Inside the engine: using AR to reveal hidden filtration technology
Engine Filters AR App
In partnership with EF Engineering, Zubr developed an innovative augmented reality app for Fleetguard, a global leader in filtration technology. The experience served as an interactive marketing tool designed to enhance Fleetguard’s product displays, allowing customers to explore and understand complex filtration systems in a clear, visual way.
This addressed a key challenge Fleetguard faced with traditional marketing materials, which struggled to communicate the complexity and value of advanced filtration systems given the large scale of the engine components involved. Fleetguard’s heavy-duty engine filters perform critical but largely invisible functions inside diesel engines. Zubr’s goal was to transform these hidden processes into an engaging and accessible experience for Fleetguard’s product centres, display rooms, product pitches, and tradeshow appearances.
Using AR, visitors could explore a scaled-down digital model of a heavy-duty diesel engine, allowing them to examine the intricate systems with ease. The app reveals how Fleetguard filters manage fuel and water contamination within engines such as the Cummins X15, commonly used in demanding environments including construction site generators, heavy machinery, and marine vessels.
By enabling consumers to view a scaled down version of the system that would otherwise be too large to navigate, the app helped transform the complex inner workings of the engine into an intuitive, interactive experience, ultimately improving customer understanding and increasing sales.
Partners
Playing with scale and visibility
Zubr designed and developed an immersive AR app that allowed users to explore the internal workings of Fleetguard’s filtration technology in an intuitive and visually engaging way, increasing understanding of Fleetguard’s products and boosting sales.
Using image tracking technology, users can scan a scaled down model of the heavy-duty engine to reveal a precise, 3D modelled version. To help explain Fleetguard’s technology clearly, Zubr’s developers created an experience that allows users to ‘pull apart’ the engine virtually, revealing the filtration system layer by layer. As components separate from the engine assembly, the app highlights five key filtration elements – three external filters and two internal filters.
Interactive AR labels clearly outline each component; clicking on each label causes that section of the filter to ‘zoom in’. This more detailed view of each section is accompanied by dynamic animations, illustrating the filtration processes.
User experience first
To support this intuitive exploration, Zubr’s app design centred user experience. We created a bespoke interface tailored for sales environments, prioritising effortless navigation and clarity in descriptions of the product.
Our graphic design team drew from extensive brand guidelines and supplied image assets to create a stylised app befitting the end client’s aesthetic identity. Whilst it was challenging to balance the augmented reality activations with in-depth product information and video content, the Zubr team are experienced in combining interactivity with information.
In order to increase customer understanding, thoughtful interaction design was essential. The experience needed to be intuitive and quick to understand, enabling users to immediately grasp the product’s functionality without lengthy instructions. Perfect for a broad range of sales opportunities, from product displays to pitches and trade shows, our AR app accelerates consumer understanding and maximizes sales potential.
We worked on developing an app that was compelling on all levels: combining intuitive UI, clean augmented reality experiences, and plenty of interactive opportunities for the Fleetguard team to demonstrate the value of their products.
Technical insights & challenges
One of the most complex aspects of the project involved animating the movement of fuel and water through the filtration system. Because these processes normally occur inside sealed components, they offered the Zubr team a unique opportunity to create a stunning, scientifically accurate animation, whilst illuminating what was otherwise hidden or elusive to buyers.
Zubr’s developers and 3D artists dedicated significant effort to create a sophisticated water-type shader for the animated fuel. Designed to fade in, the shader highlighted the process and added dynamic visual detail to the 3D model components.
The client requested that on one part of the filter, the ‘fuel’ liquid should flow visibly through, demonstrating both the dirty and clean states. Achieving the inclusion of black particles (representing dirt) presented a major challenge and required extensive research, as well as multiple material setups to represent the two distinct fluid colours accurately.
Zubr’s developers collaborated with the 3D team to create a texture map for the liquid, giving it the thickness and appearance of fuel rather than water. All animations – where each filter separates into individual components and then reassembles – were achieved through a combination of code using a tweening engine and precise measurements to correctly position the fluid and particles within the original model.
Another key challenge was working with highly precise engineering models. The heavy-duty diesel engine contains intricate mechanical structures, meaning it was essential that the AR models preserved each detail. This process expanded the team’s technical knowledge, requiring them to work closely with engineering partners to understand how the system operates and how best to communicate it visually.
Conclusion
The Engine Filters AR app demonstrates how augmented reality can transform complex engineering into an engaging experience, engaging customers, improving their understanding of the products and ultimately boosting sales.
By allowing users to explore a scaled down model of the engine and reveal the hidden mechanisms inside Fleetguard’s filtration system, Zubr created a powerful storytelling tool for EF Engineering and Fleetguard. The application enhanced their product marketing and tradeshow presence, joining Fleetguard’s marketing arsenal as a novel digital format for use across demonstrations, presentations, and future marketing initiatives.
Through this project, Zubr helped bring advanced filtration technology into the AR realm, making invisible processes visible and giving audiences a deeper understanding of the engineering behind Fleetguard’s products.