Industrial Automation Magazine India

Testo makes the measurement experience smoother and reliable

Published on : Thursday 01-10-2020

Kalidas Bhangare, Managing Director, Testo India Pvt

How long is the Testo association with the Indian market?

Testo is a world leader in design, development and manufacturing of electronic portable test and measuring instruments. Backed by more than 63 years of measurement engineering experience, Testo as a group is headquartered in Lenzkirch, Germany. Established in 2006, Testo India Pvt Ltd is a 100% subsidiary of Testo SE & Co KGaA and has shown phenomenal growth over the past 14 years. With new products and innovations getting
added to the basket year after year, we have extended our reach throughout the nation, increasing our support and services in every aspect. The head office is located at Pune and with a pan India sales and channel partner network, Testo India now enjoys a prominent position in Test & Measurement industry.

What are the current trends in the T&M market in view of the emerging technologies?
At the current scenario we are witnessing a great development prospect in all the industrial areas and a lot of new technologies are getting established. Existing systems are getting digitised, smart technology and IIoT has become very relevant within the industry, need for increased efficiency and growing energy concerns have become more pivotal than ever. Same goes for the T&M division too where the products have evolved to cope up with the new technologies. The measuring instruments are now more intuitive, self-governed and could be easily integrated with various operations. Advanced methods are being adopted in the sector right from the product development to manufacturing of these T&M equipment. These new products are now being used for troubleshooting, predictive maintenance and are also capable of generating alarms and reminders without any human intervention.

What is the USP of Testo products in the crowded T&M market?

When you have a competitive market like the T&M segment, the only way to excel is to keep evolving and customising the solution as per the customer needs. That is what Testo has always focused on. We initiated the transition from analog measuring system to a digital one. Very soon we incorporated another development that became our USP when we realised the need to develop smart measuring instruments that are more efficient and intuitive. Be it Testo smart probes or smart and networked thermal imagers, our product makes the measurement experience smoother and reliable. Wireless operation, on site report generation with the ease of saving and transferring data over networks makes our instrument more users friendly, interactive and cost effective.

Apart from Marketing & Sales, is there any other service Testo provides in India?
Testo also has an established state-of-the-art NABL accredited Service & Calibration Lab in accordance with the standard ISO/IEC 17025: 2017, which takes care of the after sales support locally from Pune. Most of the times when customers have to get service and calibration for their instruments, either they have to wait for very long or invest highly for the service. Sometimes even the service facilities are not very premium to cater to the requirements. Testo Service & Calibration facility is highly cost effective as it delivers international standards very conveniently within a week’s time. Instruments of any brand/make can be calibrated and serviced locally maintaining necessary standards.

The accredited parameters include Humidity, Pressure, Absolute Pressure, Contact Type Temperature, Non-Contact Type Temperature (Infrared Thermometer, Thermal Imager). In fact, ours is the first and only Lab in India to get NABL Accreditation for Dew Point Temperature as well. In addition to that, Testo also has a solution division that provides end to end solution for Food & Pharma division. This is not only a single instrument but an entire data monitoring system to ensure the efficiency of the entire facility and includes precise sensors, advanced software and excellent service along with consultation and guidance.

What are the main user industries? Does Testo cater to the requirements of process industries?

Testo has a wide product range of portable instruments an as pioneers in testing and measurement equipment we provide our solutions to nearly all industrial segments including HVAC, Power, railway, Food, Pharma, Cement, PSUs and many more. Since every facility or operation requires efficiency and performance measurement also condition monitoring of the components and environmental conditions are crucial, our products find their relevance in all sectors. Process industry too is no different in that regard. Consider F&B, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, textiles or even paper industry everywhere there are critical parameters that must be monitored and kept under control.

Testo data loggers measure and document temperature and humidity automatically and without interruption at every step of a Pharma process. Testo Saveris 2 Wi-Fi data logger system is the simple, flexible and reliable solution to humidity and temperature monitoring in storerooms, cold storage area and work rooms, as well as during workflow of any process industry. We have a range of pocket line instruments for various parameters like Testo 606 moisture meter used for measuring material moisture and relative humidity in paper industry. Similarly there are Testo hygrometers that can be placed in any chemical facility or store room to log temperature and humidity continuously. Testo brings out its smartest measuring solutions with the Smart Probes,

which equips the users with smart and easy measurement techniques. These can be wirelessly and intuitively operated by smart phone via a free App. Testo has also revolutionised the measurement technology with products like Testo 440 and Testo 400, intuitive air velocity and IEQ measuring instrument which can carry out measuring tasks with just one versatile instrument and multiple range of wired and Bluetooth probes. Testo transmitters for humidity and temperature, differential pressure, dew point of compressed air and compressed Air Flow Meters are useful for several critical process monitoring, operation efficiency and optimisation.

The thermal imager is one of the key products and also in demand now for medical applications. Does Testo cater to this requirement?

Thermal Imagers are designed to be used for predictive and preventive maintenance for various systems and components. They are used for thermal inspection of moving or rotating parts, electrical cabinets, VAC systems, switch yards, solar panels, building, etc. But that’s not it, Testo Thermal Cameras such as Testo 890 and Testo 872 also have built-in fever detection mode and automatic face recognition feature that helps the user to conduct mass scanning of the people. In this new normal where safety has become our top priority these thermal cameras allow non-
contact measurement to detect elevated skin temperatures brought by various external causes like Covid-19, making them the most necessary measure for all workplaces, institutes and public spheres. Central Ministry of health has also put forward a mandate encouraging all public spaces
& organizations to implement thermal scanning at their premises.

Testo provides the new touch free and standalone thermal scanning system for fever detection that keeps your workplace safe. This set up includes the new kiosk arrangement mounted with thermal camera Testo 872, visual display monitor and an audible alarm (hooter) and LED indicators that makes the scanning process more intuitive, safe and free from any human interface requirements. In the times to come when schools, colleges, institutes, malls are about to open, our thermal imagers and the mass thermal scanning system will be crucial for the safety of the people.

What are the potential growth areas for Testo in India?
For an emerging market like India where new possibilities are always evolving, we are always confident about the growth prospect of Testo. The kind of product range we have with so many features and areas of application for our measuring instruments, the future looks very bright and full of opportunities. We do experience situational fluctuations in the demand dynamics at times, like the one we have right now due to Covid, but mostly we receive considerable application specific requirements from the market. Other factor that works in our favour is the norms that are becoming stringent plus awareness of the users encourages them to use right products with focus being on accuracy, certainty and maximum efficiency. We plan to launch several new products and solutions in the upcoming years that not only carry out measurement task but even help to support environment health, air quality and human comfort. We feel that our technologically advanced products and continuous efforts will help us grow in the future.

India is a dynamic market and now with a call for self-reliance, are there any new initiatives from Testo on the anvil?

Most of the Testo solutions are smart, equipped with precise sensor technology for easy operation. Considering the current situation our latest solution is an Automated Fever Detection System – Testo 872 with Kiosk. This system is an excellent solution to ensure safety at any facility and comes with several useful components. Testo 872, which is Wi-Fi enabled and equipped with smart technology is mounted on a kiosk stand supported by an adjustable holder at the back. The kiosk stand also supports an LED display that can be used as a virtual screen to witness the measurement results. A processing unit with mouse and keyboard are also connected with the screen that helps to run the thermal scanning software, create and send reports from the same location. This eliminates the need to carry any data from the measuring site to your work station. Most significant feature of the system is audible alarm (hooter) and LED indicators (green and red) mounted at the top of the stand to alert about escalated body temperature of people. Also a relay output is available for access control or any other controlling mechanism. This entire solution is developed to make the existing process touch free, independent and secure, bringing human intervention and need of manual monitoring to minimum.