Published: May 22, 2019
Topics: Business, Enterprise VR, Manufacturing, Partnerships, References
Can VR help a company reduce its carbon footprint, improve its bottom line, and help showcase its products to a global audience without taking a single machine out of production for transportation? Read our story to find out!
The heavy machine challenge
Multiphoton Optics, a global company based in Germany, manufactures state-of-the-art, High Precision 3D printing machines that can create nearly any structure ranging from 100 nm up to the cm range. Their machine, LithoProf 3D®, is fully integrated and precise, but costly to transport due to shipping and having to take a machine out of production.
Moving a machine like the LithoProf3D® is not convenient and is expensive. More importantly, though, the revenue lost from taking a unit out of production, shipping it across the world requires a truck and air freight transportation, which adds significantly to the company’s carbon footprint.
On top of the logistics and cost of getting a unit to a trade show, there are added costs of requiring an extra-large booth and a stable flow of compressed air at the event. These details alone add up to thousands of Euros.
Multiphoton Optics is a fast-growing startup that presents itself at 7-10 global events a year. No need to brush up on the math, the budget requirements for exhibiting the machines annually are astronomical. Solving this complex and costly problem is relatively simple with the help of technology solutions that are able to overcome the numerous drawbacks of presenting the company’s equipment in person at trade shows…enter VRgineers!
The virtual solution
Anyone that has exhibited products around the world and/or works for a company, like Multiphoton Optics, that is dedicated to sustainability and reducing its carbon footprint, will agree that moving such equipment around is not an efficient option.
Multiphoton Optics is not afraid of thinking outside of the box, and thus summoned the power of virtual and augmented reality to reduce their annual trade show carbon footprint by 98.5 percent.
The team calculated that due to the weight and size of their machines and having to transport them via truck and air freight only, they were creating an average of 96.1 Tons of CO2 per round trip. With the XTAL VR system from VRgineers, Multiphoton Optics cut their average trade show CO2 emissions down to only 1.4 Tons.
As an added bonus, the amount of money they saved from having to ship the LithoProf3D® around the world and springing for larger exhibition booths, has fully covered the annual salaries of two additional engineers.
“We are an innovative and sustainable company, and as such it is in our mindset to always explore the world of technological possibilities. Our High Precision LithoProf3D®Printer is a game-changer, as is the XTAL virtual reality headset from VRgineers. VR was a completely new and exciting way for us to showcase the unique product we have,” says Dr. Ruth Houbertz, CEO & Managing Director of Multiphoton Optics GmbH.
The task Multiphoton Optics gave VRgineers was unique and certainly not easy to accomplish. In order to take the users on a virtual tour of a busy production hall in Germany where potential customers can experience fully functioning machines, VRgineers had to develop bespoke VR software.
What to do when your machines are too big to be transported and shown to potential customers?
Everything had to be captured and presented in a realistic manner, with maximum detail. The XTAL VR headset made recreating this environment with absolute realism possible using its close-to-life 5K imagery and industry-leading 180-degree field-of-view, that combined, creates a fully immersive and lifelike VR experience.
“We are pushing the boundaries of what is possible. For me personally, the biggest motivation is that we can advance human capabilities, and efficiently help companies move the experiences offered by their work and/or products to the virtual world, while maintaining an unrivalled sense of realism,” explained Marek Polcak, CEO & Co-Founder of VRgineers.
Thanks to our partnership, visitors of European Photonics Industry Consortium in Hannover were recently able to interact with LithoProf3D® machines and explore how they work, all without shipping any machines or halting production in Germany where they were busy producing thousands of structures and generating revenue for Multiphoton Optics.
Are you thinking of using virtual reality in your business? Are you interested in saving time, money and the environment with VR technology solutions? Let’s see what we can do for you! Contact us here.