In India, the aerospace and defense industry is growing significantly from past many years and will continue to grow as civil aviation is likely to grow by 20 percent year on year and also as India has to keep its defense preparedness matching with the world. Somehow, India has been largely dependent on imports for its Aviation and Defense needs and this is not a good situation for any country to be in. However, for the past nearly three decades since the initiation of liberalization of economy, Indian industry has begun to realize the need to catch up with the world. Slowly things have started changing with many national and international OEMs looking for manufacturers in India who can offer high-end aerospace components and defense systems that meet the high standards of quality and global expectations.
Indian Govt has created negative list of imports and has also announced PLIs in many sectors to boost up local production. There is an upbeat mood across the industry and things are beginning to look bright after the Covid-19 impact. The Government’s Make in India initiative is also adding the required fuel in the market boosting the growth of companies such as Karnataka Hybrid Micro Devices. It is one of the leading manufacturers of high precision and high-reliability microelectronics products that serve the requirements of a variety of clients across the country.
In conversation with Paramjeet Singh, CEO, Karnataka Hybrid Micro Devices.
How do you see the current opportunities at hand in the current market scenario? What are the major factors that have been driving the growth?
We are very upbeat about the prospects of Indian industry growth in general and Aerospace & Defense sector in specific. Traditionally, India has largely depended on imports for its defense needs. If an MSME is able to meet global quality expectations it has good opportunity to be a supplier to the Defense Equipment suppliers to India. Now, with a good focus on Make In India by the current Govt, and also PLIs being offered in various categories, this is one of the best times ever for Indian Aerospace and Defence Industry. The Indian aerospace and defence industry is expected to reach the $70 billion by the end of 2030, driven by the growing acute need to improve India’s defense preparedness, demand for advanced infrastructure and government thrust. India is rapidly modernizing its military sector, the aerospace and the defence industry is expected to consume electronics worth $70 billion over the next decade. Due to this industry players and innovators with the help of the Indian government are focusing on creating new opportunities.
The major factors of growth are being able to meet the requirements of high-end quality and on time deliveries. This industry needs a kind of quality culture that makes each and every one feel responsible for the safety of users and feel the pride of the nation. This is a culture where employees come out openly and accept mistakes, if any, without fear of being reprimanded for it. This is an industry with long gestation periods and high entry barriers, topped with long periods of qualification cycles. Therefore able to be successful in this industry, one must be patient, persistent and be ready for delayed ROI to be able to succeed.
What are the major expectations of the clients from the players in this space? How has the company positioned itself to meet those expectations?
Our majority clients being public sector units
or Govt departments for Aerospace and Defense products, and the fact that there are very few defense equipment in India which are in regular production, and that there is lot of R&D effort going on, the suppliers like us have to be ready to be able to supply small quantities along with development efforts. Flexibility and adaptation to continuously changing needs is key strength one should have.
KHMDL has therefore positioned itself in very unique position as it serves Indian Space and A&D industry as well as automotive Industry. Although requirements of these two sectors are very different, but for us the Thick Film Technology remains as the base for both sectors.
We have also started to put efforts to get into exports and strengthened R&D efforts to create our own products and be well prepared in advance for technology obsolescence. These efforts have started to show results and we expect our revenues to grow more than 50 percent YoY for next three years.
Shed more light on the company’s competency in offering a whole range of highly reliable Aerospace solutions.
We are at core a Thick Film Technology company, using this as base we manufacture highly reliable hermetically sealed Hybrid Micro Circuits for Space and A&D sectors. For the past 15 years every satellite launched by India has had our HMCs on board. We also serve defense with our highly reliable HMCs. We have a highly capable EMS line and we are the only one in India to make Mission Computer, Radar Computers PC boards for Sukhoi and Jaguar Aircrafts outside HAL. We are also the first one in India to indigenize HMC based voltage regulators for for the automotive industry. Today nearly 40 percent of Indian cars use our voltage regulators. With comprehensive environment testing and reliability capabilities inhouse, our company can deliver high-end solutions meeting the stringent requirements of the aerospace and automotive sectors.
We also manufacture printed heaters which can take up to 50 W/ sq, inch., this is also a first in India. Printed heaters can be directly printed on the surface to be heated and have lot of advantages over conventional coil-based heaters form the point that these can be highly customized, have longer life and have faster response time.
We have recently developed solutions for Solar Charge Controller, which is currently under qualification. This product is going to be among the best products available for this purpose. Thick film technology is also a required technology for many sensors fabrication, we have developed sensors for medical applications and agriculture applications.
What is the range of products that the company is known in the industry for?
KHMD offers a wide range of high-reliability aerospace solutions with ISRO approved manufacturing lines. Some of the specifications offered by the company include Quality-Level MIL-PRF-38534 Class-H equivalent for military application; Class-K for space application, Passive/Active laser trimming of circuits for precision tolerances, chip/ wire bonding and hermetic sealing of devices, screening matrix as per MIL-STD-883 F and customer requirements. The products offered by KHMD for the aerospace industry include hermetically sealed hybrid microcircuits, anti-collision lighting for helicopters, position lights for helicopters, an array of resistor networks and R-C networks and solid-state heaters.
For the automotive industry, we offer high reliability and cost-effective products like automotive voltage regulators, HMC based flashers, window regulators with anti-pinch mechanisms, fuel sensor tiles and wiper controllers. What are the major factors that differentiate your company among its peers?
Quick response, innovative ideas to solve customer pains, and continuously stretching our boundaries are our major differentiating factors. The growing competitiveness and rapid technological innovations have placed tremendous pressure on aerospace component manufacturers. KHMD works hard to be very competitive and to meet customer requirements of Quality, Cost and Delivery. But apart from all these, the most driving factor is our ‘hunger’ to serve more and more customers and offer them the best quality of products possible. We as a company take pride in being Indian and we go beyond our limits to support start-ups, especially the ones who are coming up with new technologies and/or replacing imports.
How has been the overall journey of the company since its inception? Elaborate with respect to the growth it has witnessed till date.
Established in 1992, today our company has positioned itself as one of the leading manufacturers of hybrid microdevices for the aerospace, and automotive sectors. By far it has delivered more than 30 million hybrid micro-devices. The company has also delivered more than 40,000 complex Avionics board assembly that has been incorporated into more than 450 aircraft. Therefore, our journey as a critical electronics component manufacturer has been great so far as we prepare to take this KHMDL to new and greater heights.
What would be the future roadmap for the company going forward?
KHMDL has drawn elaborate plans to boost its presence in various sectors we serve through innovative products and increasing our customer base. Aligning with the technology trends we are preparing to launch new products for Electric Vehicles, Solar Power and also increase our offerings to Space, Aerospace and Defense sectors too.
Some of our new products are Power modules for EV, Solar Chargers, Smart UPS, Printed heaters and sensors for medical and agriculture applications. We have partnered with a company and are currently developing different cost-effective modules for RT-PCR test equipment. We are aggressively working on multiple fronts including exploring export market and hope to grow our revenues by more than 50 percent YoY for next three years.
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