An example of the use of VR in production are the so-called 3P workshops (Production Preparation Process). They take place when an assembly line has to be set up or converted at one of the many production site locations. Representatives from factory planning, logistics, assembly, the pre-series center and quality assurance then determine in the workshop how the individual work cycles must be designed – down to the last detail: Is the material trolley in exactly the right place? Doesn’t the employee have to go any unnecessary ways? And are all movement sequences ergonomically okay?
Traditionally these stations were constructed from plywood, cardboard and dummy elements. The product is a prototype that had previously been assembled accordingly. However, prototypes are very expensive, which is why transferring the workshops to the VR world – to virtual meetings, virtual cycles and virtual products is highly beneficial and saving unncessary costs.
Today, manufacturers are under pressure to reduce time to market and optimize products to higher levels of performance and reliability. A much higher number of products are being developed in the form of virtual prototypes in which engineering simulation software is used to predict performance prior to constructing physical prototypes. Engineers can quickly explore the performance of thousands of design alternatives without investing the time and money required to build physical prototypes. The ability to explore a wide range of design alternatives leads to improvements in performance and design quality. Yet the time required to bring the product to market is usually reduced substantially because virtual prototypes can be produced much faster than physical prototypes.
How does Virtual Reality apply?
With the moreViz VR bridge software all software packages of the virtual prototype process chain are supported for instant VR bridging. Not only the existing library of prototypes becomes tangible within seconds, also simulation and on-the-fly design changes are mirrored 1:1 directly in your VR environment. The moreViz software works like a VR plugin for your existing software tools, enriching it with life like visualization and natural interaction.