Warwickshire Company On The Fast-Track To Success

Martin Gambling set-up GRM as a sole trader in 2003 to initially specialise in computer aided consultancy.

There has been steady growth since then with the business expanding its services to cover engineering consultancy, software selling and product design. The 15-strong team is based at Edmund House in Rugby Road, Leamington, and has three business partners – VR&D, T-Systems and Simulia. The Plan GRM has been working with Coventrybased Automotive Trim Developments (ATD) to design a train seat for Greater Anglia and Eversholt Rail. 

The development of the prototype to produce a seat which was safer and lighter took six months and was well received. In collaboration with ATD, simulation tests were carried out at MIRA in Nuneaton which the seat passed first time and the next step was to progress towards manufacturing 10,000 train seats per annum.

Martin, managing director of GRM, said: “Safety is the number one priority and the strength of a seat is important. In the impact of a crash, unfortunately passengers will hit the seat in front so the seat has to be safe and compliant on your knees when you hit it. “But the back of the seat cannot be too hard because you don’t want to get concussion from your head hitting the seat in front because the aim is for passengers to be able to get out of trains on their own without too much assistance in the event of an incident.”

The challenge

with the project was to take the next step from design to production since GRM and ATD had already made significant investments during the prototype stage. Martin met Growth Hub account manager Carolyn Reily at the Automotive Engineering Show at the NEC in October 2014 – and it transpired there was support available for the train seat to be developed further.

The Results

Carolyn suggested GRM should apply for a grant from the Big City Deal which is run by Coventry University Enterprises. The funding enabled the Leamington business to recruit design engineer Ashley Fulham to work on the project fulltime, with the seats due to be installed in the Greater Anglia and Eversholt Rail trains by September 2015. Martin said: “It was really helpful having the support of the Growth Hub to discover there is a service available to help SMEs.

“We were 80 per cent there and the extra funding was the final piece in the jigsaw because we didn’t have the time or the resources to take things to the production design level. “The project wouldn’t have developed as smoothly without having a full-time member of staff working solely on this. From ATD’s perspective, it has been helpful to know they are investing their knowledge in a permanent member of our staff.

“It is also significant that we are the first company to meet all the injury requirements of the GM/RT 2100 issue 5 requirement for railway vehicle structures. Companies have been struggling to meet those targets so we are pleased to have passed the test. “We hope this will lead to work with other train companies as a new and exciting part of our business.

Working in sectors such as automotive and motorsport where we develop and provide optimisation software products and services, the opportunity to expand into the rail industry is an exciting one. “Aerospace is another sector we believe we can grow because we have a multitude of skills in lightweight design and we are also keen to expand in the medical industry where we have already optimised MRI scanners.”