The overhead crane, in their hands

Overhead cranes move heavy steel products every day across Orrcon’s sites in Australia. Crane skills come from repetition, but every practice lift on a live site carries risk, ties up a crane, and requires an experienced operator. BlueScope wanted to give its operators more hands-on practice in a safe setting, with one standard across every site.

We started on the workshop floor, not in the studio. Site visits gave us firsthand insight into crane work. Orrcon’s operations team then worked with us to pinpoint the moments that matter most: setting up the load, managing the swing, and keeping people clear. Those three moments became the backbone of the training.

Most VR training uses standard headset controllers. Orrcon’s cranes are driven from a pendant, so we designed and built a custom Bluetooth controller, button for button. The headset tracks it, so trainees see it in their hands inside the simulation. What they learn by feel carries over to the real crane. Each unit comes with full documentation, schematics and 3D printing files, so more can be built as new sites come on board.

Operator feedback helped us tune Unity’s physics engine so virtual cranes behaved how they do in the real world. Loads carry momentum, swing after a sharp stop and only settle with smooth control. Every input has a consequence, just as it does on site.

Training spans five modules, each following a Learn, Practise, Test structure. Trainees start in a free-play crane yard. They then work through sling techniques, swing management, and exclusion zones, and finish by unloading steel from a truck onto a rack.

The simulator runs on standalone Meta Quest 3 headsets. They’re managed centrally, so content updates and device monitoring reach every site from one place. Orrcon now uses it across sites for onboarding and refresher training.