automotive interiors through digital product design and optical simulation
- Switchable appearance alternating between black panel design and infinity, mirror tunnel lighting effects within a single component
- Enabled by strong partnerships - Design by Miika Heikkinen by northernworks, Optical and Light Simulation by Eclat Digital Research SAS, technical texture design and tooling Laser engraving by pelplastic, and special metallized film from Nissha
Beyond material solutions: A Partnership Approach
Covestro delivers comprehensive support from digital concept to mass production for innovative automotive design solutions, backed by a strong network across the entire value chain:
- Global Color Competence Centers providing precise color matching
- Advanced material data integration throughout the digital product development process
- Extensive partner network of designers, lighting engineers, and mold makers, Texture and surface experts complemented by our in-house engineering and processing expertise
Visit us at K2025 to experience firsthand how our digital innovation and material solutions are transforming automotive interfaces - proving that the right combination of digital capabilities and materials creates effects that exceed traditional boundaries.
Key benefits
Efficient:
Short development cycles and reduced development costs
Global Supply:
Consistent material quality worldwide, available in any color and quantity
Design Freedom:
High-purity optical materials enable flexible lighting effects
Digital:
Streamlined digital prototyping eliminates physical design studies