Why it matters now: Buyers of control hardware rarely get a clean, forward-looking read on their own market. But a batch of component-market studies published on 22–23 August has quietly done exactly that — using industrial automation as the single most-cited demand engine in forecasts running through 2035. From pneumatic manifold connectors to thermal straps, the analysts are all describing the same machine: more axes, more I/O points, more networked field devices, and hotter, denser control cabinets. That is, in effect, a proxy forecast for global PLC demand.
The individual reports cover niche hardware. Read together, they form a coherent demand map for the controllers that coordinate it all.
Industrial Automation Becomes the Default Demand Narrative
The headline study projects the global manifold block connectors market expanding at a 5.9% CAGR between 2026 and 2035. Its stated drivers are unambiguous: accelerating industrial automation adoption, the spread of modular manufacturing platforms, and increasingly complex pneumatic and fluid distribution architectures.
Those architectures do not run themselves. Valve manifolds and distributed I/O blocks are sequenced by PLC logic — meaning every incremental manifold node is a downstream signal for controller and I/O card demand.
Adjacent studies published in the same window repeat the pattern with different materials and different end uses, but identical logic.
Forecast data: what the 22–23 August studies actually say
| Component market |
Automation-linked metric |
Control read-across |
| Manifold block connectors |
5.9% CAGR, 2026–2035; growth attributed to automation adoption and modular manufacturing platforms |
Valve-manifold sequencing, distributed digital output modules |
| Alumina ceramic tubing |
~24% of demand assigned to industrial automation and instrumentation |
Analog input channels, process sensing, high-temperature measurement loops |
| Thermal strap assemblies |
~12% of demand from industrial automation; 5.9% CAGR; driven by robots, cobots and AGVs |
Servo drive and controller heat dissipation in compact cabinets |
| Liquid-nitrogen valves |
Growth trend identified as electro-pneumatic actuation with digital communication protocols |
Fieldbus/industrial Ethernet nodes replacing discrete wiring |
Analyst Insight: None of these four studies set out to forecast the PLC market. That is precisely what makes them useful. When independent analysts covering ceramics, cryogenic valves and thermal hardware all land on industrial automation as the primary growth vector, the signal is structural rather than promotional — it reflects capital spending patterns, not vendor marketing.
What the Read-Across Means for PLC and Controller Demand
Component demand is a leading indicator for control demand because the causality runs one way. Manifolds, sensors and drives are terminal devices; they only ship when someone commissions a machine that needs a controller.
More axes, more I/O points
Modular manufacturing platforms — skid-based, reconfigurable production cells — multiply the number of small control islands per plant. That shifts the mix away from a handful of large racks and toward many compact controllers with distributed I/O and embedded motion.
It also favours architectures that can be expanded without a forklift upgrade. Modular PLC configurations already held the largest share of the market in 2025 at roughly 41.6%, according to Mordor Intelligence, precisely because engineers can add motion, safety or analytics cards alongside a plant upgrade.
Thermal density is now a control architecture problem
The thermal-strap findings deserve particular attention. Roughly 12% of that market's demand is attributed to industrial automation, driven by robots, cobots and AGVs whose servo drives, controllers and sensors must dump heat inside shrinking enclosures.
Panel builders are being asked to fit more compute, more drive power and more networking into less volume. Thermal headroom, not logic capability, is increasingly the binding constraint on compact controller selection.
Market context: how fast is the PLC market actually growing?
Published PLC forecasts diverge widely — a reminder to treat any single CAGR as a scenario, not a fact.
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Mordor Intelligence: USD 12.79 billion in 2025, rising to USD 16.4 billion by 2031 at a 4.24% CAGR; soft PLCs advancing faster at 7.22%.
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IMARC Group: USD 17.00 billion in 2025 to USD 25.26 billion by 2034 at a 4.47% CAGR, driven by Industry 4.0, EV line build-out and edge AI integration.
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Global Market Insights: USD 11.7 billion in 2025, with a considerably more bullish 11.4% CAGR from 2026 to 2035 tied to discrete-industry Industry 4.0 adoption.
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Wider context: Precedence Research values the total industrial automation market at USD 256.02 billion in 2025, reaching USD 613.25 billion by 2035 at a 9.13% CAGR, with Asia Pacific holding over 39% revenue share.
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Factory automation: DataM Intelligence projects USD 171.2 billion in 2026 to USD 325.2 billion by 2035, an 8.7% CAGR.
The spread between roughly 4% and 11% reflects differing definitions — whether software, engineering services and soft PLCs are counted inside the hardware market.
Robotics: The Physical Proxy for Controller Attach Rates
The thermal-strap study's reliance on robot, cobot and AGV deployment is supported by the hard installation data. The International Federation of Robotics recorded 542,076 industrial robots installed globally in 2024 — the fourth consecutive year above 500,000 units, and more than double the figure of a decade earlier.
Asia accounted for 74% of new deployments, Europe 16% and the Americas 9%. China alone represented 54% of the global total, with an operational stock of roughly 2.03 million units against 393,700 in the United States.
The IFR expects annual installations to surpass 700,000 units by 2028. Each of those installations arrives with drives, safety circuits, sensor clusters and — in cell-level integration — a controller coordinating the handshake with conveyors, grippers and vision systems.
Market Trend: The centre of gravity for PLC demand is following robot installations eastward. With Asia Pacific holding both the largest and fastest-growing share of automation spend, controller platforms that support regional fieldbus preferences, multi-language engineering environments and locally available spare modules hold a practical advantage over those that do not.
Procurement Implications for Panel Builders and OEMs
If the forecasts are directionally right, three specification pressures intensify between now and 2035.
First, integrated safety and motion. More axes per cell makes separate safety relays and standalone motion controllers a cost and cabinet-space liability. Consolidation onto a single controller platform is the cheaper path.
Second, edge capability as standard. The liquid-nitrogen valve study's emphasis on digital communication protocols is the tell: field devices are becoming data sources. Controllers are expected to pre-process, buffer and publish that data upward without a separate gateway.
Third, thermal and footprint discipline. Compact controllers with wide operating-temperature ratings and predictable derating curves will win specifications that older, bulkier platforms cannot meet — particularly in machine-mounted and AGV applications.
FAQ: interpreting automation-linked component forecasts
Why use component forecasts as a PLC proxy at all?
Because they measure the physical build-out. Manifolds, ceramic sensor sheaths and thermal straps ship against real machine orders, so their demand attribution reveals where automation capital is actually being deployed rather than where vendors hope it will be.
Does a 5.9% component CAGR imply 5.9% PLC growth?
No. Controllers carry higher software and licensing content and are subject to different replacement cycles. The component figures indicate direction and end-market mix, not a transferable growth rate.
What does "modular manufacturing platforms" mean in practice?
Reconfigurable production modules — often skid-mounted — that can be added, removed or re-sequenced without redesigning the line. Each module typically carries its own controller or remote I/O node, raising control-hardware intensity per unit of output.
Which segments should buyers watch most closely?
Compact and modular PLCs, integrated safety controllers, distributed I/O with valve-manifold interfaces, and soft PLC or edge-capable platforms — the four categories that all four studies implicitly point toward.
How reliable are 2035 forecasts?
Treat them as scenarios. Ten-year horizons in automation are sensitive to semiconductor capacity cycles, tariff regimes and regional capex swings. The consistency of the demand narrative across independent studies is more informative than any single number.
The Signal Beneath the Noise
Individually, a manifold connector forecast is a footnote. Collectively, four studies published within 48 hours describe an installed base that is becoming denser, more distributed, more networked and more thermally constrained.
That is the environment the control industry has spent a decade preparing for — and the reason industrial automation, rather than any single vertical, now anchors the demand case for the next generation of PLC platforms.
Figures cited are drawn from published third-party market studies and the International Federation of Robotics. Forecast values are estimates and subject to revision.
