Kusam-Meco : The Pioneer And Leader In Test & Measuring Instruments

Kusam Electrical Industries, popularly known by its brand name KUSAM-MECO, has the distinction of having pioneered the manufacture of digital multimeters and clamp meters in India. With a reputation and a legacy of excellence in manufacturing T & M instruments for over four decades, the company has introduced over 500 products to help the industry maintain high benchmarks of quality and reliability. In an exclusive interview with Engineering Review, Chandmal Goliya, MD, Kusam-Meco gives a detailed account of the company’s pioneering spirit, futuristic approach and product innovations to the meet the ever-growing demands of its discerning customer base. Excerpts:

Q. You pioneered the manufacture of digital multimeters and clamp meters in the country. Today you are a multi-product company. What is your present range of manufacture?

KUSAM –MECO is a 40- year old company which pioneered the use of Digital Multimeters and Clamp Meters in India when most instruments used in the electronic industry were analog types. Slowly due to our futuristic approach ,we envisioned that the future will be of Digital Instruments and the demand for analog versions will not grow, and may remain stagnant.

Users soon realized the versatility of Digital Instruments ,ease of use,accuracy of the reading, etc. and the demand for Digital instruments increased slowly and steadily .To meet the demand,our company also expanded the range of products from Multimeters and Clampmeters to a plethora of others. Currently we have now over 500 products in our basket, such as high safety “UL” approved digital multimeters, professional grade digital multimeters, basic digital multimeters, LCR meters, high safety “UL” approved digital clampmeters, professional & industrial grade digital clampmeters, insulation resistance testers, earth resistance testers, high voltage measuring instruments, test & measuring instruments, laboratory instruments, environmental testing instruments, waterproof pen testers, cable fault pre-locator, portable thermal imaging camera, power measurement clampmeters, power measurement & control instruments, power transducers (accuracy class 0.2% / 0.5%), signal transmitters, programmable digital panel meters, calibrators, and gas detectors, which is one of the largest offerings of quality products in india.

Q. What are your recent ground-breaking product innovations?

Introducing new and innovative products based on customer’s requirements is in our culture.

We have recently introduced new DMM with graphic display for displaying the trend of the measured parameters with storage facility, HV Insulation Resistance tester suitable for use in 400 KV switch yards, Power Clampmeters for measuring Power parameters and also harmonics in the system; a range of products for Transformer testing such as Transformer Turn Ratio meter, Resistance meter, HV Breakdown Tester, HV oil Testing Kits, Relay Test sets, etc.

Q. Which are the industry segments you are catering to, and who are your major customers?

We have such a large range of products that find applications in each and every industry. We cater to Steel plants, Cement plants, Petrochemical plants, Refineries Chemical plants, Fertilizer plants, Aluminum and other Non-ferrous manufacturing plants, Educational & Research Institutions, Electronics products manufacturing Industry, Defence, Railways, Airlines, etc. The list is endless.

Q. Your name is associated with safety. What are the approvals your products carry?

We have the largest range of High Safety Digital Multimeters and Clampmeters, not available with any other brand in India.These Multimeters and Clampmeters are ‘UL’ listed conforming to the specifications set by ‘UL’. Strict adherence to the ‘UL’ standards makes the instruments highly reliable,accurate and with excellent repeatability .The instruments have fire retardant polycarbonate casing and a splash proof construction.They have transient protection from 6KV to 12KV ,which is not available in other instruments. It provides safety to the instruments which in other instruments can damage the instrument and also can be fatal for the user.Companies who have burnt their fingers using other instruments now specify only ‘UL’ listed surge protection instruments.

Q. What are your growth strategies to increase your footprints and market penetration?

”KUSAM-MECO” has a good penetration in the enduser market. It also has a dealer network all over India. Moving with the time “KUSAM-MECO” products are available on on-line platforms such us Amazon, Flipkart, etc.The Company is also increasing the number of dealers and also making its presence in the avenue of Digital Marketing on social platforms such as facebook, Instagram, linked in, Twitter, etc. Thus the information on the company’s products will be available to a very large number of users.

Q. How crucial is service in your business, and what is your service set-up?

One of the pillars of strength of our company is ‘After-Sales-Service’. We are an ISO certified company for providing ‘After-Sales-Service’. We have a team of well qualified engineers who have many years of training and experience in the service of all the instruments which we sell.

We know that most of our products fall in the category of ‘Assets’ and the buyers would like to buy only such products which can be serviced even after the warranty period is over. In fact we recently received a Clamp on meter from a customer in Kerala who had used it for nearly 25 years and because the display became dull, still expected service from our Company to replace the LCD,which we did. Such being the level of service provided by us, customer opts for our products,rather than other products which are like use and throw instruments resulting in loss to the buyer.

Q. What are the trends in technology akin to test & measuring instruments, and how do you keep yourselves abreast of these trends and developments?

The latest technology trend is IOT and this is also being used in the field of Test & Measuring Instruments slowly.

Q. What efforts do you take to enhance your competitive edge and stay ahead?

In order to keep competitive edge over our competitors, we introduce new products with new features which makes measurements accurate and easy and as per users’ needs. We also upgrade our testing facilities from time to time so that customers receive only those products which have passed our Q.C. benchmarks.

With upgraded facilities, we can also help customers to renew their ISO certificates by providing valid calibration certificates for our products,traceable to NABL Laboratories.

Q. How do you visualize the prospects of the electrical industry and the future of Kusam?

As long as human beings are on this planet, electricity will be in demand.The source of energy may change from fossils to nuclear to renewable energy like wind or solar energy but the demand for electricity will be ever-lasting. Hence the future for the entire electrical industry is bright and wherever there is electricity, the demand for instruments will never diminish, and will always grow. The Future of our company is very bright.