EDITOR ’ S CHOICE GENERATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
GRAYSON THERMAL SYSTEMS
Grayson sets its sights on electric dreams after £ 8m sales and technology boost
One of the UK ’ s leading designers and manufacturers of cooling and HVAC products to the transport sector has sealed a string of new contract wins that has seen it take sales past pre-Covid levels .
Birmingham-based Grayson Thermal Systems , which was founded in 1978 by current chairman Graham Hateley , has bounced back from the pandemic after securing more than £ 8m of orders from customers including ABB , Solaris , Skoda and Wrightbus .
The company ’ s ‘ generations of knowledge ’ has been pivotal to this growth , with its new innovative Battery Thermal Management System ( BTMS ) proving extremely popular with its core bus and coach market , as well as recent expansion into off highway , commercial vehicle and rail sectors .
Group turnover has now risen to £ 32m and more than 40 new jobs have already been created , with another twelve positions now available across engineering , operations and administration .
“ Like many manufacturers , Covid-19 caused a fair bit of disruption to day-to-day activities and a temporary drop in sales , but what it did give us was the opportunity to accelerate new innovations , focus on product R & D and improve our manufacturing capabilities at our three sites in Birmingham ,” explained Matt Hateley , European Sales Manager at Grayson Thermal Systems .
“ Our customers were also keen to spend some of their downtime exploring new thermal management solutions for their vehicle range and this action is definitely paying off with 25 % growth since pandemic restrictions eased in early 2021 , with a £ multimillion pipeline of opportunities to take advantage of in 2022 and beyond .”
He continued : “ With COP26 still fresh in the mind , zero emission mobility is on everyone ’ s minds and how we can ‘ heat and cool ’ electric vehicles in an energy efficient and cost-effective way are two questions we believe we already have the answers to . This includes driveline components , such as batteries , electric motors , hydrogen fuel cells and HVAC systems for passengers and drivers .
“ We had products developed and installed on a number of vehicles being showcased at COP26 , including the Hydroflex train launched by Porterbrook , the UK ’ s largest owner of rail rolling stock .”
Grayson Thermal Systems , which serves 280 customers in more than 32 countries across the globe , has recently launched its third generation Battery Thermal Management System .
This ‘ plug and play ’ technology helps to regulate the temperature of electric vehicle batteries , providing optimum temperature control that is critical to their function and operational life , not to mention reducing overall vehicle life costs .
Developed at the firm ’ s R & D facility , the modular deigned BTMS can be specified to deliver active cooling , passive cooling and heating , with all of the hardware , pump , condenser , fan and compressor packaged neatly into one compact unit .
The product is offered in two options ; the standard BTMS can be used in up to 45 ° C ambient , whilst the high ambient BTMS is suitable for up to 50 ° C and can be packaged in a number of locations on the vehicle , including rooftop or into the chassis / body .”
Matt went on to add : “ We initially developed BTMS technology in 2015 , but our knowledge and learnings over the years have allowed us to create modular systems that meet our clients ’ desire to accelerate the change to zero emission technology .
“ Our R & D team has worked to optimise weight and performance with our fine-tuned GEN3 BTMS so that it would deliver the performance required for use in bus and coach , off-highway and commercial vehicles . We have also focused heavily on developing bespoke BTMS units for the rail sector .”
He concluded : “ The latter is a new market for our business , but we have a strong order book and pipeline from train OEMs . As the electric and hydrogen revolution starts to gather pace in rail , our products will deliver efficient operation of the train throughout the life of the rolling stock ”
Grayson Thermal Systems will be flying to Stuttgart this week in a bid to showcase its Battery Thermal Management System and other associated technology at the Battery Show Europe 2021 ( November 30th – 2nd December ). The firm will be on Booth 6-650 .
For further information , please visit www . graysonts . com or follow @ graysonts on twitter
36 PECM Issue 54