Future electronic connectors are faster, smaller, smarter and more environmentally friendly

Small connectors, in fact, have a great reputation, because the connectors play a bridge role, is the technical path to achieve world interconnection. Only in the upstream of the industrial chain, connector companies have always been behind the scenes heroes, rarely exposed, so they are not familiar with the end-users. As the world's largest connector manufacturer, TE is also known as the "invisible giant", almost all of the electricity, signal, data flow has its shadow. If based on the whole business sector, new products come out every day, ranging from sensing technology in the automotive industry to contactless applications in the industrial field, or terminals on mobile terminals, ultra-small antennas, the business scope covers almost all countries from consumption, transportation, energy, industry and other fields.
When Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 become new market engines, component manufacturers like TE have a long way to go. According to James, the core of these market hotspots is simply the word "connection", the connection between cars, household appliances and security facilities, including in industrial applications, the connection between equipment. It's just that the requirements for connectors are getting higher and higher.
The requirements of future connectors are nothing more than faster, smaller, smarter and more environmentally friendly. But each industry has different emphasis, James said. For example, the automotive industry needs to ensure the reliability and quality of connectors in a harsh environment. For the consumer electronics industry, lightness and compactness are the most important, followed by reliability, but the reliability of both is not a level. To some extent, the speed at which consumer electronics products come out of date determines two other special requirements: cost control and shortening the R&D cycle.
In addition to technical iteration, the regional distribution of connectors also changes with the market share, and there are different degrees of tilt. Over the years, global connector production capacity has been shifting to Asia, especially China. Some analysts believe that Asia has become the most potential market for connectors, and China is expected to become the fastest growing and largest market for connectors in the world.
In the past, most connector suppliers made more use of China's low production costs, but now they are thinking more about how to serve this emerging market. TE's answer is to transform the original "Made in China" model into "Made in China" model.