Seeing is believing

I can’t believe my eyes: a composites subcontracting facility with as many busy people as parts on the shopfloor! Mike Richardson walks right into a hive of activity at Global Technologies Racing’s Fontwell, West Sussex facility.

The company’s logo, a blue crash helmet with its monogram emblazoned across the visor adorns the entrance to Global Technologies Racing’s (GTR) facility. And with its mantra of ‘design, manufacture, deliver’ running around my head, I’m expecting some big things from this visit.

What surprises me the most from my initial impression of this company is the amount of production people. If I’m being really honest here, in the short time I’ve been editing Composites in Manufacturing, I’ve been a little underwhelmed by the sizes of workforces in some of the facilities I’ve visited. Hives of activity they are not.

GTR however, is very different. They’ve got lots of people and they know how to use them. In fact, it’s very clear after chatting with the company’s director, Jamie Keogh, that GTR place a great deal of emphasis on its employees. And in the fast paced world of the motorsport industry, it is people that make a company tick.

Owned by John Biddlecombe and Simon Kingdon-Butcher, GTR manufactures composite components, mouldings and assemblies from its Fontwell, West Sussex site. Cutting its teeth on the design and build of racing cars for Indy car and various other series such as Formula Nippon and Le Mans Prototype sports cars, the company has diversified into composite applications for aerospace, defence, automotive and marine. As GTR points out in its website blurb, the advantage of having motorsport as its heritage means it can make the seemingly impossible happen.

“We set up this business for motorsport and it’s what this company is all about,” begins Keogh. “While we would never leave motorsport completely, we’re now expanding into the aerospace sector too. Motorsport has given us an edge over more standard composite manufacturing subcontractors because we’re always learning and adapting to new technologies, finding new opportunities and different manufacturing methods that maybe other companies aren’t prepared to try because motorsport requirements tend to push you to the edge of your capabilities.

“Whenever I visit an aerospace customer, they’re always impressed that when we say what will happen, it happens: good quality parts delivered on time. Because of our motorsport experience and all it entails, whatever problems we encounter, we’re best placed to get over these hurdles to hit the delivery date. This sets us apart from other companies.”

GTR has recently set up a new machine shop and installed a CMS CNC machining centre for patternmaking and in-house part machining. The company has purchased Stratasys’ Fortus 250, 350 and 400 3D printing machines to print soluble washout mandrels from ABS and SR30.

“We’ve established an 8,000ft2 machine shop with seven employees performing mandrel, pattern and Rohacell cutting. Furthermore, we’ve purchased a Faro laser scanning head system to accompany our CMM and Faro arm, two Blackman & White flatbed cutting tables, five autoclaves and many ovens for post-curing at different levels. The majority of our work is autoclave-related to support the structural work of the automotive industry. We’re also taking on more high-end marine race boat work to make a name for ourselves in the marine industry.”

With environmental lightweighting demands forcing the automotive industry to drive its composites manufacturing supply chain towards the adoption of more mass production processes, GTR is taking on more low-tech, high volume automotive projects to supplement its motorsport work.

“We’re seeing increasingly more carbon fibre construction cars appearing and it is definitely a growing market. However, to reach the volumes that the major automotive manufacturers require, more innovation is needed in automated press tool system production techniques. I see a change from ‘out of autoclave’ based processes to one where the majority of the automotive parts will be manufactured using snap curing, press tool manufacturing techniques. This industry will also need to look at de-skilling it processes to reach the desired production numbers.

“We have 160 people working 24-7 onsite and obviously we’ve now reached capacity. To achieve high volume production, we’d need to consider another site – and we would consider this if the right project came along that supported this. We’ve been fairly cautious over the years, but we’ve still managed to grow year on year. This is partly because we do a good job for our customers, which leads to more doors opening for us. We work best under pressure – the pressure being our desire to get up to the next level. The owners and I don’t like sitting back and saying we’re comfortable; we can just rest on our laurels. We’re a progressive company that will seize opportunities as they arise. Yes, there are risks involved, but fortune favours the brave.”

All this growth within GTR has required changes in its work ethos, the recruitment of more personnel and obtaining AS9100 accreditation to perform exacting aerospace sector quality and traceability requirements.

“Although the Formula 1 and motorsport sectors have become more focused on attaining precise dimensional accuracies, they are vastly different to the aerospace industry which demands full part traceability and inspection. Our aerospace project work has given us a good grounding into the quality management side. We already had ISO9000, but taking it up the next level to AS9100 was quite a feat for us. It’s meant hiring new people in place within the company and hiring a new quality manager. AS9100 accreditation has made us much stronger as a business because it ensures that all our pegs are in the right holes. It was a huge undertaking, but well worth it in the end.”

Keogh is keen to consolidate GTR’s pole position, maintain its quality levels and defend its honour in terms of doing what it says it will do for the customer. However, it all comes back to people.

“Once you have the right people you can make anything happen,” he concludes, “especially if we provide them with the best manufacturing equipment to work with too. I believe we have a really good reputation in the market and I want to ensure we continue growing, but also maintain what we set out to achieve, which is to be known as one of the best companies you can deal with.”

www.gtr.gb.com