Henkel has opened a new Customer Application Center in Bengaluru, India, which is intended for strengthening the electronics manufacturing industry in India. This center has been described as a “co-innovation platform” where customers can work alongside Henkel experts for developing, testing, and validating innovative adhesive and thermal management solutions.
This development has been seen as a major investment in the India Middle East and Africa region, as it fills a “critical gap in application testing facilities” for the region. Earlier, manufacturers in India were forced to rely on facilities in other countries for validation and optimization, which increased the overall cost and time required for development. This new center is expected to bridge this gap and bring these facilities closer to production environments.
Focus on localisation and faster time to market:
The electronics manufacturing industry in India has seen tremendous growth in the last decade, driven by increased demand for data centers, AI infrastructure, telecom infrastructure, electric vehicles, and industrial automation.
The facility spans over 5,000 sq ft and includes about 2,400 sq ft of dedicated lab and test space. The facility will offer companies the ability to simulate actual manufacturing conditions, thus allowing them to test the material and optimize processes before moving to actual production. The investment will largely go into advanced test equipment as well as infrastructure to collaborate with customers.
The facility will cater to key industries such as telecom and 5G, data centre and AI computing, power electronics and electric vehicle systems, industrial automation, and medical electronics. The capabilities will range from thermal management tests to precise dispensing, electrical tests, as well as quick curing processes.
Henkel’s team will collaborate with the engineers of the customers to co-create solutions based on actual manufacturing needs. This will help reduce the development cycles of products.
This will also help companies align with the government’s push for localisation under the ‘Make in India’ initiative as well as the production-linked incentives. The facility will help accelerate the development cycles of products as well as the scaling up of advanced electronic systems manufacturing in the country.
