Success story: PALFINGER goes XR

    The customer
    PALFINGER AG

    Founded in 1932, the company is synonymous worldwide with the most innovative, reliable and economical solutions used on commercial vehicles, ships and stationary equipment. Innovation and further internationalization of products, processes and services, along with flexibility, are the three pillars of the company's strategy that have already been put into practice. In order to be able to meet the challenges and opportunities of the digital transformation in a focused manner, a fourth pillar has been added to the proven strategy: PALFINGER 21st stands for new core competencies, new approaches, new products, services, and business models in the digital age.

    Short facts
    PALFINGER
    1.534

    Mio. Euro turnover in 2020

    10.824

    employees worldwide

    34

    Locations

    5.000

    Locations

    Demo-Video PALFINGER XR App

    The challenge:
    Self-management and compact, save data
    From an agency to a SaaS-platform

    Originally, an XR app was developed with an agency. However, it soon became clear that PALFINGER was constantly developing its products, and in order to reflect these changes in the app, the company always had to turn to the agency - with resulting costs, of course.
    In addition, two important requirements could not yet be covered:

    Complex, animated 3D models of the lifting machines could not yet be compressed as small as desired without a visual loss of quality.

    The question of data security of the 3D models played out, which were created from design data, could also not yet be adequately answered.

    PALFINGER therefore turned to Vuframe because the platform allows the app to be managed in-house and, thanks to the Aura technology developed in-house, it is unique on the market in terms of data compression and data security.

    The Solution:
    The PALFINGER XR App from Vuframe®
    Use in different areas

    The XR app solution kills two birds with one stone and serves two use cases at once - it is a sales solution and digital customer service at the same time:

    In the app, the product portfolio can be presented by sales staff in 3D and augmented reality. The digital twins solve logistical challenges quite simply, especially with large crane constructions.

    The app's AR marker recognizes videos stored in operating instructions that serve to illustrate PALFINGER machines and visually explain processes, for example. A classic, physical manual is thus digitally supported for the customer. Palfinger then manages the content of the AR marker and the app structure itself in the Vuframe Studio.

    How the AR Marker of the PALFINGER XR App works

    Feature:
    The AR-Marker
    Seamlessly combine reality and digital

    By selecting the AR marker in the PALFINGER XR app, customers can read additional digital information from the operating instructions using their smartphone or tablet camera. In most cases, these are stored videos that visually explain a specific procedure for operating or maintaining the crane in question.
    The advantage of this is that the videos are already stored in the right place in the operating instructions and there is no need to additionally search for the model and application on the PALFINGER website, for example, in order to find out how to operate the crane. All that is needed is a mobile device so that customers can get the information they need even when they are standing directly in front of the machine in question.

    We have migrated the existing PALFINGER XR app to the Vuframe platform. Now we can maintain & update the app ourselves without needing additional software licenses or experts.
    Johannes Rehrl, Manager Global Sales at Palfinger

    Figures for the PALFINGER XR App

    Analytics

    • Over 8,000 app downloads (iOS and Android)
    • Over 20,000 views of the 3D visualizations (SmartVu®'S)
    • Over 130,000 pages of views

    With PALFINGER, we have gained a customer who wants to benefit from the entire Vuframe® platform. In regular workshops - the latest company developments of the customer are discussed and matched with the corresponding technology innovations of Vuframe. In this environment of strategy, innovation and creativity, collaboration is particularly fun.
    Sandra Schenkel, Key Account Managerin at Vuframe
    Rodrigo Angstrom

    Rodrigo ist bei Vuframe im Produkt Management tätig.