an Factories And Power Plants Be Run

From Home?

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

BRANDVOICE| Paid Program

By Andrea Willige
More and more, today’s power plants rely on remote monitoring. Tomorrow’s
will make the leap to autonomous operation.
 SHUTTERSTOCK

It has been called the world’s biggest remote-working experiment. Lockdowns

in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic have left many of us with no
other option but to work from home. Even the greatest technophobes have
taken to Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams in recent months. And it looks
like – after decades of debate about the pros and cons of working from home –
we’ve finally proven it can be done.
But what if you’re in an industry where you simply have to be physically
present, for example in manufacturing or power generation? Despite advances
in digitalization and automation, running and maintaining steel mills,
chemical works, or power plants have traditionally relied on the presence of
engineers on site.

Office communications and collaborative technologies

are not alone in coming of age in recent months – the
use of digital tools in industry is also rising to meet
the coronavirus challenge.
Running and maintaining industrial plants used to rely on engineers being
on-site.
 PRIMETALS TECHNOLOGIES

Smart glasses for smart steel plants

Commissioning new equipment for a steel plant is just one example of an

industrial process that seemingly demands a physical presence.
In early 2020, Primetals Technologies, part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
(MHI) Group, was ready to commission a casting-rolling plant designed for
endless strip production (ESP), a new production line for ultra-thin metal
strip in Fujian province, China.

Some of the equipment had been manufactured by a Chinese partner, and key
components needed to undergo the mandatory inspection and function tests
before installation.

Typically, the next step would have been to fly out two specialists from
Primetals Technologies’ nerve center in Linz, Austria, to carry out the
inspection. But with China in lockdown, this was not an option.

To deliver the manufacturing line on time despite the virus outbreak,

Primetals Technologies had to proceed with testing. But how?

The solution the teams in Austria and China came up with was to mount
smartphones on industrial hard hats so that the client’s own engineers could
share what they could see via Webex with the experts back in Linz.

Remote commissioning required more than just technology, however; remote

handholding was also essential for people on the client side who had less
experience of the product concerned.

“Most people are still working from their home office,

but we have commissioning happening all over the
world.” – Nicole Oberschmidleitner, head of
mechatronic products, Primetals Technologies

The successful completion of the commissioning in China means that further

remote projects are now being lined up. One is already underway in Brazil,
and Primetals Technologies has now ordered smart glasses to be sent to
commissioning customers, replacing the original ‘smart hats.’

“Most people are still working from their home office, but we have
commissioning happening all over the world,” commented Nicole
Oberschmidleitner, head of mechatronic products at Primetals Technologies.
In addition to plant commissioning, the company has also been using smart
glasses to provide remote assistance to maintenance engineers and other on-
site personnel when fixing production equipment.

RELATED: Find out more about remote assistance and smart glasses in the steel
industry by attending our webinar on Smart Assistance in the Steel Industry .
Smart glasses can help with anything from remote commissioning to
providing online assistance for maintenance and repairs.
 REALWARE

Mixed reality

Even without COVID-19 and travel bans, access to the ‘real thing’ can be
difficult.
This can be the case where, for example, products can’t easily be taken to a
customer site for demonstrations.

MHI Marine Machinery & Equipment (MHI-MME) faced this challenge with
its turbochargers and in response has started using Microsoft HoloLens 2.

These so-called mixed-reality headsets feature a multitude of sensors that

capture the reality around the user and overlay it with holographic images – in
this case, of turbochargers – to create an augmented reality that users can
interact with in real-time. 

It’s as close as trainees can get to experiencing real maintenance work without
using an actual turbocharger. A maintenance experience by using HoloLens2
is one of the ways to help staff training in the future.

And MHI-MME is not alone.

“In industries like these, products are often heavy, high-value, and of
significant size. Therefore, it can be difficult or even impossible to put them in
front of a trainee. Using HoloLens 2