Purpose of Wire Harnesses
Wire harness, which is also known as wiring harness, is used to cover certain types of electronic wiring. These protective layers guard against wear and tear, from the environment and other factors that may damage the wires. Understanding the wire harness manufacturing process will help you in your endeavor to find the right wire harness manufacturer. Wire harnesses also make wires easier to transport because wires are more organized with wire harnesses.
Custom wire harnesses are a go-to solution for wire protection and management because every situation is unique. Different jobs require different setups, resulting in a wide variety of specific harness design needs. Specifics for a project would include things like the number of wires or the size of the wire. In the following list, we’ll be breaking down the different factors, and how they may affect your project.
4 Steps of the Wire Harness Manufacturing Process
The wire harness manufacturing process can be as simple or complex as the request is.
Initial Designing
When you know what you are getting the wire harness for, the design will be started to find what is necessary to fit each part. During the design process, engineers will determine the right components to use, along with any other specifications. The goal with your design is to maximize efficiency, functionality, along with being reliable for the product and experience with it.
Create a Prototype
Creating a prototype allows you and the engineer to test out the product, hands-on. With the newfound information from testing the prototype, adjustments can be made and this step can repeat itself with a new prototype or you can progress into production.
Production
After designing and creating the prototype, now it is time to start the production process. The wire harness manufacturing process uses a combination of manufacturing machines along with a significant amount of manual work. From the complexity of some steps within the wire harness manufacturing process, that is where the manual labor aspect comes into play.
The production process usually includes stripping wires and then cutting them to the appropriate length, this is usually done with an automated process. The stripped wires are then attached to terminals, modules, or connector housings. When connecting terminals onto wires, you will need to crimp the terminals. During the manual process, fabric tape will need to be applied to secure any wire strands.
Test
Now that the product is created, it is time to test it. Testing means going through the processes of ensuring safety, with standard safety tests. Once all testing is completed and successful, the product is ready to pack up and send to the customer. Some of the tests performed are hipot testing and resistance testing.
Issues to Look Out For
When you do the necessary due diligence on the wire harness manufacturer that you choose, mistakes should be rare. However, you should keep an eye out for possible production issues. Look out for wires attached to the wrong piece of hardware or a missing connector. The crimps should be checked since an improper crimp could cause a short circuit or open circuit with the attached product. A simple issue is a poor layout for a wire harness, if the wire harness is too large or too small could indicate wire trimming issues from the wire harness manufacturing process.
How Wire Harness Manufacturing Process Affects You
When looking for one or many wire harnesses, understanding the process helps you understand what you need to know. Leaving the wire harness manufacturer with as much important information to understand the project will decrease the room for error. Getting a prototype and using that to solve any issues is an important step.