Off-highway plant safety’ specialists, Sphere 24, collaborate with Xwatch to provide industry-leading safety solutions
Xwatch Safety Solutions, and distribution partners off highway plant safety specialists, Sphere 24, have been working together since 2019, previously Sphere 24 was an agent for a competitor’s brand. To date, the company has installed more than 100 Xwatch systems, and the firm prides itself in offering its customers exactly what they want, coupled with expert installation and ongoing support.
Chris Trent Managing Director, Sphere 24 reported, “Customer service is key – we are both customer focused and driven, which is as important as the project itself.
It’s our responsibility to fulfill our customers’ needs and broker the right product for them. People buy from people whom they trust and we are very fortunate to have established a connection with our clients and they support our recommendations.”
Chris added, “The Xwatch systems are being asked for more and more and are fast becoming the brand leader – we consider Xwatch the Land Rover of the industry. It’s competitively priced and it’s simple to use – ease of operation is an important consideration, particularly for machines entering the hire sector, where they may have many different operators from around the globe.
The systems also benefit from industry-standard components. Operators also like the’ no frills’ system – it simply does what it says on the tin and is also incredibly reliable.”
Xwatch Sales and Operations Director Dan Leaney also noted that a key feature of Xwatch’s technology is ensuring it is easy to use for operators. Dan said “One of the key things we found over the years is if it is hard to use a safety system, the operators will not use it because it takes too long for them to set and move and then reset.
We have designed our systems to be very simple with just a few pushes of buttons necessary – we hope that combining improved comfort with ease of use will better encourage operators to utilize the safety technology on a regular basis.”
Chris continued, “The most popular system is now the XW4, which is a height and slew monitoring system – more proactive customers, where cost is not an issue are future-proofing their machines with the Xwatch XW5 – which is ‘fully loaded’! The XW5 offers a total safe working envelope around the machine and operator enabling the control of the machine’s height, slew, and rated capacity indication. However some customers ask for the most basic height restriction, but with H&S regulations as they are – this would not be accepted on a tier one contractor site, such
Watch the Flannery Plant Hire training video for setting height & slew https://youtu.be/cerexsohYm0
Both Xwatch and Sphere 24 are always looking for new avenues and different applications providing ‘bespoke’ solutions. A recent collaboration with the Xwatch team of skilled design engineers and Sphere 24 resulted in a solution for BlueSky, which is focused on MEWP safety for the Loxam Group worldwide, and Nationwide Platforms to develop the latest in height and slew control for mobile elevated work platforms – MEWPs.
Chris said, “ There were existing solutions for height and slew control on MEWPs available but are very basic and far too limiting to be practical in operation on a job site, therefore would not meet the required safety standards set by tier one contractors.”
Dan added, “The newly developed solution, was the very first of its kind to reach the market and we have had excellent feedback. We are delighted to collaborate with our distribution partners and pool our expertise, and provide bespoke solutions for our customers.”
Sphere 24 also offers its customers the Xwatch XW4-LMC, which is a height and slew solution for lorry-mounted cranes. The system is a height or height/slew with or without motion cut, which allows safe working alongside highways, under cables, or any other position where the crane radius needs to be monitored, dual screens and telematics connections are also an option.
Sphere 24 has just received an order for 17 of these systems which will be installed on Palfinger lorry-mounted cranes for a large power distribution network operator. The company required height restriction only – but this is easily accommodated. We’ll be following up on the installation of these systems once the order has been fulfilled.
