Connectors and industrial sensors

The wires, connectors and sensors that hold every machine together

The charging port on a phone is a connector. A car has thousands of connectors, and a data centre has millions. Every machine, car and data centre is held together by parts that no one notices: connectors, cables, enclosures and sensors.

The parts

Connectors

join wires to each other and to equipment, so that a part can be plugged in and replaced.

Cables and cable assemblies

A cable assembly is a set of cables cut to length and fitted with connectors, ready to install.

Enclosures

are the boxes and cabinets that protect electrical and electronic equipment from dust, water and heat.

Sensors

measure the physical world, such as pressure, position, strain, gas, heat and vibration. A sensor turns what it measures into an electrical signal.

The parts no one notices: enclosures from makers such as nVent, connectors from TE Connectivity, Molex and Amphenol, cable assemblies from Lapp Group and sensors from Sensata Technologies and HBK, with software that reads each sensor and sends alerts to the cloud.

How the business works. These makers sell billions of parts a year, at a low price for each one. The sale is won early. When a carmaker or a machine maker designs a new product, its engineers choose each connector and sensor. Once a part is chosen as the part inside a product, the maker supplies it for as long as that product is made. The industry calls this being designed in. The parts must also be very reliable. One failed connector can stop a car or a whole production line.

Being designed in: the sale is won when a carmaker or machine maker's engineers choose a part, and the maker then supplies it for as long as that product is made.

Who buys. The buyers are the makers of cars, machines, medical devices and data-centre equipment. They buy directly, or through distributors.

Why these makers hire software engineers. Sensors now come with software. It reads the sensor, analyses the data and sends alerts to the cloud. Several makers design their parts, and the software that goes with their sensors, in Bengaluru.

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

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Connectors, cables, enclosures and sensors

Connectors, cables, enclosures and sensors

Connectors and cables

TE Connectivity

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes connectors and sensors for cars, factories and data centres. It has the most job postings in this Market Segment.

Molex and Amphenol

make connectors, cable assemblies and fibre links.

Lapp Group

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes industrial cables.

Enclosures

nVent

makes the enclosures and cabinets that house electrical and electronic equipment.

Sensors and measurement

Sensata Technologies

with engineers in Pune, makes pressure and position sensors for cars and machines. (More on it in Market Segment 38.7, Auto components and EV batteries, in Industry Vertical 38, Automotive and mobility.)

HBK (Hottinger Brüel & Kjær)

with engineers in Chennai, makes strain gauges, load cells, and sensors for sound and vibration. A strain gauge measures how much a part stretches under load. A load cell measures weight or force. HBK also makes the software that analyses their data.

JENOPTIK

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes optics, lasers and measuring systems.

Hach

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes instruments that analyse water.

Watching for danger

Industrial Scientific

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes gas detectors that workers wear, and the cloud service that tracks them.

Qualitrol

monitors transformers for faults. Transformers are the large machines that change voltage on the power grid. (More on the grid in Market Segment 40.2, Smart grid and smart meter technology, in Industry Vertical 40, Energy and climate tech.)

IRISS Inc.

makes infrared windows. These are fitted into electrical panels, so that an inspector can check for hot spots with a thermal camera without opening the panel.

HEN Technologies

makes connected fire nozzles and pumps for firefighters.

Halma plc

is a British group of safety and detection companies. (More on it in Market Segment 24.4, Medical device makers, in Industry Vertical 24, Hospitals, diagnostics and medical devices.)

One company covered mainly in another Market Segment also works here:

Regal Rexnord

with engineers in Hyderabad, makes motors and bearings. (More on it in Market Segment 37.5, Industrial machinery and robotics.)

The part that reports on itself.

A sensor used to send only a reading. Now it carries enough computing power to process the reading itself. It can detect a gas leak, a failing transformer or a crack on the device, and report only what matters. The makers are adding small AI models to the sensor itself. The connector has changed too. In an AI data centre, connectors carry more data than ever, and have become precision products in their own right.

That is the business of the parts no one notices: connectors, cables, enclosures and sensors, sold by the billion and chosen early in a product's design. Several of their makers design them, and the software for their sensors, in Bengaluru.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What manufacturing tech companies hire for.

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