Apollo Cradles has issued a strong warning to the scaffolding industry after discovering that a fellow supplier was manufacturing and selling unauthorised copies of its protected X-Beams.

The company in question, a non-audited member of the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC), is now facing legal action.

Apollo, which holds the UK design rights for the X-Beams, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the offending firm, demanding an immediate halt to the production and sale of the unauthorised beams.

The letter outlines several key demands, including the removal of any unauthorised beams in circulation and compensation for any units already sold. If these demands aren’t met, Apollo says it will pursue legal proceedings.

Mark Holmes, Manager at Apollo Scaffold Services, expressed concern about the safety of the unauthorised products in a LinkedIn post. “We’ve already obtained two of these X-Beams and sent them for independent testing,” he said. The results were worrying.”

Tests carried out by Solus Testing Limited found that the beams did not meet industry safety standards. The units had several serious welding defects, including gas pores, lack of fusion, and cracks.

These faults mean the beams failed to meet the requirements of BS EN ISO 5817 Level B: 2023 and BS EN ISO 23277 2x:2015, key industry safety benchmarks.

Holmes also noted that all legitimate Apollo X-Beams are easily identifiable by their serial numbers and other specific manufacturing details, which can be traced back to Apollo’s records.

“If the issue isn’t resolved, and we’re forced to take this to court, we will publicly name the company involved so that the rest of the industry can be aware of the risks,” Holmes warned.

Apollo is urging any companies who believe they may have purchased unauthorised beams, or who have been quoted for them, to get in touch immediately.