Pre-production prototyping of Cobra Seats Marine Suspension System

The project is to develop and produce pre-production prototypes of new marine vessel seats
based on a revolutionary suspension system for shock mitigation. This has been successfully
demonstrated to deliver significant performance benefits at lower cost than existing
technologies and thus has the potential to disrupt the current market. A patent has been filed.
The pre-production prototypes will be used to further refine the suspension mechanism and
product, gain valuable user experience insights from potential customers, and provide
quantitative data on shock mitigation performance. The market for marine suspension seating
is growing (estimated to be in excess of £60m with annual growth rates of up to 8%), driven
by a healthy demand for new vessels and legislative pressure which is forcing boat owners
and operators to improve crew conditions and reduce the damaging effects of wave impacts
transmitted through the vessel's structure and fittings. As a result of this project, a substantial
market opportunity will be realised by Cobra which will benefit the UK economy, has
significant export potential and important social and environmental advantages. Vitally, an
important health and safety challenge will be addressed, resulting in fewer injuries and lost
work time in the UK and globally (with annual costs estimated of between £257 million and
£665 million in the UK alone).
The project will also trial a novel production route which takes advantage of recent advances
in mould materials and manufacturing technologies. If this production route is successful it
will enable even lower cost production of the new seats and when technical and commercial
viability is proven, it will help not only keep production in the UK, but expand domestic
composite production in a market that is increasingly dominated by composites manufactured
abroad in low labour rate economies.