Elly Yates-Roberts |
Valiant TMS is on a mission to deliver intelligent automation solutions to its customers. As a full-service Industry 4.0 system integrator leading the way in digitalisation, process development and design and technology integration, the company now has 24 facilities in 13 countries, serving customers in the automotive, aerospace and heavy industry sectors.
Valiant had been working with UK-based software company Theorem Solutions for over 10 years when it began looking for a partner to help develop a merged reality and industrial internet of things concept. Theorem had extended its mixed reality (XR) visualisation tools by using 3D computer-aided design (CAD) content to create holographic models using Microsoft HoloLens. Valiant decided to expand its partnership with Theorem to leverage these new capabilities.
Valiant wanted to apply virtual technologies to its process of designing and integrating industrial automation solutions, to serve its customers and align with their aspirations and vision of the factories of the future.
“After comprehensive research, we selected HoloLens as our hardware platform and Theorem-XR as our software solution because of how well it worked with our existing 3D CAD data and aligned with our ideas and concepts,” said Suresh Rama, director of business Intelligence and innovation at Valiant TMS.
By working with Theorem, Valiant was able to empower manufacturing team members with effective tools that would allow them to engage with the CAD data as they assembled the actual equipment.
The partner enabled Valiant to improve material inspections to ensure that it matched the approved design. It also gave Valiant’s customers the opportunity to review design proposals in an immersive way and ensure that Valiant’s equipment would comply with their requirements, specifications and expectations.
By using Theorem software with HoloLens, Valiant has seen some huge improvements to its manufacturing processes. The company has created time savings of at least four hours on processing scans and data, which makes data immediately available for analysis, rather than waiting for multiple days.
Theorem’s Visualization Experience software has provided Valiant with a unique opportunity to visualise 3D CAD models placed directly over real world equipment, tooling and components. Valiant’s use of the software has improved their ability to quickly inspect tooling and components prior to acceptance from their vendors, ensuring that as-built components match ¬as-designed plans, saving time and money at the assembly site.
This article was originally published in the Winter 2020 issue of The Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.