1. Purpose
This is indeed basic, but it's very necessary for designing the most reliable wire harness possible for your application. What do you need your wire-harness design to do, other than transmit electrical signals and power between different components in your system?
2. Wire selection
Always review relevant standards, which provide guidance on the selection of suitable wires for specific applications. This will ensure that the wire you ultimately choose meets the necessary requirements. That said, here are the major factors to consider when designing your wire-harness assembly.
– Wire specifications
What are your electrical requirements? This is determined by the wire's gauge or thickness. Choosing the right gauge wire demands that you consider the carrying capacity and amount of current the wire needs to conduct. This is measured in amps. Length matters too. The longer the wire, the more voltage is lost through resistance and heat. You can get around this problem by increasing your wire gauge, which of course, will increase your amp capacity.
– Environmental conditions
The suitable wire can be used easily in your application's environment. For example, if the harness will be exposed to high temperatures, a wire with a high-temperature rating should be selected. If the harness will be exposed to moisture, then choose a wire with a moisture-resistant coating.
– Mechanical properties
Correct and efficient outputs are also determined by the wire's ability to withstand mechanical stresses. This includes bending or twisting without breaking or losing its electrical properties. The wire should also have good abrasion resistance if it will be exposed to rubbing or scraping.
3. Wire connection
Connectors create an electrical circuit while helping to protect your wires from environmental conditions, such as abrasion and EMI.
The selection of connectors should be based on their electrical and mechanical properties. The wires themselves will influence your connectors, so you'll need to have an idea of the wires' material, gauge and length.
Circuit size and density, along with space limitations, should also be considered. It's also helpful to think of the ease of joining wires and disconnecting wires if necessary. And, of course, do you need insulation?
The termination end type matters too
You'll need the appropriate connectors for board-to-board, wire-to-wire, or board-to-wire. Give thought to your connector hardware too. Your clamping device and other hardware are used to install and support the connector, so it needs to be of excellent quality.
4. Routing
The routing of wires plays a major role in successful cable harness design. First, ensure that wires are routed in a way to make accessibility easy. Optimum positioning is key. You want the harness to be easy to install and maintain. If any wires need replacing or repairing, that should be easy too.
You also need to take into account any potential sources of EMI that could affect the performance of your wiring harnesses. The routing in your cable and wire harness design should minimize the risk of interference and prevent any signal degradation.
5. Strain relief
Designing wire harness assemblies for strain relief will prevent headaches. Failure to do this can result in wires becoming loose or breaking due to vibration, pulling, or other forces. This is especially important in applications where the wire harness is exposed to high levels of mechanical stress.
6. Wire-harness diagram
It's critical to get it right in the early stages, so it's advisable to not attempt your wire-harness diagram by hand. The well-designed wiring diagram is created using a good wire-harness design tool such as computer-aided design or ECAD.
Identify potential issues
With the right software you can improve accuracy and design quality while ensuring you meet industry standards and specifications. These tools can help you identify potential issues, such as wire-to-wire interference, voltage drop, or wire length limitations, which can result in errors or quality issues.
Speeding up the design process
They also speed up the design process and significantly reduce errors and rework. Which integrates seamlessly with its schematic cousin, shows you components from every viewpoint and offers splice balancing functions with comprehensive splice diagram generation, illustrating how to construct each splice. You can add labels in your wire-harness diagram for connectors and splices.
Ensure flexibility
You need to ensure that the wire harness is flexible enough to allow for movement and bending as necessary, while still maintaining its structural integrity. The suite enables you to do this. All of this adds up to tremendous cost savings, helping you optimize the design phase. Manual wiring harness diagrams are simply an inefficient way to work.
7. Protective covering
The wire harness should be covered with a protective sheath or sleeve to protect it from damage. Providing an extra layer of insulation will protect your wires and cables. This involves understanding the environmental conditions the wire harness will be subjected to and the material of your protective covering.
