FLIR : Giving the Thermal Imaging Market a New Thrust
The thermal imaging cameras’ sector is one of the growing in India and in this interview, T P Singh, Sales Director – India, Middle East, CIS, Turkey and SS Africa at FLIR Systems, describes the company’s wide product portfolio and its growth strategies for the coming years
Q. When it comes to industrial thermal imaging cameras, FLIR is a known name in India. How has been this journey so far?
This is an interesting question and maybe a book can be written on this topic. However, to provide it in summary, the FLIR India experience has been very good. We are providing the world’s best technology at affordable prices to Indian customers. Overall, the journey has been very fruitful and we are happy to be part of the India growth story.
Q. Could you kindly elaborate on FLIR’s global operations and its core values?
FLIR is a NASDAQ-listed company with headquarters in the US. Globally, FLIR did a business of around USD 1.8 billion (approximately Rs 12,100 crore as per the current USD-INR rate). In 2017, our revenue growth, as compared to 2016, has been 8.3%. We look at ourselves as the world’s sixth sense since we provide superpower vision, helping people around the world save lives, protect the environment and enhance productivity. We are building more than innovative technologies; we are striving to build a more sustainable, more efficient, safer future.
Q. At the global positioning level, how do you feel this differentiation for FLIR?
FLIR is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the proliferation of thermal technology with five key factors, which include:
- Lower cost volume leader
- High-end heritage brand name
- Established footprint in distribution
- 1,550 patents and patent applications of IP portfolio
- Sizeable market share.
Q. Could you elaborate about your India operations?
We offer a wide range of products under the instruments’ portfolio and are available across India through our very strong channel partners. All these partners have trained technical teams to provide the best services to our potential/existing customers. We have hundreds of happy customers all over India which include electrical utilities, different manufacturing companies, service providers and integrators. To help these customers use our products effectively, we have online/frequent offline training courses in India.
Our service center is set up in Delhi.
Q. What are the company’s offerings to the manufacturing sector?
When it comes to the manufacturing sector, we have hundreds of products – thermal imaging cameras for offline and online temperature measurements, test and measurement equipment, Extech range of products for electrical/mechanical use, HVAC, safety applications, etc. Under the offline thermal cameras’ range, our starting range is from Rs 70,000 with the world’s first pocket-sized thermal camera model C2. Our other products include point-and-shoot Ex series, Exx series for experienced users and professional T series which has the unique feature of optics that can be tilted.
Under online offerings, we have a product range under the automation portfolio which has fixed type of products for 24 x 7 temperature monitoring. These products can be integrated with computers for real-time temperature monitoring. The main applications broadly include automated inspections, process control, condition monitoring, and fire prevention detection. Almost nine types of camera families and 30-plus different products are available under this fixed type range for different applications to suit customer needs. When it comes to the test and measurement range, we offer multimeters, clamp meters, insulation testers, thermometers, voltage detectors, borescopes and moisture meters.
Selected models have FLIR’s unique infrared guided measurement through infrared detector that guides you straight to the problem, visualizes the heat generated by electrical faults, and accurately measures the temperature. Further, Extech is also a FLIR company under which we provide 400-plus different products for applications like electrical, plant maintenance, health and safety, HVAC, lab and water quality, among others. Extech is also an ISO 9001:2015 company with 45 years’ experience. In India, we cover the complete range of Extech products.
Q. What uniqueness does the T Series offer?
T Series has optics that can be rotated. The T5xx, T6xx and T1K offer rotation of the optical block. Since many installations which need to be scanned for temperature are above the eye level, this design is very useful. The benefit of this design is that the operator does not feel any stress on the wrist, shoulder, neck and eyes while using this range even if used frequently. The ease of use of this great design can be felt only with experience. I would like your readers to book a demonstration by sending an email to [email protected] or call on +91-11-45603555. We will be happy to show this or any of our other desired products at your doorstep.
Q. With such a vast product line-up, how does one choose the right product?
This is a very important question. To begin with, define your application first. You should clearly know the smallest object size you want to measure and the distance from which measurement has to be done. Please note that seeing the object with a thermal camera and accurate measurement are two different things. This one critical aspect of measuring smallest object at defined distance can be defined as IFOV – instantaneous field of view. We have developed an online tool to help our customers choose the right product which is available at http://flir.custhelp.com/app/fl_download_datasheets/type/current. IFOV has been shown as Point 2 in the picture being shared here. This picture is from the same link shared above.
Q. In your opinion, what is the growth potential for your business in India in 2018?
India has lot of potential and the future looks bright. Indian manufacturing base is growing and we all require good tools like thermal cameras for temperature measurement along with quality test and measurement tools to have efficient, smooth operations and for producing good quality products. As such, the future in India does look very bright.
Q. Could you share with our readers your own background?
I have almost 24 years’ experience. My educational qualifications include a degree in electronics and communication and a management course from IIM, Calcutta as well as a digital marketing course from DMI, Ireland. I take care of instruments’ sales in the emerging markets for FLIR.
