Xwatch Safety Solutions Partners Up With Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers 

Safety can never be left for an afterthought, and this is something Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers definitely knows about. After the company’s customers started demanding state-of-the-art workplace safety solutions, Allan J Hargreaves partnered up with Xwatch and, two years on, over a hundred systems have been installed to keep workforces safer than ever. 

Since Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers’ humble beginnings, when the company started off catering to one-man bands with no more than one or two machines, the company has grown significantly and, two years after partnering up with Xwatch Safety Solutions, has now installed more than 100 Xwatch systems on their plant machines. 

Allan Hargreaves, MD of Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers, comments: 

 “We were being asked specifically for the Xwatch height and slew restrictors and RCI’s (rated capacity indicators), so the decision to become an authorised dealer was customer-driven. The systems are very reliable and operator familiarisation of the control features is straightforward and uncomplicated, which is particularly important for a hire fleet.”  

The company has installed systems across the Xwatch range from the basic XW1, which manages and protects your working height, all the way to the XW5, which offers a total safe working envelope around the machine and operator enabling the control of the machine’s height, slew and rated capacity indication. 

Xwatch systems’ features vary based on their application and the applicability of said features on the machines being operated. Whereas the XW2 monitors both height, radius and workload, the XW3 is a dedicated slew control system designed to restrict the machine to working within set left and right slew parameters, while the XW4 monitors a machine’s height and slew movement. 

Allan continues, “We fit the systems to Komatsu, Hitachi, and JCB machines, mostly 14tonne and above, although we have fitted a number of systems to some smaller eight-tonne machines.  We have also installed XW4 systems on Hyundai long-reach demolition machines.” 

“The feedback we have had from customers has been the best we have ever had about an aftermarket safety product. It’s more reliable than competing brands and performs better and the product support meets our needs as a company.  

Dean Hargreaves, Service Manager, is also very positive about the Xwatch product, and he says, “The systems have proven to reliable and we have had very positive feedback.  A simple-to-use system is welcome to the market and overall we are extremely happy.  If the clients are happy – then we are too!”  

Jemma Dycer-Hopkins, Xwatch UK Business Development Manager, comments on the partnership, “We have a very good working partnership with Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers. Safety is a priority, but productivity is also essential, alongside aftermarket support and care. We are delighted we are able to meet these requirements.” 

Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers are celebrating 40 years in business in 2023 and have been installing RCi’s and safety systems for the past 22 years, ever since the first systems were introduced to the market.  

Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers will be exhibiting at Rail Live, Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre from 22nd -23rd June 2023 on stand number F5. Xwatch will also be exhibiting at Rail Live sharing the Fitzgerald Plant Rail & Construction Equipment Services on stand E27.