Engineers at Yorkshire Water are turning to virtual reality technology developed by The University of Sheffield to help design and visualise new treatment works which could help save the company £1m in design costs by 2020.

The University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) has developed virtual reality headsets that allows Yorkshire Water engineers to bring to life plans for new treatment works and other equipment. The technology is similar to that used by immersive game designers but with a manufacturing focus.

The cutting-edge technology is seen as a viable alternative to traditional modelling packages such as CAD as it allows for powerful interaction with conceptual design models.

So far, it has saved Yorkshire Water £180,000 by not having to build real-life prototypes and instead enter a virtual reality world which engineers can walk around and check design plans.