Henkel announced the launch of its new Customer Application Center in Bengaluru, strengthening its commitment to India’s fast-growing electronics manufacturing ecosystem. The state-of-the-art facility is designed as a collaborative innovation hub where Henkel’s experts and customers can co-develop, test, and validate advanced adhesive and thermal management solutions for next-generation electronics.
Strengthening Local Innovation Capabilities
With this launch, Henkel is making one of its most significant application engineering investments in the India, Middle East, and Africa (IMEA) region. More importantly, the center addresses a long-standing gap in India’s electronics value chain—the lack of localized, world-class testing and validation infrastructure. As a result, manufacturers can now develop, qualify, and scale advanced materials solutions within India itself, eliminating the delays and high costs associated with sending projects overseas.
Riding the Wave of India’s Electronics Boom
India’s electronics manufacturing sector has expanded nearly six-fold over the past decade. Furthermore, this growth continues to accelerate, driven by key sectors such as Data centers and AI computing infrastructure, 5G and fiber network expansion, Electric vehicle (EV) charging systems, Industrial automation and advanced medical devices. Each of these industries relies heavily on high-performance adhesives, thermal management materials, and protective coatings. Consequently, the demand for faster, localized application engineering support has never been greater.
Why Bengaluru is the Ideal Location
Bengaluru naturally emerged as the preferred location for this advanced facility. The city hosts a dense concentration of semiconductor design talent, electronics R&D centers, and global OEM engineering teams. By establishing the center here, Henkel positions its expertise directly alongside the engineers and manufacturers who are driving innovation in India’s electronics ecosystem.
Leadership Perspective
Sunil Kumar, Country President – India, Henkel, highlighted, “India’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem is at a critical inflection point, with Bengaluru at its core. Manufacturers increasingly require not just high-quality materials, but also a local partner capable of co-developing, testing, and validating solutions under real production conditions. This center is designed to accelerate the journey from concept to commercialization while reinforcing Henkel’s long-term commitment to India”.
Facility Overview and Capabilities
The 5,000 sq. ft. facility includes approximately 2,400 sq. ft. of dedicated laboratory and testing space. Notably, it has been designed to replicate real-world electronics manufacturing environments, enabling customers to optimize materials and processes before scaling up production.
Supporting Make in India and Faster Time-to-Market
The new center aligns closely with India’s Make in India and Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) initiatives. By bringing application engineering, process optimization, and reliability validation onshore, Henkel enables manufacturers to operate more efficiently. Previously, many Indian companies had to rely on overseas facilities—or delay critical testing altogether. Now, they can complete these processes locally, significantly reducing development cycles and accelerating time-to-market.
A Collaborative Co-Innovation Model
What truly sets this facility apart is its collaborative approach. Henkel’s application experts will work closely with customer engineering teams, co-developing solutions tailored to specific device architectures and manufacturing requirements. As per the press release, the hands-on partnership transforms the center from a conventional testing lab into a dynamic co-innovation platform—one that is poised to play a pivotal role in advancing India’s electronics manufacturing capabilities.
