Soldamatic, based in Spain, has developed a robust and impressively effective training program for welders using AR. The program is in use by over 200 enterprise and governmental organizations in 43 countries around the world, including Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and John Deere.

Of particular interest is the degree to which Soldamatic has adapted real-world welding equipment to an AR-world in which students can learn and develop welding skills before moving on to more costly and dangerous real-world equipment. Developing welding skills in Soldamatic’s AR world has a number of substantial benefits, including

• Reduced consumption of materials – 68% average reduction of training materials consumption
• More flexible training times for students – faster students can move ahead when ready, others can take more time as needed, resulting in a 37% greater throughput of students and a 17% overall reduction in training time
• A reduction in total training cost per student from about $13,000 to about $8,200, or a 39% cost reduction
• A 34% increase in the percentage of trainees who qualified for certification
• A 17% reduction in the cost of welding instructors
• An 84% reduction in accidents, which can be very serious in welding training
• Very high student satisfaction evaluation scores – from a list of 20 evaluation questions rated on a 0-10 scale, 94% of responses were 7 or above, and 35% were 10

This is a really impressive achievement in a training program and in the build-out of a highly effective simulated work world around AR technology. The company’s media page has a number of information videos about the process. The technology accomplishment, using not only an AR headset that has been adapted to a welding helmet, but also the development of a complete, AR-based welding toolset, shown on the right, that works in the AR world shows great vision and commitment.

The Soldamatic welding training video below shows a student performing simulated welding using the AR-tools developed by Soldamatic, while the monitor on the right of video shows what the student is actually experiencing.