Severn champions digital connectivity solution for the valve industry

Severn provides management, maintenance and improvement of valves on process plants in some of the toughest, most remote and difficult to access locations in the world. In support of this, it now benefits from the use of advanced remote inspection technologies.

Recently, Severn joined forces with Ventil’s VMatch to develop and roll out ‘Severn Oculi’. This remote inspection equipment incorporates a range of technologies including a hands-free head-mounted mobile tablet, Vmatch HMT-1 (ATEX certified), allowing global connectivity. The solution enables real-time collaborative work between field service engineers in remote and hazardous locations and the technical teams in global workshops.

Key features of Severn Oculi include automatic generation of reports as well as high-quality video footage and photographs of valves during surveys. It also offers knowledge capture and facilitates inspections, maintenance, repair and testing activities.

These capabilities reduce the need for engineering specialists to travel to customer sites and make it quicker to resolve technical performance issues.

Clients and their inspectors can remotely witness the work being completed, potentially conducting final inspection and testing from the comfort of their own workstations. This also reduces their need to travel, driving service project cost optimisation. Additional benefits come in the form of improved overall productivity thanks to fewer delays as well as less waiting and downtime. Safety compliance is also supported.

Severn’s adoption of this technology forms part of its digital transformation of end-user support services following investment from Blue Water Energy. During 2021, the service teams will implement a range of measures to further enhance 24x7 field-based activity.

According to David Young, International Service Director, this will deliver significant benefits for customers: “We’re streamlining our processes and adopting Industry 4.0 technologies to enable faster, more efficient and effective collaboration between field technicians, the factory-based teams, which hold our highest level of technical expertise, and our customers. The ability to bring advanced technical insight and remote mentoring using mixed and augmented reality to the frontline anywhere in the world via real-time multi-way video and voice communication is a gamechanger. It transforms our offering, enhances our ability to support end users and accelerates decision making.”

Richard Baars, co-founder of Vmatch, commented: “Now more than ever, we see how interconnected we all are. That’s why we are proud to be Severn’s remote technology partner and we are inspired to boost remote field workforce solutions as we truly believe in what we do. The list of amazing benefits from Vmatch products and innovative solutions seems to keep growing. From improved worker safety and productivity to cost savings and eco impacts, we have a lot to offer. It’s not just another job, it’s a shared mission to help making the world a better place!”

Since it received funding from Blue Water Energy, Severn has been modernising systems, strengthening its leadership and improving processes. This put it in a strong position when the pandemic hit, and the business now has ambitious plans for 2021 and beyond, despite ongoing market uncertainty.