KS Natarajan, Managing Director, Trident Pneumatics, speaks on the rising demand for medical oxygen plants due to Covid 19 pandemic, and how they are meeting this growing demand.

Give us a brief introduction of Trident Pneumatics and explain the journey so far.

But the same compressor, same compressed air may not be fit for a textile machine. By mid 2000, we went into air filtration and started manufacturing micro filters. Those are 0.1, 0.0 micron filters, which will remove small particles in the air. Along with the particles, we also remove droplets.

These are the three core contaminants that needed to be removed from air. By 2010, we could deliver pretty much anything, any pressure of compressed air adding from seven bar to high pressures.

Then we started making air feeds for medical use. Our ventilators remove moisture and bacteria from air. When you feed a ventilator to a patient, you need to be sure that there is no bacteria going in. We are one of the big players in the US market for compressed air going into hospitals.

Due to Covid 19 pandemic, are you seeing a rise in demand for medical oxygen plants? How are you meeting this growing demand?

We do well with our medical breathing air products. We have a exported a lot of products to the US market. We see a rising demand for medical oxygen plants and are meeting this growing demand.

Compared to other factories, our factory opened up pretty early. We got special permissions from the required authorities. Since our products are life saving one, getting required permissions were not tough. The State gave the permissions for our vendors too – fabrication vendors, valves vendors, etc.

We were all prepared, and we manufactured big machines in a matter of week’s time. We had a some installations in the last few weeks. We have a large network. We have trained all our vendors, and even they will be able to install, commission, and continuously support the machines.

How are you handling these challenges?

Getting the required raw materials on time was a problem at start. There were certain logistical issues. We had some inventory so we could get going. We had US as an export market so getting containers were difficult.

Like other textile companies, we didn’t face any labour issues. We had an engineering unit where we had skilled workers and they are part of around 900 kilometer radius. We have salespeople all over the country.

Which industries are the major users of compressed air treatment products? What do you bring to the table for the customers?

In several types of mobile vehicles like ships, locomotives, trucks, there are air brakes. We manufacture air brakes too. We have the power sector where most of our products are used. These are the major areas for us. The key would be textile.

The competition is global. What we bring to the table in the the Indian industry is fighting for competitiveness. When you look at textile, it is about how efficiently they convert the input into output. They are very sensitive towards energy and downtime. This is our key differentiator. Given our segmental approach as a company, we have multiple segments like standard products, which goes to general industry, and products for automobile, textiles, and so on.