X-Protect – Modular, recyclable and easy to install

X-Protect is a range of modular impact protection systems for warehouses and industries and is the most recent addition to Axelent’s portfolio of workplace safety products. We talked to Marcel Darroch-Davies, Managing Director of Axelent Safe-X and the project leader for X-Protect, about what makes the range unique on the market.

The idea that Axelent should create a range of impact protection with safety barriers and bollards, was born at an airport in 2018. One of Axelent’s owners and Marcel, an employee at the company for over two decades, were travelling together and started to discuss the unrealized opportunity in the market. Now, almost four years later, X-Protect is ready to be launched. According to Marcel, it has many features that make it highly competitive in the market for safety products.

– We are so proud to be able to launch this range after all the hard work. X-Protect is not only modular and easy to install but also environmentally friendly. All parts can easily be recycled, says Marcel.

A flexible impact protection system  

To develop an entirely new product range of pedestrian safety barriers, bollard posts, guard rails, and column protectors was a big investment for Axelent. But the company also saw that there was a great opportunity to solve the design challenges in an innovative way. The main issue was that many were good in theory but very inflexible in practice. Therefore, a team gathered to brainstorm ideas for a unique solution.   

What problems did you want to solve with Axelent’s impact protection range?  

– First of all, the modularity was something really important. Most products on the market worked well as shock protectors but were hard to assemble. We wanted something super easy to install, and that did not require any special knowledge. Secondly, most of the existing products lacked true modularity. It was hard to extend and build upon an existing system of protection. So, if you let's say have a factory or a warehouse that needs to expand, you would have to tear the current system down and start all over again. This is both time-consuming and very expensive, says Marcel.  

The system is designed with flexibility and modularity in mind. While competing products require specific posts for different configurations, Axelent’s X-Protect is uniquely keyed to allow limitless combinations. The customer can put up the protection as one configuration and quickly change between, for example, impact barriers and pedestrian barriers since the anchoring posts are the same for both systems. The users do not have to order a new post. Furthermore, the innovative anchoring system is extremely kind to the floor. 

Axelents impact protection is designed to be recycled 

Another initial vision for the system was to avoid complicated details. Plastics in the individual parts were carefully chosen for their performance characteristics, the design itself works as the shock-absorption without the need for additional shock-absorbing or bonded elements. The types of plastic can differ between parts, but each always contains only one kind to simplify the recycling process. 

– To make X-Protect as sustainable as possible was an important goal for us. That only one kind of plastic is used in each part makes the product optimal for recycling. When it is worn out, one can simply recycle the material. It also allows for damaged or worn parts to be replaced at a component level, says Marcel.  

The materials in X-Protect are the result of careful choices, and we have worked with local companies to make the products as long-lived and environmentally friendly as possible. 

Our impact protection is easy to install and modify   

The series offers a complete set of products for the protection of industries and warehouses. It contains four main groups: bollards, pedestrian barriers, impact barriers, and column guards. But one of the great advantages is that all protection is based on the same principle: A 100 percent modular solution for impact protection with the same type of anchoring to the floor. This means you can easily change between for example impact barriers and pedestrian barriers, without having to do any new installation work.  

– It's been really interesting to be part of developing a completely new range of safety products. Based on the many advantages of our solutions I feel confident that facilities around the world will choose X-Protect to increase their workplace safety, says Marcel.

There are already new safety products, all based on the innovations behind the X-Protect system, under development at the company. Stay tuned!