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AR for SIBUR’s customers

Technical Service employees have implemented AR technology within the SIBUR ecosystem to help solve customer’s problems.

Augmented reality has helped the Technical Service team to cope with the difficulties of going on business trips during the pandemic. In order to provide expert support for the processing of ZapSibNeftekhim’s new products, the bulk of which was launched in 2020, our experts began to actively use remote support to help process grades of polypropylene and polyethylene, which included the use of augmented reality glasses at our customers’ production sites. Thanks to this technology, a range of tasks can now be addressed, including those related to suboptimal settings of processing equipment and multiple other factors. This approach is being widely implemented to test all petrochemicals manufactured by the Company.

Alexander Bushkov

Head of the Technical Service function at SIBUR:
“With the help of these AR glasses, we can now guide our customers through the processing of our products without leaving the office.”

“With the help of these AR glasses, we can now guide our customers through the processing of our products without leaving the office,” explained Alexander Bushkov, Head of the Technical Service function at SIBUR. “No additional training is required, everything is intuitive. On the ground at the testing site, the operator puts on the AR glasses, and everything they look at is also seen by one of our team, who is sat far away in front of their computer.”

Augmented reality glasses are fixed to an operator’s helmet; they comprise a camera and a display that sits in front of your eyes. You can see interactive content or a video conference on it. Remote support that leverages these AR glasses fully maps out the process and gives you the feeling that someone is there with you. The remote expert can also see the image from the built-in camera in real time, sending interactive prompts and guiding the operator’s actions.

“We tested a grade of polypropylene – a new raw material from our longstanding partner SIBUR – during lockdown, when it was difficult for their specialists to come on a site visit. The Company provided us with a pair of high-tech glasses that allows their consultants to be remotely present for the tests,” commented Oleg Yakimov, Chief Production Engineer at PolyER, which manufactures food packaging and tapes made of PP, PET and PS for automated packaging and thermoforming lines. “SIBUR’s representatives were able to observe the tests with their own eyes and help our operator to set the process parameters. The most convenient thing is that these glasses leave your hands free; everything is voice activated, and you can communicate with partners at the same time. This technology saves time and allows us to always keep in touch – I think it’s the future.”

Looking ahead, AR technology will play an important role in the internal training of SIBUR employees. They are not just easy to use, the glasses can deliver an extra benefit of enabling a single expert to cover more customers.


SIBUR ZapSibNeftekhim Alexander Bushkov Oley Yakimov augmented reality PolyER AR technology polyethylene polypropylene Technical Service

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