How Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality optimise the work of industrial machinery companies

New technologies are revolutionising how industry works. And both Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality have a lot to do with it. We can define the former as the one that immerses you in an environment produced by technology, in such a way that you believe yourself to be immersed in it. The latter, for its part, is the set of technological tools that allow you to perceive reality through a device that also adds graphic information about it.

On the other hand, we call Industry 4.0 any industrial company that has fully undertaken its digitalisation process. That is, one that has put in place the devices needed to make its factory smart. With this, it improves its productivity and efficiency as well as its safety and the quality of its products.

Now that these preliminary concepts have been set out, we are going to show you that Augmented and Virtual Reality are a great tool for Industry 4.0, as they are an enormous help to industrial machinery companies.

How Virtual and Augmented Reality help industrial machinery companies

Virtual Reality is very useful for machinery companies. It helps their technicians see how a machine performs in the environment where it will have to work, as well as test the machine's design without having it manufactured or in person, because with this technology you can analyse its conditions in a given environment. As an example, we can mention some of our most recent projects:

• The Virtual Reality app for the company TMI
• The Virtual Reality app for the company ROTECNA
• The Virtual Reality app for the company TEYME

Even when we talk about Augmented Reality, it can also be a great help to industrial machinery companies, as it can provide you with technical data on the performance of those machines. In this way, you can correct the elements that fail even before they have been installed.

These kinds of realities contribute in many other ways to the development of Industry 4.0, from the manufacturing process itself to the subsequent maintenance of the machinery produced, including the training of the employees who will use it. We are going to show you the most notable advantages.

1. The Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality give the customer control over the manufacture of their machinery
   Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality techniques give your customers better control over the status of their product. Through a custom app or the Virtual Reality headset itself, they will be able to see how the project is progressing, run functional tests, and even spot possible improvements to the design before moving on to the final manufacturing process. All this means a reduction in risks, production costs and even potential errors.
   At INVELON Technologies, we meet this need through our solution Aurora: inspection software with which you can review any model of industrial machinery or other parts in 3D. Our customers highlight Aurora's ease of analysing models before they are manufactured, as well as detecting possible design errors far more quickly and the wide variety of ways to view each model or product.
2. Boost your advertising and sales
   Good salespeople are those who explain well to their potential customers the product they want to sell them. Imagine what you will be able to do in this respect with an Augmented Reality device and, above all, a Virtual Reality one. And even more so if you sell industrial machinery. With that tool, you will be able to give truly spectacular presentations, without having to take the machine itself everywhere: until recently, the only way for a potential customer to check that an industrial machine worked well was to invite them to a demonstration. However, with this kind of technological advance you will be able to show it to them live and digitally, with the same or even a better effect.
   
   To optimise sales and advertising, at INVELON we have developed various solutions: Showroom VR for Virtual Reality projects; and AR Catalogue for Augmented Reality projects. Both tools are a good way to present and showcase any part, model or machine to your potential customers and, what is more, leave them amazed by your company's technological and innovative approach.
3. Optimise user training
   Especially in industrial machinery companies, but applicable to any business, there is another area in which this type of technology is even more useful: training, specifically that of the staff who will operate that machinery. Statistics tell us that most workplace accidents involving those employees happen in the first few days of using new machines. This is due to a lack of practice in using them. However, with these technologies applied to a simulator, employees can familiarise themselves with those machines and learn to operate them perfectly even before having tried them. This prevents them from having accidents and, in addition, avoids damage to machinery that is not usually cheap.
   
   To meet this need, at INVELON we offer training sessions with Virtual and Augmented Reality for employees who will be using this type of application, helping them to learn about all the possibilities and to become familiar with Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies. Afterwards, employees only need to start practising how to operate any machine through these platforms, even before they have been manufactured and integrated into the company's working system.
4. Make maintenance easier
   Another great advantage of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality is that they allow you to optimise the maintenance of your machines. There are already applications that produce readings of the machinery's condition. Think, for example, of when you take your car to the dealership for a service. There are devices that connect to the computer and diagnose any hypothetical problems your vehicle might have. In the same way, Augmented Reality devices tell you about operating problems with your machinery, pointing out hypothetical faults and also telling you whether it needs any maintenance work. Thanks to this, you manage to keep your machines in perfect condition. And, with that, you considerably extend their useful life.
   
   We cannot talk about industrial maintenance without mentioning our latest solution in this area, developed in collaboration with PTC: Vuforia Chalk, the support tool that makes it possible to solve technical and/or maintenance problems effectively and more quickly, with the help of remote assistance and the additional information that Augmented Reality gives us.
   

In conclusion, both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are very interesting technologies (and profitable too!) for industrial machinery companies. They optimise all of their processes, from advertising to the maintenance of their products, including their sales and training courses. If you run one of those companies, you should know that there are suppliers such as INVELON dedicated to developing solutions of this kind that will improve the profitability of your business. Shall we get started?