The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Incubator makes a clean job of it

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 11, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Incubator makes a clean job of it

By M. Soundariya Preetha

COIMBATORE, DEC. 10. For T. Kumar, a budding entrepreneur at Perundurai in Erode district, it was a challenge when he was asked to develop electronic controllers (used in floor cleaning machinery) for the Coimbatore-based Roots Multiclean Limited (RMCL).

His options were to either invest at least Rs. 15 lakhs or use the facilities available elsewhere, which would have cost him Rs. 2 lakhs-Rs. 3 lakhs.

However, the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) at the Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, helped him accomplish the task in just three months at less than Rs. 1 lakh.

He developed two "embedded controllers" and these were handed over to the company here on Wednesday.

These components met some of the hitech requirements of the cleaning machinery manufactured by RMCL. One of the components was for battery-operated floor cleaning machinery meant for crowded public areas and the other for electrically-operated machinery.

Mr. Kumar hopes to supply about 100 units every month to RMCL from January.

He said the controllers could sense and display problems in the motors of the cleaning machine and show how many hours it functioned.

Software tools

The latest machinery and software tools required for developing these features were available at the TBI (set up jointly by the college and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, at a total cost of Rs. 4 crores). The faculty provided expertise. The TBI also assisted in trial production of some of the products.

Product specifications

With teleconferencing and videoconferencing facilities at the TBI, Mr. Kumar communicated regularly with representatives of the RMCL for product specifications.

The Executive Director, S. Balamurugan, pointed out that the TBI had around 10 units now.

Other small and medium-scale units could also avail themselves of the facilities on a "use and pay" basis.

The TBI focussed on nurturing start-ups and small and medium-scale enterprises, especially in embedded systems, digital signal processing and electronic card design, assembly, testing and repairing.

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