DPI Celebrates First Decade of Intelligent Battery Charger Manufacturing
PINEY FLATS, Tenn. - Diversified Power International (DPI) of Piney Flats, Tenn., has helped "juice up" the world - literally - since it was launched 10 years ago.
A manufacturer of battery chargers, the company was started in Bristol, Tenn., on June 21, 1997, by a couple of engineers looking to unleash their creative intelligence in the battery charger industry.
"We started literally from nothing in a 20-foot by 20-foot space," says Jerry Fagan, DPI co-founder and president. "We had no employees or customers."
Fagan and his friend and co-founder, Tony Trigiani, readily admit that their start-up was slow. By the end of their first year, DPI had "less than five active customers," says Fagan, comparing that to the list of 300 the company now supports.
But there was a reason for that modest start. The two men were stepping "outside the box" to develop what is known as "intelligent battery charging systems."
"We spent the first year developing what the product was going to be," Fagan says. "Intelligent battery charging is basically looking at what happens when you're charging the battery and making decisions about how to achieve optimum charge performance. You can't do that with typical battery chargers."
Most battery chargers are pre-wired, which results in either an overcharge or undercharge of the battery. DPI's technology involves manufacturing each charger with a microprocessor that contains sophisticated mathematic calculations or algorithms for determining each battery's appropriate recharge requirement. The calculations result in a 100 percent recharging capacity - not the 40 to 70 percent found with most chargers.
The process involves working closely with customers to customize charger calculations or to suggest a more appropriate battery size.
"Sometimes customers don't know what they really need," notes Fagan. "If a smaller battery can be charged to 100 percent capacity at a lesser cost, why use a large, more expensive battery that only charges to 70 percent? We knew we could bring customers significant cost savings with the technology."
Both electrical engineers, Fagan and Trigiani met while working in Canada for Exide Corporation, a leading producer of stationary lead acid and SLI batteries. In 1992, the men were transferred to Bristol, Tenn., and fell in love with the location's more moderate pace of life and family-oriented culture. When a company merge threatened to transfer Fagan back to his hometown of Chicago, Ill., he bucked.
The two men began seriously discussing the application of "intelligent battery" charging.
"We knew how to tailor chargers based on our experience in the industry," said Trigiani. "We decided it was worth taking a leap of faith."
Although it was a daring move to enter a $3 billion industry that has thousands of competitors worldwide, the company has achieved phenomenal success.
DPI's revenues have managed to grow exponentially over the past decade, increasing roughly 60 percent year after year. The company grew its revenues by 95 percent in 2005 and by 52 percent in 2006.
Although DPI initially focused on producing chargers for the "motive power" industry, such as fork lifts and golf carts, it soon moved into other areas - including the servicing of retail and industrial products, medical equipment, and military defense missiles and robotics. The latter includes building a charger for Waltzing MATILDA, a robot that has been used in Afghanistan by bomb squads.
In the future, DPI will focus on markets currently not dominated by Chinese companies. These include manufacturing chargers for medical equipment, such as portable computer systems, and for motive power products, such as electric vehicles used in retirement homes and closed communities.
Diversified Power International has 40 employees and manufactures intelligent battery charging systems utilizing new technologies and innovations developed in-house.
The company offers standard inventory of high-volume, cost-targeted, off-the-shelf products, as well as custom designs for lead acid batteries, nickel metal hydride, nickel cadmium and lithium-ion batteries. DPI offers custom electronics, custom software, enclosures, manufacturing and testing.
For further information contact
Jerry Fagan, president, at 800-334-5091
or visit DPI online at www.DPIpower.com
