Pre-production prototyping of Cobra Seats Marine Suspension System

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The project is to develop and produce pre-production prototypes of new marine vessel seatsbased on a revolutionary suspension system for shock mitigation. This has been successfullydemonstrated to deliver significant performance benefits at lower cost than existingtechnologies 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 andproduct, gain valuable user experience insights from potential customers, and providequantitative data on shock mitigation performance. The market for marine suspension seatingis growing (estimated to be in excess of £60m with annual growth rates of up to 8%), drivenby a healthy demand for new vessels and legislative pressure which is forcing boat ownersand operators to improve crew conditions and reduce the damaging effects of wave impactstransmitted through the vessel's structure and fittings. As a result of this project, a substantialmarket opportunity will be realised by Cobra which will benefit the UK economy, hassignificant export potential and important social and environmental advantages. Vitally, animportant health and safety challenge will be addressed, resulting in fewer injuries and lostwork 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 advancesin mould materials and manufacturing technologies. If this production route is successful itwill enable even lower cost production of the new seats and when technical and commercialviability is proven, it will help not only keep production in the UK, but expand domesticcomposite production in a market that is increasingly dominated by composites manufacturedabroad in low labour rate economies.