Sep. 16, 2010 — I happened to meet up with Shiv Bhambri, CEO of RS Components & Controls (India) Ltd., which is based in NOIDA, near New Delhi, the capital of India.

RS Components is a leading industrial component distributor with a wide range of Industrial products in research and development, maintenance and prototype development. Headquartered in Corby, U.K., RS Components offers its customers the convenience of choosing from a range of over 300,000 world-class products from 2000 leading global brands.

The company’s agenda is to be the most cost-effective and reliable way for its customers to purchase their small-volume products. These are said to be their key differentiators: 

    • Offering over 300,000 world-class products. 
    • Products in stock from over 2,000 leading global brands. 
    • Free four-day door-delivery for these 300,000 imported products against INR payment anywhere in India.

Besides launching a new service on “Text Price Mobile services,” during Electronica 2010, RS Components also showcased products in MRO (maintenance, repair and operational) and test & measurement equipment.

Naturally, my instinct was to look for optoelectronics products, which are in abundance on the website – 6,788! The key ones that I found in optoelectronics were: 

    • Laser diodes: 9 
    • Laser modules: 85 
    • LEDs: 3,863 
    • LED accessories: 243 
    • LED lamps: 662 
    • Photoamplifiers: 34 

    • Photodetectors - logic output: 34 
    • Photodetector arrays: 36 
    • Photodiodes: 220

I had a closer look at laser modules and photodiodes. The variety of laser modules includes: 

    • Laser diode module accessories:17 
    • Laser diode modules: 57 
    • Laser diodes: 4

The laser modules are available from Global Laser, Honeywell and Picolas. Perhaps, RS Components could do well by offering more variety here, if possible.

The variety of photodiodes includes: 

    • Detectors - human eye sensitivity: 7 
    • Detectors - infrared: 53 
    • Detectors - infrared - metal can: 19 
    • Detectors - ultraviolet: 29 
    • Detectors - visible light: 55 
    • Slotted optical switches & reflective sensors: 2

The photodiodes are available from quite a large variety of suppliers such as Avago, Centronic, EG & G Vactec, Hamamatsu Photonic, Kodenshi, Lite-On, Optek, Osram Opto Semiconductors, SG LUX, Sharp, Vishay, etc.

Bhambri said that the company is targeting three main segments – the electronic design engineer, prototype engineer and maintenance engineer, respectively.

RS Components has recently made two upgrades on its website – by adding an Electronics Center and a Design Spark. The latter is an online gateway to connect the electronics community.

Pradeep