Stabio, Switzerland — WM Thermoforming Machines SA has added live videos and 3D animation to its procedures to install machines without physical intervention.
Since the onset of the pandemic, one of the big hurdles for the machine builder has been travel restrictions that prevent technicians from Switzerland to visit customers' facilities for machine start-ups.
Collaboration with one customer, Upax Unity in Perm, Russia, solved the problems, in part because WM Thermoforming delivers fully assembled machines in a single frame, and with all the electrical connections between electrical cabinet and machine components. This feature allowed Upax-Unity technicians to put the three newly purchased machines — a model FC 780 E, FC 780 HP and Twist 700 MSv7 — in place and connect all utilities for cooling water, power supply and pressed air to the equipment just relying on the instruction manual.
The installation of the two steel rule cutting machines and a tilting machine took about a week in total, or about 1½ days for each machine.
Since then, WM said in a news release that it has improved its procedure by supporting it with live videos and 3D animation.
"In the last months the Swiss manufacturer was able to successfully install several machines without physical intervention of Swiss technicians, and in just five days," the release said.