Last August, the North American movie "Runaway Player" opened the door to the AR world. After the protagonist puts on a pair of AR glasses, many things in front of him are superimposed with electronic tags and instructions, as if implanting an encyclopedia into the brain.
This is the first time that ordinary people have intuitively felt the technical essence behind the industry buzzword of AR (Augmented Reality) - augmented reality, which superimposes virtual scenes on real scenes.
In China's industrial field, many front-line workers have become AR "players" early. Remote operation and maintenance of nuclear power equipment, cross-border assembly of steel production lines... In the wave of industrial digital transformation, there are always people who take the lead in taking the technical express train and obtaining the "golden key" to the future era.
The "strategist" behind the transformation of these industrial enterprises is a "unicorn" enterprise from Zhangjiang, Shanghai - Liangfengtai. In its growth, it hides a story of Shanghai's new generation of technology enterprises and traditional industries supporting and empowering each other.
Add fuel to manufacturing overtaking in curves
In the past two years, the operation and maintenance personnel of a nuclear power engineering company in Shanghai have suddenly had more production tools in their hands. It resembles sunglasses, but once you put it on, you can see things that no one else can see.
Walking to the front of the nuclear power equipment cabinet, others see a row of densely packed card pieces, which can be seen from the glasses, but each card piece and its full set of data information: what is the working temperature, what is the relative humidity, electromagnetic interference, electrostatic discharge symbols do not meet the standard... It is equivalent to a virtual sticky note next to each card.
What workers see after putting on AR glasses.
This is the AR smart glasses HiARG200 previously developed by Liangfengtai, with it, not only the whole process of equipment operation and maintenance, as simple as "playing games", but also can "open the plug-in" at any time, through the AR remote operation and maintenance platform behind the AR glasses, to seek assistance from off-site experts. Experts sit in front of the computer, as if sharing a pair of eyes with on-site operations and maintenance personnel, to provide accurate guidance and help.
One more pair of "glasses" is reduced by the number of paper, pencils and operations personnel used to record data. Originally, a maintenance inspection always required multiple hands; now, an operation and maintenance personnel can store the status data and operation and maintenance records of the equipment in the background with gestures to facilitate the next step of data analysis.
For a long time, VR and AR were like twins, always appearing in the public eye at the same time. VR technology is even more well-known because of its full application in entertainment fields such as games.
But unlike VR, which is positioned as the "next generation of game consoles", AR technology is the "next generation computing platform" with high hopes. Especially in the process of traditional manufacturing transformation, AR can be called one of the core "variables" of the future development of enterprises, which can help enterprises and even industries to "jump" and jump to the "second curve" of development.
Chen Xirui, brand manager of Liangfengtai market, told reporters that at present, many domestic manufacturing enterprises are facing the problem of transformation of production methods. The old production method has entered the bottleneck, if you find and use the new technology, it may be the multiplication of productivity, is to maintain the hegemony of the industry or embark on a higher quality development of the key.
The duty of AR technology companies is to use AR to help enterprises solve the personalized production problems they face. This is undoubtedly the use of technology to add fuel to the overtaking of traditional industries.
After the Shanghai nuclear power company tried to implement AR technology, the efficiency and accuracy of the inspection and operation of nuclear power equipment increased. Enterprises further make decisions, will achieve the full expansion of AR technology in the entire factory as soon as possible, through AR+ operation guidance, inspection and maintenance, remote collaboration, to help transformation and development.
Remote collaboration becomes a reality.
Revitalize global resources and glue the virtual and real world
In the past two years, due to the epidemic, "difficulty in personnel mobility" has become one of the biggest development pain points facing the manufacturing industry.
Some companies are headquartered in one city, but their branches are in another city. Some enterprises have production links in China, but talents and technologies are overseas. The sharp reduction in circulation efficiency has led to the collapse of many originally good businesses.
In 2020, Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel Company (hereinafter referred to as "Xianggang"), located in Hunan, also encountered such difficulties, relying on AR technology to turn crises into opportunities.
The company has imported a batch of Equipment from Germany and Austria, which urgently needs to be put into production, but it must be commissioned by overseas experts on site. Relying on the support of AR+5G technology, the engineers at the Xianggang site were able to push the first view screen in real time to experts in Germany and Austria. Although the engineers span three places, they are on the spot and accurately realize remote collaboration.
Engineers in the three places assemble production lines across borders.
In the most difficult days of the epidemic, Xianggang's new project was not only put into production on schedule, but even set a record of "shortest cycle" for similar projects in China.
AR not only assists in activating the global talent and technical resource elements, but also realizes the "end of the world" in all corners of the world, and the communication efficiency is greatly improved.
After Haier, a well-known domestic electrical appliance brand, applied AR technology to a new factory in Russia, since then workers have encountered technical problems in equipment debugging, and only need to wear AR glasses to connect to the Chinese headquarters; Haier Huangdao drum interconnection factory once encountered technical problems, and suppliers could not travel due to the epidemic. As a result, after the two sides connected through the AR platform, the problem was solved within 20 minutes.
The new plant in Russia is connected to the Chinese headquarters using AR technology.
In September 2021, Liangfengtai's latest terminal new product 5G AR smart glasses HiAR H100 and AR "post-it notes" PinNotes were launched simultaneously, further bringing the gospel to manufacturing enterprises. Shaped like a hard hat, the HiAR H100 is not only more comfortable to wear, but global voice interaction also allows workers to completely free their hands.
In addition, with PinNotes, all the electronic marks left by future workers in the physical space will be stored. For example, if a worker leaves a voice record in front of a device, the next worker can directly obtain this voice record in the AR world when he operates it, which makes the two spaces of the virtual and real world glued together.
New industries in development are inevitably experiencing setbacks and challenges. A few years ago, due to the lack of technology and unclear business models, many AR companies at home and abroad also once entered a trough. However, all detours are necessary. Today, a group of Shanghai AR enterprises represented by Liangfengtai, hand in hand with traditional industries, are gradually moving towards the fast lane of development where the scene is more and more focused and the direction of the track is becoming clearer and clearer.