Power supply being the most essential part of any electronic equipment without which a circuit is incomplete, justifies a huge growing market for it. “Currently, the power supplies market is growing continuously because of the new developments in electronic equipments, as power supply is the heart of every system that is based on electronics (e.g. telecommunication and automation system),” says Vijay Kambe, partner, K.B. Electronics.
By: Jesus Milton Rousseau S.
Friday, February 20, 2009: “Power supplies have great business potential in India,” adds Mahesh V. Namjoshi, CEO, Shavison Electronics. Justifies Rajeeve Dhall, managing director, Elektro World, “Power supplies have good demand as they are used by original equipment manufacturers (OEM) as well as end-users for various uses.” The power supplies market has also been hit by the recent recession as it is completely dependent on the growth of other electronic products market, says S. V. Rajhans, director, Spectron Sales and Service Pvt Ltd. But Kambe feels despite the slowdown, the custom-built switched-mode power supplies (SMPS) continues to be in demand.” The factor that influences the power supplies market the most is the cost of the product, says G.P. Agarwal, general manager, Omega Electronics.
Kambe, however, feels it is the advances in technology, size (compact size) and the cost that affect this market. Rajhans, on the other hand, cites research and development (R&D), size reduction, lesser demand of power (wattage) by the use of energy-efficient circuits and integration of power supply with the main circuits of the equipments, as some of the other factors. The power supplies market is also affected by Chinese products. “Cheap quality Chinese products are being imported by various importers in India. These power supplies are not only cheap in terms of price but are also low in quality and have a short life span,” says Dhall. “The Indian market is flooded with ‘made in China’ tag. However, with low-cost and attractive offers, reliability is an issue where the Indian companies score over the Chinese,” adds Agarwal.
SMPS dominates market
SMPS is considered a fast moving product in the market compared to the linear power supplies. “SMPS is a fast moving product due to its compact size, wide input voltage range and high efficiency, while linear power supplies are slow moving because they are bulky and less efficient,” says Namjoshi.
Adds Agarwal, “Mobile chargers and computer SMPS are fast moving because of the products for which they are used.” But Kambe feels the fast moving power supplies is the low wattage power supplies for power line communications (PLC). According to Rajhans, “Fixed voltage and single output SMPS are the fastest growing power supplies in OEM business. Linear bench power supplies are still in demand in the educational sector, R&D labs and electronic products manufacturers.”
Market size
“It is difficult to estimate the total market but it is over Rs 5000 million in India,” says Kambe. Namjoshi states, “The growth rate of power supply mar ket is at least 25 per cent.” Dhall agrees, “The market size is huge in India due to the large population.”
Types & uses
Power supplies are of various types. The popular ones are voltage, variable output voltage (CVCL), constant voltage constant current (CVCC), constant current sources, DC-to-DC converters, battery chargers/float-cum-boost (battery) chargers (FCBC), AC to DC SMPS, DC to DC converters, AC/DC and educational power supplies. Power supplies are used in various applications for charging devices like computers, mobiles, electronics equipments and electric vehicles in industries, medical equipments, etc. They are also used in various applications like adaptors and chargers for cordless phones, mobile handsets, household appliances and various electronic gadgets, closed circuit television (CCTV) applications, wireless radios, printers, laptops, etc. Many OEMs equipments also use different power supplies. “Power supplies are used in various industries by machinery manufacturers of computer numeric control (CNC) machines, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (LASER) machines, automation systems like PLC, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) in medical equipments, halogen lamp application defence, etc,” says Kambe. Rajhans sums it up, “Power supplies are used to power all DC operated electronic equipments in communication, instrumentation and computers. In fact, almost all electronic products use power supplies.”
Cost factor
The main factors that affect the cost of power supplies in India is the cost of the raw materials like aluminium, copper, steel and components used in power supplies, and the high taxes levied on them. Says Dhall, “Expensive components and high taxes affect the cost of the end product.” Kambe adds, “The costs of metals like steel for housing, aluminium for heat sinking and ferrites affect the cost of power supplies.” However, Rajhans feels, “While linear power supply units have major metal content, the cost of aluminium, copper and steel dominate the pricing of these power supplies; whereas in SMPS, the competition, volume, intricacy of specifications, size and environmental specs dominate the pricing.” Namjoshi has a different view point. He believes the price of US dollar and inflation rate in India usually affect the cost. But Agarwal feels the low productivity of manpower as compared to Chinese manpower and government’s multiple taxation systems are the main factors that affect cost.
Recent trends
The recent trend includes SMPS and linear power supplies being developed for specific technical requirements like low ripple, leakage current, high isolation levels, etc. “Power factor control in SMPS is becoming necessary,” says Kambe. Rajhans says, “Various technologies with higher efficiencies are introduced in SMPS designs with latest integrated circuits (IC) by many IC manufacturersevery year. And power supply manufacturers have to design their products around these ICs.”
Bright future
Power supplies have a promising future as the demand for electronic gadgets and gizmos are continuously increasing. “Even people in rural areas are increasingly using more gadgets,” says Dhall. “While SMPS has a bright future, especially in OEM business, the future of linear power supplies is dreary due to expectation of higher efficiency, smaller size and lower cost by customers,” says Rajhans. Kambe predicts a promising future for non-standard and custom built SMPS. Now let us look at some of the key companies in this field. Elektro World: Established in1983, Elektro World’s operations started with the marketing of components and DIY (do it yourself) hobby kits. Later, they diversified into manufacturing and marketing various automation and communication products under the brand name Elektro World. At present, the company is engaged in various products such as power supplies (conventional and SMPS), uninterrupted power supply (UPS), mini UPS for cordless phones, fax UPS with auto wake-up switching, CCTV camera power supplies, power supply for wireless radio sets, AC adaptors and chargers for digital camera, AC adaptor for laptops, 220-110V converts for foreign appliances, custom made power supplies (as per specifications), light control switch (dawn/dusk), closed circuit television systems, monitors, switchers, chargecoupled device (CCD) cameras (B/W and colour), wireless speakers, tel-fax detector, remote control products/ switches/modules, twilight switch(automatic dawn dusk light control switch) and electronic flasher.
KB Electronics: K B Electronicsmanufactures SMPS, DC-DC converter and battery chargers. Their standard models are 5V, 12V, 24V, 30V, 48V and 110V in current range of 4A, 6A, 10A, 20A, 50A. The company also manufactures multiple output SMPS and custom-built items. They design and develop power conversion equipment to suit a wide range of applications. These applications include PLC control panels, process control, medical electronics, battery charging, communications, etc for industries ranging from chemicals, fertilisers, cement, plastics to railways.
Omega Electronics: Manufacturer of power supplies, Omega Electronics was established in 1962. The company makes AC, DC,AC/DC, battery chargers, etc. They also manufacture and export technical education training equipments.Omega is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company. Says Agarwal,” Their future plans include shifting to low coast but reliable power supplies, may be to outsourcing from some vendors in India and China who have better infrastructure and also to adapt to the changing technology scenario.”
Their product range for technical education/vocational training includes antenna tariners, satellite trainers, radar tariner, computer interfacing, trainer, instrumentation trainers, communication trainers, LAN trainer, VLSI trainers,microprocessor, microcontroller and interface trainers, electricity trainer, consumer electronics demonstration trainers, test and measuring instruments, microwave test benches, educational wall charts, robotics kits, decade boxes (R,L,C), analogue lab, digital lab, power electronics lab, breadboards, power project board, circuit lab trainers, physics systems training, fibre optics trainers and power supplies. The company supplies toeducational establishments, to be used in the laboratory.It also supplies the same to industry, defence, electricity boards, etc. Their educational equipments are also exported to 36 countries worldwide.
Shavison Electronics: Shavison Electronics started its power supply business in 1977. Today they cater to the industrial automation industry. Few of their products are marked with CE and the products are accepted by various system integrators, panel builders and machine manufacturers. The company manufacturers. The company manufactures din rail mountable SMPS up to 500 watts with output voltage such as 5, 12, 24 and 48. They also manufacture custom built power supply up to 200 amps DC.
” We at Shavison Electronics have develpoed a din rail mountable range of SMPS for control panels and machines. We plan to distribute ourr product all over India and abroad,” says Namjoshi. The company has a bank of over 350 different products which can directly interface with most of the PLCs, DC and AC drives, SCADA and other industrial automation equipments. Their customers include Godrej and associate companies, Reliance Industries and associate companies, Larsen & Tourbo, Nelco, LG Electronics, Zicom, etc.
Spectron Sales and Service:
Spectronics was established in 1978 and incorporated as a private limited company by the name Spectron Sales & Service Pvt Ltd in 1982, with product range limited to power electronics and concentration on linear regulated DC power supply unit, AC-to-AC (frequency) converters, DC-to-AC inverters, DC-to-DC converters and SMPS. Now Spectron is a renowned name in power electronics for a wide range of power conversion products for last three decades with ISO 9001:2000 certification. The company manufactures almost all types of power supplies, i.e. linear, fixed and variable output voltage, bench and OE power supply units, single and multi-output power supply units, float-cum-boost (battery) chargers/battery chargers, SMPS, DC-to-DC converters, sine/square wave inverters, sine wave frequency converters and encapsulated power modules. Their main customers are from defence, telecom and automobile sectors.
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