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Chennai, July 7 TAFE Power Source, a division of Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE), has set up a battery manufacturing plant at Maraimalainagar with an investment of Rs 100 crore. This is TAFE Power’s third facility and was inaugurated on Friday by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr M. Karunanidhi.

TAFE Power manufactures packaged power, and is a unit of the Amalgamations Group. The company currently has two plants — one exclusively for motorcycle batteries and another for automotive and industrial batteries. Between them, the two plants have a capacity to produce 7 million batteries a year.

The new plant will produce Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries. TAFE Power has tied up with “BB Battery Co Ltd”, China, for technology. The Chinese company has committed to buy 25-30 per cent of the new plant’s capacity, of 3 million batteries.

TAFE Power’s turnover for 2006-07 was Rs 120 crore The company, growing at 40 per cent, year-on-year basis, has projected an additional Rs 50 crore from this new plant for this year.

The market size for this range alone is about Rs 1,200 crore, which is growing between 20 per cent and 30 per cent each year. Lead acid batteries hold a pre-eminent position among all rechargeable batteries as reliable electricity in a lightweight package and are cost-effective.

Valve Regulated Lead Acid batteries are totally sealed batteries, where the gas recombination process takes place and electrochemical reaction takes care of water loss and thus it does not require any topping up throughout its lifetime.

The major advantages of VRLA batteries are that they are smaller in size and are maintenance-free. Because they are sealed, there is no danger of acid spillage or fumes and they can be stacked in any position.

There batteries are used in applications for uninterruptible power supply, telecommunication system, solar power system, emergency lighting system, weighing scales, medical equipment, security systems, power tools and toys, electric vehicles (scooter and bicycles) and electrical gadgets. Single cell units (2Volt batteries) are predominantly used for telecommunication and train lighting applications.

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