Cooling and HVAC manufacturer Grayson Thermal Systems is celebrating post-pandemic growth after securing £8m worth of orders from customers including ABB, Solaris, Skoda and Wrightbus.
The company says group turnover now stands at £32m and more than 40 jobs have been created, with 12 positions currently available across engineering, operations and administrations.
Key to the growth has been the company’s Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) in the core coach and bus market. It says customers have been keen to explore new thermal management solutions for vehicles and this has seen 25% growth since pandemic restrictions eased earlier this year. It says there is now a “multi-million pound pipeline of opportunities” to take advantage of.
“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 research and development and improve our manufacturing capabilities at our three sites in Birmingham,” says Matt Hateley, European Sales Manager.
“With COP26 still fresh in the mind, zero-emission mobility is on everyone’s minds and how we can heat and cool electric vehicles (EVs) 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.”
Grayson serves 280 customers in 32 countries and recently launched the third generation of its BTMS.
The modular BTMS can be specified to deliver active cooling, passive cooling and heating, with the hardware, pump, condenser, fan and compressor packaged a single unit.”Plug and play” technology regulates the temperature of EV batteries and provides temperature control to maintain functions, operational life and reduce overall vehicle life costs.
The standard BTMS can be used in up to 45°C ambient temperatures. A high ambient version is suitable for up to 50°C and can be packaged in a number of locations on the vehicle, including on the rooftop or into the chassis/body.
“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,” adds Mr Hateley. “Our research and development team has worked to optimise weight and performance with our fine-tuned third-gen BTMS so that it would deliver the performance required for use in coach and bus, off-highway and commercial vehicles. We have also focused heavily on developing bespoke BTMS units for the rail sector.”
