Since the establishment of Safe Gauge in 2019 it’s been full steam ahead for founder and CEO Luke Dawson, with the business now employing 12 locals in their new Beresfield facility and featuring 2 new products on the shelves.

Established just 3 years ago, Luke Dawson had a focus on developing an innovative solution to safely pressure test hydraulics on mobile plant machinery. Today, Luke has achieved that and more with 3 in-house developed safety products on the market and has grown a hardworking team of 12 working from the new Safe Gauge facility in Yilen Close, Beresfield.

What started as an idea in 2018 to develop a product to help Luke and his mates complete hydraulic testing safer has now become a product that keeps technicians safe internationally working with some of the largest companies in mining.

“We started the business in January 2019 though only launched our first product in July 2020, the SafeTest PT Series. This was the start of the Covid-19 pandemic which proved to be very challenging,” Luke said.

“It has been great how quicky our first product gained traction and how quickly we’ve grown, but we knew we had a high-quality product that puts technician safety at the forefront.”

Safe Gauges PT Series is a wireless pressure testing system allowing technicians to test multiple hydraulic pressures instantaneously up to 50 metres away from the ‘line of fire’; a product that was quick to be picked up in mines throughout the Hunter Valley.

“The biggest challenge was, and still is, travel and getting in front of the customer due to Covid,” Luke said.

“It’s been hard to get on mine sites and actually test our products on the real machines, so we have done a lot of inhouse testing and learning from customer feedback which has been challenging but we’ve made it work.”

With the fast success of their first product, Luke and his team were soon to add more products to the pipeline focusing on safety and efficiency, outgrowing their Warners Bay location and moving to their own facility in Beresfield in December 2021.

Now settled into their new space Safe Gauge launched their new product, DataLink, in January. The onboard data logging device assists in condition monitoring as well as commissioning machinery allowing workers to log critical data safer and more efficiently.

In February they launched yet another new product, the SafeTest Dial Indicator allowing technicians to complete essential live testing out of harm’s way and in turn eliminating crush injuries.

Now with distributors in Canada covering North America and Brazil covering South America Luke hopes to push for further growth internationally over the next 12 months.

“Our goal this year is to further continue growth internationally and into other sectors,” said Luke.

“Our target right now is mining but moving forward we aim to branch out into agriculture, defense, marine and construction.”

With the biggest challenge of Covid travel restrictions slowly starting to ease, 2022 is looking like a huge year for Safe Gauge.

“I couldn’t have done it without the great team I have today, and our success is a testament to the need for our safety products around the globe.”