Maplan offering new perspective on presses with VR

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—Unlike International Elastomer Conference expos past, Maplan GmbH isn't bringing any of its machinery to the show floor.

Maplan, instead, is taking the show floor to the machine. All it takes is a little computer-assisted magic.

The Kottingbrunn, Austria-based machinery maker is using virtual reality to give its customers a closer look at its products. At the Knoxville IEC, which runs through Thursday afternoon, Maplan is showcasing one of its horizontal presses and giving attendees the chance to see it up close with the specialized headset and controllers.

For now, Maplan is featuring one machine, but it may be able to bring more of its product portfolio—horizontal, vertical and C-form presses—along to future show floors with the help of VR.

"For us, a major challenge is bringing a good breadth of equipment so that the industry can gain knowledge, because part of the expo is to see what is new, what is innovative and what the vendors are bringing that could be of interest to the manufacturers," National Sales Director John Mohl said. "But it is very cost and space prohibitive to bring a lot of equipment. But bringing something in a virtual environment makes it a little bit more digestible for everyone."

Still, it's about more than showing off the best of what Maplan has to offer. It's about giving the industry an up-close look at the machinery, how it works and what it truly could be capable of.

"Customers are more willing to engage with something because it is new and exciting and it is innovative," Technical Sales Director Ben Puffer said.

That's true for customers and it's true for the next generation of rubber industry employees. On the first day of the IEC, students from Ferris State and Purdue universities slipped on the VR headsets and explored the ins and outs of the Maplan horizontal press.

"They were very engaged," Mohl said. "They said 'Wow. I never knew how complex the machinery is.' You just look at it from the outside and it looks like a stamp press—it closes and that's it. But there is so much automation and hydraulics that go into it. And to experience that … gives you the ability to see how it functions and make a deeper connection with it."

Right now, Maplan has just one of its presses available for VR interaction, but that will be changing in the months ahead. And the machinery maker is partnering Virtalis to help bring the machines to life in the virtual reality space.

Once those machines are accessible through VR, Mohl said, there is great potential.

First, there's the ability for Maplan to bring its machinery to its customers. But the technology also opens the door for training and maintenance, offering customers a new level of service that helps ensure machinery operators know exactly how to safely handle the machine and any hiccups along the way.

"These are dangerous pieces of equipment," Mohl said. "… But with that being said, we are able to get closer than ever to the presses (with VR). So (we are) overcoming that safety barrier but also overcoming the physical barrier."

Further, Mohl said, that training has the ability to take machinery operators and Maplan employees even further in their understanding of the machinery because it can give them perspectives they otherwise never would have seen.

"I literally put together one of our injection units in Austria, but I just learned stuff going in here because I was able to go into the screw, I was able to go into the flight of the path of the material and how it will feel going through the machinery. I could basically become the rubber and travel through the press as if I am rubber and go through the cross section. There is no way to do that, but you can do it virtually."

Eventually, Maplan would like to take its machinery from the VR space to the augmented reality space, giving customers the chance to see how the machine would look on their shop floor. This allows them to ensure the proper fit, but it also could give them the ability to more efficiently configure their space.

"How does this press look in your facility?" Mohl said. "Is it too high? Does it fit between these two other presses? Can you make room? This would tell you that."

For now, though, it's about getting to know the Maplan machinery. And those attending the IEC can do just that, Mohl said, with a little assist from VR.