On 20 March 2026, HARTING India hosted a web-seminar titled ‘Reinvent Machine Design with Modular Connectivity.’ The session drew machine builders, OEMs, automation engineers, and system integrators from across India. Two speakers led the session: Jakob Dück, Global Industry Segment Manager for Machinery at HARTING Germany, who presented the broader industry context and product demonstrations, and Anup Kapadia, Technical Application Consultant at HARTING India, who walked attendees through the company’s configurator tools and Ethernet connectivity portfolio. Between the two of them, they covered a lot of ground: from macro trends in global machinery output to hands-on connector selection demos.
The machine industry is changing fast and connectivity has not kept up
Jakob Dück opened by placing the session in context. The global machinery sector, he noted, has been through a turbulent few years: a steep drop during COVID, a strong recovery, and now a period of uncertainty about where output goes next. Within that uncertain picture, India stands out. Dück was direct about it: India is one of the most important markets for HARTING right now, and the growth trajectory of Indian manufacturing is a significant part of why the session was directed at Indian machine builders specifically.
Dück then made a point that framed the rest of the session. In the early 1990s, the cost of building a machine was dominated by mechanical components. Today, software and electronics account for 50% to 80% of the functional value of most machines. PLCs, industrial PCs, control systems; these are now where the real engineering effort lives. And that shift has changed what connectivity needs to do.
The challenge, as he put it, is that machine builders are being asked to handle growing complexity on their end while also making their machines easier for end users to operate, reconfigure, and maintain. The only practical way to do both is to build machines that are genuinely scalable; and scalability, in his view, rests on three things: modularity, digital networking, and increasingly, AI-assisted design and adaptation.
Modular connectivity: what it looks like across different industries
Dück walked through the industries where HARTING works: stamping and laser machines, metal and woodworking, assembly lines, food and packaging, semiconductor manufacturing, and automotive. The point he kept returning to was that despite how different these sectors look on the surface, the connectivity requirements inside the machines are often similar. The same interface challenges, combining power, signal, data, and sometimes pneumatics, appear across applications.
He used DMG Mori, a Japanese-German machine tool manufacturer, as an example of how sophisticated builders now think about their machines, as modular systems composed of defined functional units, each with known interfaces.
The product demonstration focused on HARTING’s Han® connector range, specifically the modular Han system, which allows engineers to combine power, signal, pneumatic, data, and fibre optic modules into a single connector housing. Dück showed how a customer had moved from a Han 16B housing with four module slots to a smaller 6B with two slots, simply by using higher-density modules, cutting the connector footprint roughly in half without losing any functionality. It was a practical example of miniaturisation driven by smarter interface design.
Ethernet connectivity: more options than most engineers realise
A significant portion of the session covered Ethernet connectivity, an area Dück acknowledged is sometimes overlooked when people think of HARTING, whose heavy-duty rectangular connectors tend to dominate the brand’s reputation.
The demonstration covered a broad portfolio: RJ45 connectors for standard IP20 environments, push-pull variants for faster mating, metal-housed connectors for higher EMC protection, and field-wireable options for machines where termination happens on-site. One product that drew attention was the Vario Boot connector, a cable-end connector whose exit angle can be adjusted and locked in different directions. For anyone who has wrestled with cable management inside a packed control cabinet, the appeal is obvious.
Dück also showed the ix Industrial® connector, a compact industrial alternative to RJ45 that is more vibration-resistant and takes up less panel space. HARTING has developed an unmanaged eight-port Ethernet switch built around this format, which gives a sense of how far the ecosystem extends beyond individual connectors.
Anup Kapadia then covered the Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) range, technology that carries Ethernet communication over a single pair of conductors rather than four. HARTING claims to be among the first connector manufacturers to produce SPE connectors commercially. The practical numbers: up to 10 Gbps over 40 metres, and lower speeds over distances up to one kilometre. For machine builders working with distributed sensors and edge devices, SPE opens up wiring architectures that were previously difficult to achieve.
Building a connector spec with the configurator
Kapadia demonstrated HARTING’s online configurator, a tool that walks engineers through the connector selection process and produces a complete bill of materials at the end, including STEP files for CAD integration.
The demo used a Han® Modular connector as an example. Starting with a 16B hood — which accommodates four module slots, Kapadia selected a 40-ampere power module, a 12-pin signal module, a pneumatic module, and a dummy module in the fourth slot. The dummy module point was worth noting: it holds the space open for a future addition, whether that is a high-speed data module or something else, without requiring any physical change to the housing. The panel-side connector is then configured to match, with the tool automatically filtering to show only compatible modules.
The configurator covers five connector families, handles housing selection, including surface mount, cable-to-cable, and bulkhead options, and outputs a ready-to-order parts list. For engineering teams that spend time manually cross-referencing catalogues, it is a practical time-saver.
Screw terminations, miniaturisation, and when to go custom
The session closed with audience questions, moderated by Suma Medaj, Marketing Communications Manager of HARTING India. Three questions stood out.
On screw-type connectors: Dück confirmed that screw termination is available across the Han® range — Han® B, Han® A, and Han® 3A/4A sizes all have screw-terminated options. He acknowledged that screw termination adds some bulk compared to crimp, but for applications where it is the preferred method, the availability is there across sizes.
On miniaturisation: Dück returned to the real customer example he had referenced earlier in the session, the one who moved from a four-slot 16B housing to a two-slot 6B. By using the Han® Domino module format, which packs more contacts into a smaller footprint, the customer achieved the same connectivity in roughly half the connector space. For machine builders trying to reduce control cabinet size or consolidate interfaces on compact machines, it is a concrete example of what is possible.
On custom and over-moulded solutions: Dück showed several examples from HARTING’s customised solutions division — over-moulded M12 sensor connectors, X-coded connectors for gigabit Ethernet in vibration-heavy environments, and a circular S15 connector developed for logistics applications combining three power and three signal pins in a single bayonet-locked housing. His point was direct: for applications where standard catalogue products do not quite fit, HARTING’s engineering teams can develop application-specific solutions, and for higher volumes, that is often the most cost-effective path.
The bottom line
The webinar covered a lot of ground in sixty minutes, from macro industry trends to hands-on product demonstrations. The thread running through it was consistent: the machines being built today are more software-driven and more modular than their predecessors, and the connectivity infrastructure holding them together needs to match that architecture. For engineers who missed the live session, HARTING India can be reached directly for questions or product consultations.
