Industrial machinery and robotics

The machines on the line, the drives, pumps, robots and machines built for one industry

In a dairy, milk flows through pumps and pipes, is heated and cooled, and is sealed into packets. A printer marks the date on each packet as it passes. A production line like this is built from machines, and each kind of machine has its own makers.

A dairy line and who makes each machine: pumps from makers such as Xylem and Flowserve Corporation move the milk, GEA Group's equipment processes it, Multivac Technology Solutions' machines seal it into packets and a Videojet Technologies printer marks the date, while drives, motors, compressed air and robots work underneath.

What a line is built from

Machines that move things

Electric motors turn almost everything in a factory. A drive controls a motor's speed, so that it uses only the power it needs. Bearings let shafts turn smoothly, and gearboxes change their speed. Pumps move liquids, and valves open and close the flow.

Machines that push air and fluid

A compressor squeezes air or gas. Compressed air moves many parts of an automated line, which is called pneumatics. Oil under pressure moves heavier loads, which is called hydraulics.

Robots and automated stations

They pick, place, assemble, glue and inspect.

Machines made for one industry

such as a dairy, a flour mill or a tile works.

Who makes them, who buys them. The makers are mostly European, American and Japanese engineering companies. Their buyers are factories, and the companies that build production lines for factories. A machine maker earns twice. It earns when it sells the machine, and again over the next 20 or 30 years, from spare parts and service. The second part is often the more profitable one.

A machine maker earns twice: once when it sells the machine, and again over the next 20 or 30 years from spare parts and service, which is often the more profitable part.

Why machine makers hire software engineers. Every modern machine carries a controller, sensors and software. Its maker also writes the tools that customers use to choose, set up and monitor the machine. Most of these makers run engineering and software centres in India.

Automation in India. Indian factories have automated more slowly than those in richer countries, because labour costs less here.

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.

This Market Segment has three sub-segments:

Drives, motors, pumps and air: the machines that move things, and that push air and fluid

Robots and the automated line: robots, assembly lines and the machines that mark each pack

Machines for one industry: machines built for food, tiles, metal cutting and other single industries

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Drives, motors, pumps and air
Robots and the automated line
Machines for one industry

Drives, motors, pumps and air

Variable-speed drives, motors and bearings, pumps and valves, compressors, pneumatics, industrial heating, clamps

Drives, motors and bearings

Danfoss

the Danish group, with engineers in Pune and Chennai, makes drives, compressors for cooling, and hydraulics for heavy machines. Danfoss has the most job postings of any company covered mainly in this Market Segment. (More on it in Market Segment 37.9, Building technology and HVAC.)

Regal Rexnord

with engineers in Hyderabad, makes motors, bearings and gearboxes. (More on it in Market Segment 37.6, Connectors and industrial sensors.)

SKF Group

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes bearings.

Pumps and valves

Xylem

with engineers in Bengaluru and Chennai, makes pumps and water-treatment equipment.

Flowserve Corporation

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes pumps and valves for process plants, such as refineries and chemical plants.

Compressors and compressed air

Copeland

with engineers in Pune, makes compressors for air conditioning and refrigeration. (More on it in Market Segment 30.4, Shipment tracking and supply chain visibility platforms, in Industry Vertical 30, Supply chain and logistics.)

Ingersoll Rand

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes air compressors and pumps. Ingersoll Rand Compressor Systems & Services is part of the same business.

SMC

with engineers in Delhi, makes the pneumatic cylinders and valves used on automated lines.

Heating and clamps

Watlow

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes industrial heaters and their controllers.

Oetiker Group

with engineers in Pune, makes clamps and connectors.

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

Syncron

with engineers in Bengaluru, sells software with which machine makers price and plan their spare parts. (More on it in Market Segment 15.6, Field service and appointment booking software, in Industry Vertical 15, Customer service and CX.)

Robots and the automated line

Collaborative robots, automated assembly systems, dispensing and inspection, coding and marking, training factories, mobile robots

Robots

Universal Robots

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes collaborative robot arms. An ordinary industrial robot works inside a cage, to keep people safe. A collaborative robot is built to work beside people, without a cage.

CynLr

founded in Bengaluru, with engineers there, builds robots that can see an object they have never met before, and pick it up.

Building the line

ATS Corporation

with engineers in Bengaluru, builds automated assembly lines to each customer's order.

SPM India Ltd

builds special-purpose machines and assembly lines for carmakers. A special-purpose machine is built to do one job for one customer.

Stations on the line

Nordson Corporation

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes systems that dispense adhesives, and systems that inspect electronics.

Videojet Technologies

makes the printers that mark dates and codes on every pack on a line.

Training for automation

Festo

the German automation maker, builds its training systems, learning factories and simulation software in Bengaluru. A learning factory is a small working production line, on which students learn automation. Its Indian arm is Festo India. (More on it in Market Segment 42.3, School and university management software, in Industry Vertical 42, Edtech.)

Two companies covered mainly in another Market Segment bring mobile robots to factories:

Botsync

with engineers in Bengaluru, and Ati Motors. Mobile robots carry materials around a factory or a warehouse by themselves. (More on both in Market Segment 30.2, Warehouse management systems (WMS) and warehouse robotics, in Industry Vertical 30, Supply chain and logistics.)

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Machines for one industry

Food, dairy and packaging machinery, grain processing, ceramics machinery, cutting tools, locomotives, sterilisers, bioprocess equipment

Food and packaging

GEA Group

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes processing equipment for dairies, breweries and pharmaceutical plants.

Buhler Group

makes the mills that grind grain, and the machines that make pasta and chocolate.

Multivac Technology Solutions

with engineers in Hyderabad, makes packaging machines for food.

Ceramics

SACMI

with engineers in Mumbai, makes machines that produce ceramic tiles, sanitaryware and bottle caps. Sanitaryware means washbasins and toilets.

Cutting metal

Sandvik

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes cutting tools and mining machines. Through Mastercam, it also makes the software that programs machine tools. (More on Mastercam in Market Segment 37.2, CAD and PLM software.)

Seco Tools

part of the same group, makes cutting tools.

Three companies covered mainly in other Market Segments make machines for their own industries:

Wabtec Corp.

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes locomotives and rail equipment. Wabtec has more job postings than any company covered mainly in this Market Segment. (More on it in Market Segment 38.9, Railway technology and signalling, in Industry Vertical 38, Automotive and mobility.)

STERIS

with engineers in Pune, makes sterilisers, which kill germs on medical instruments. (More on it in Market Segment 24.4, Medical device makers, in Industry Vertical 24, Hospitals, diagnostics and medical devices.)

Sartorius

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes the bioreactors and filters used in making medicines. A bioreactor is a vessel in which living cells are grown. (More on it in Market Segment 25.2, Life science instruments and lab software, in Industry Vertical 25, Pharma and life sciences.)

The robot that learns the task.

Industrial robots have always been programmed point by point, by specialists. AI models now let a robot learn a task by watching. The robot can pick up parts it has never seen, and take instructions in plain language. In India, labour is cheap and automation has been slow. A robot that needs no specialist to set it up changes that calculation.

That is the machinery of a production line: machines that move things, robots that assemble, and machines built for one industry. Their makers are mostly foreign engineering companies, and most of them run engineering and software centres in India.

Who they hire

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

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