Taking packaging to another reality

Chicago — One man's curious mind has turned into a cutting-edge business opportunity, according to plastics packaging tooling and design firm R&D/Leverage.

The Lee's Summit, Mo.-based company is out with a virtual reality approach that allows clients to perform real-time prototyping.

And it's all because employee Derek Scherer wanted to learn.

Scherer, an automation engineer, bought himself a virtual reality system — you know, with the futuristic-looking headset — so he could start learning on his own time about the technology.

"I think it was more of a hobby to ​ start out," Scherer said at Pack Expo in Chicago. "I was working for about two months on my own."

But his casual approach soon turned serious as Scherer became more proficient in the virtual world. He started understanding the potential to use the technology at his day job.

Fast forward to now, and R&D/Leverage is rolling out its LEVR virtual reality prototyping system to clients.

"We're calling it real-time prototyping because that's really where the value proposition is as opposed to going through rapid prototyping, which is great compared to what used to be available," Scherer explained.

Rapid prototyping uses computers and 3D printing to dramatically cut down on the time it takes to create a physical sample when compared with traditional prototyping techniques.

But LEVR, a play on the company's name and "virtual reality," allows customers to create an almost infinite amount of possibilities almost instantaneously. And once a choice is made, customers can use rapid prototyping to create a physical sample.

"It's developed by us entirely by us. The software is not available anywhere else on the market. We created it as a tool for our design work. And also, because it's so broad, what you can do with this kind of technology, we're looking into other applications internally and what we can do with our customers," Scherer said.

Customers donning the headset and grabbing controls in each hand can interact with prototypes in virtual reality, changing colors, heights, widths and even handle designs, for example.

As CEO of R&D/Leverage, Mike Stiles is the first to say his mind works best a certain way. He's wired as an engineer, and that has served him well in his career.

But when Scherer asked for a few minutes of his time earlier this year to show him a rudimentary version of the program that eventually would become LEVR, Stiles said he was blown away.

Stiles instantly saw the potential, even in that early version, and greenlighted the work for Scherer on company time.

"I've strictly got an engineering background. I'm the least creative guy you ever met. But when I put this on and grabbed the hand pieces … my engineer mind is going, 'Wow.' There's something here to make this work," Stiles said.

R&D/Leverage has spent "well into six figures" to create LEVR, but Stiles sees the system boosting overall sales.

The company's design work is just a small element of the company's sales, and Stiles views LEVR as a way to draw in customers who will then also use its mold making services.

"In all honesty, we're going to try to let customers drive where we want to go," Scherer said about LEVR. "We want anyone — brand owners, project engineers — to come into this and feel like they are in control of the prototyping process."

Part of the appeal of the new offering, Stiles said, is its portability.

"Customers don't necessarily have to come to us. We can take it to them if they have four or five people who want to be interactive," he said.

Stiles and Scherer said there are certain aspects of its new virtual reality system that can be patented, but the company decided to forego that protection.

"This is one of the situations where I hate to limit the potential if we try to protect certain aspects of it," Scherer said.

"We're not trying to stifle innovation. To be honest, we feel like we're far enough ahead," Stiles said, to maintain a competitive advantage. "We feel like the head start is going to be a big deal for us."

The men said they are unaware of any similar offering in their marketplace.

"The fact that it's something you can't experience anywhere else, that's our market advantage," Scherer said.

The head start in developing the system, as well as the cost, gives R&D/Leverage time to, well, leverage LEVR.

The new offering, Scherer said, has gone beyond what even he believed was possible when he first started.

"It's not like we had a flag on a mountaintop and that we were walking to. We just started walking and made it a long way, so it's surpassed my expectations," he said.

See LEVR in action on Plastics News Now.