Augmented reality and remote support: HUBER Global Service now even more flexible at its customers' side

HUBER is consistently pursuing the path of digitalisation and now also offers virtual support to its customers in the Global Service business unit: With the help of augmented reality, data glasses and the new communication centre, the HUBER Remote Support Centre at the company's headquarters, the Berching-based company will be even more flexible in serving its customers worldwide in the future.

The new HUBER Remote Support Centre

The worldwide travel and access restrictions due to the Covid pandemic also posed some major challenges for HUBER's customers, especially as installations and commissioning of machines by HUBER service technicians, usually planned well in advance, were suddenly no longer possible.

With a communication centre specially set up for worldwide remote support applications, located in the HUBER Global Service area at the company's headquarters in Berching/Erasbach, the company quickly and specifically puts an important piece of the puzzle in place to ensure communication, knowledge transfer and the availability of expertise on site. Coupled with the use of new technologies such as augmented reality (AR), HUBER effectively and successfully exchanges technical expertise remotely. In this way, many projects have already been successfully carried out and completed despite Corona and associated country-specific entry restrictions.

Assembly and commissioning with virtual guidance from Berching

For example, in addition to the mechanical assembly, the electrical assembly with final dry and wet commissioning of the GS Inima Samar Baguaçu project in Brazil was successfully guided and accompanied remotely, i.e. by service experts from Berching. Scope of delivery of this project: 3 HUBER Sludge Turner SOLSTICE® 11 and HUBER Screw Conveyor Ro8 T units with a total length of 38 metres.

Cenibra Paper Mill (Brazil) – remote commissioning of a major project

Considering the complexity of a complete plant and other general conditions, such as the five-hour time difference, the commissioning of the HUBER Belt Dryer BT at the Cenibra paper mill in Brazil is certainly one of HUBER's most challenging remote support projects. Cenibra operates a wastewater treatment plant that produces 54 m³ of excess sludge per hour. This corresponds to a total annual value of 78,000 tonnes of dewatered sludge, which is first pre-dewatered by 5 HUBER Screw Press Q-PRESS® 800.2 units to approx. 22 % dry residue (DR) and then dried by a HUBER Belt Dryer BT 30 to approx. 90 % DR.

Smart glasses technology – from Berching to the world with data glasses

With the help of smart glasses technology, the HUBER service technician's live field of vision is transmitted from on-site via so-called data glasses (smart glasses) directly to the HUBER Global Service communication centre in Berching. Action and screen instructions are projected ad hoc onto a display built into the smart glasses to provide interactive support and bridge the distance to colleagues on site extremely effectively.

Unchanged quality of HUBER service and products

Not only in South America, but also in parts of Asia and Europe, HUBER was able to provide its customers with the best possible remote support during these challenging times, thus ensuring the unchanged quality of HUBER service and products. In Sri Lanka, 3 HUBER Screw Press Q-PRESS® 800 were commissioned “remotely“ and customers were extensively trained on the screw presses. A particular challenge was that, unlike in previous cases of the HUBER Remote Support Centre – also due to regional travel restrictions – no local HUBER service technician or other employees of a HUBER subsidiary were on site: the wearer of the smart glasses “at the other end of the line” was an employee of the end customer.

Remote support also after Corona a trend-setting service for HUBER customers worldwide

The use of augmented reality solutions is not only interesting when it comes to alternatives of an on-site service call due to current travel and access restrictions. Also in regular operations, many possibilities are offered to plan and execute service calls even faster and more cost-efficiently. Parallel to continuous use, valuable know-how is secured and a knowledge database is established and expanded so that archived operations can be used to solve comparable cases.

Digital solutions save 150 tonnes of CO₂ in two years

As one of the world's leading companies in the water industry, HUBER has set itself the goal of reducing environmental pollution. For every hour that HUBER service technicians do not spend in planes or cars, the company contributes to reducing the environmental impact. Thus, HUBER has already been able to reduce its carbon footprint with a saving of approx. 150 tonnes of CO₂ in the past two years by using this digital technology.