From Product Launch to Scalable XR Strategy: How Flowtropolis Helped Epiroc Transform One Virtual Demo into Enterprise-Wide Capability

Epiroc’s XR effort started as a pandemic workaround: launch a huge underground drilling machine when nobody could travel to see it. The Boomer M20 demo became a shared virtual showroom where customers and experts in different countries could inspect the machine together, remove panels, and discuss components live.

That first success didn’t stay a one-off. Epiroc kept building on the same Flowtropolis platform for internal training, safety onboarding, design reviews, product development, and customer-facing sessions. The important shift is reuse: the company is now treating XR as shared infrastructure instead of commissioning isolated demos each time a new need comes up.

The stack is built in Unity, runs primarily on Meta Quest 3 at Epiroc, and also supports web and desktop access for people who can’t or shouldn’t use a headset. Photon handles the real-time multi-user synchronization so a trainer, engineer, and remote expert can all stay in the same session and interact with the same 3D content without the experience falling apart.

For developers, the interesting part is less the mining hardware and more the operating model. Epiroc is moving from external XR projects to internal ownership, which is usually what determines whether immersive tech becomes a pilot that fades out or a capability that compounds over time.