DrillingVR have recently completed the development of a Virtual Reality application for Stopdrop Tooling on the Oculus Go. The app was developed to support its own customers as well as the DROPS Asia Initiative.

Stopdrop Tooling is a specialist in the design and supply of tools for safe working at height. All tooling has been designed to eliminate the risk of tools or components from becoming a dropped object.

Dropped Objects are usually among the top 3 causes of incidents in heavy and construction industries. When working at height is involved, dropped objects are nearly always the number one cause of high potential incidents (HIPO). We define a HIPO as an unplanned HSE incident or near-miss that has the potential severity to cause permanent disability or death.

Stopdrop Tooling operates workshops in Dewsbury in the UK and Houston, Texas. From there, it supports various industries including oil & gas, renewables (wind) and construction worldwide. Its products are found on more than half of the world’s offshore drilling rigs where the risk of dropped objects has been acknowledged as a serious but totally preventable hazard.

The products have a range of features to eliminate the products from becoming a dropped object, while simultaneously maintaining its functionality. Examples include screwdrivers that can rotate without lanyards becoming entangled, hammers with heads that cannot come of with handles that are unbreakable, ratchet sockets that cannot come lose unintentionally.

All these features ideally require a hands-on visual explanation, so Stopdrop Tooling regularly visits its customers around the world. Because of the weight and size of the tools, they can only bring a small selection of the products along to meeting.  To support its customers with practical demonstrations on a regular basis as well as allow a demonstration of the full product range, DrillingVR have developed a Virtual Reality application for Stopdrop.

The VR application allows the Stopdrop Tooling team to meet with its customers remotely in a virtual environment where they are able to demonstrate the features and benefits of our product range. The application runs on the popular Oculus Go Virtual Reality device and has a companion Windows and iOS application, allowing demonstrations to customers who do not own a VR Device.

Stopdrop Tooling initially envisaged the VR application would provide its customers with a training solution and as a way to support the work of the DROPS community in the. The Covid-19 crisis is preventing Stopdrop Tooling from meeting and supporting our customers on a face-to-face basis accelerating the adoption of this VR technology along with other remote tools such as Zoom, Skype and MS Team.

For further details, please visit the Stopdrop Tooling Website