10 Basics to Know About Wire and Cable Harness Electronics

Wire Harnesses are a vital part of an electronics’ design; a faulty wire or wire that breaks easily can kill your device, so here are the basics to know for a great design. I’ll also explain the difference between wire and cable harnesses.

Table of Contents

1- WIRE HARNESS AND CABLE HARNESS ARE NOT THE SAME

At its most basic level, we refer to a simple exterior cover containing some wires or cables when referring to a wire harness. It’s usually made of a material that helps protect the wires from their environment.

Wire harnesses for electronics are used in the wiring inside the electronics. Have a look at this photo.

Cable harnesses are meant for external use, and therefore more robust materials of higher quality are used for the cover or sheath.

By nature, both wire harnesses and cable harnesses contain cables and wires. The main difference is their engineering, which needs to suit the application.

Wire harnesses are low-cost means that provide cables and wires a certain degree of protection while keeping them organized for ease of installation and future post-sale service.

Cable harnesses provide strong protection that keeps wires and cables snugged within a rugged outer sheath.

Cable harnesses are built for demanding environments where heat, friction, or moisture are a high and constant threat.

2- WIRE HARNESS COULD RUIN YOUR ELECTRONICS

A faulty wire within the harness or improper wire harness assembly that causes a bad connection can destroy your electronic device.

That’s right, with everything that goes into electronic product development, one would think that wires are the least of your concerns; well, that’s wrong.

Make sure your source your wires from a reliable source.

3- WIRE HARNESS CAN SLOW DOWN ASSEMBLY

  • Faulty wires
  • Loose wires
  • Multiple wires for different purposes that look too much alike
  • Many wire harnesses in the same assembly station
  • Many wires that fit into more than one terminal

These scenarios can unleash a series of events that will slow down assembly.

This happens when there’s a lack of a design for assembly approach when the product development team designs the electronic.

4- THE WIRE HARNESS AND CABLE HARNESS MATERIAL

For wire harness, you will go for

  • Rubber
  • Vinyl
  • Electrical Tape
  • An electrical conduit

For cable harness

For this, you have to use heavy-duty materials such as

  • Shrink-wrapped thermoplastic
  • Thermoplastic rubber

5- THE PURPOSE OF WIRE HARNESS AND CABLE HARNESS

The purpose of bundling cables together is to keep cables organized and make it easier for operators to assemble an electronic device correctly.

This is also how engineers and electrical contractors can organize their wiring systems.

That’s what you need to keep in mind during design.

A cable harness has a different primary objective

A cable harness is designed to withstand the strength of specific environmental factors. For example

  • Heat
  • Friction
  • Moisture
  • Abrasion
  • Compression

Cables are also way longer than wire harnesses used within an electronic device. Therefore cable harnesses have to account for the distance they’ll have to carry any signal through.

6- WIRE HARNESSES AND CABLE HARNESSES REQUIREMENTS

Cable and wire harnesses are designed according to geometric and electrical requirements.

You have to consider all of this

  • Whether the harness will be exposed to continuous flexion
  • If the harness will be used indoors or outdoors, and under what specific conditions
  • How many circuits and conductors are required for the assembly, as well as their characteristics
  • Level of voltage to be carried
  • Potential exposures, including chemicals, corrosive fluids, weather conditions, and moisture from other sources
  • Maximum, minimum, and average operating temperatures, as well as possible fluctuations
  • Local safety and environmental regulations that might impact the component selection, installation, and inspection
  • Routing, breakouts, the general shape of form
  • The shape of the electronic device
  • Bending points

7- WIRE HARNESSES AND EASY ASSEMBLY

While it’s true that a wire harness keeps wires organized, this still doesn’t remove the chance for operators to make mistakes when assembling an electronic.

Here’s what you have to do for a smooth wire harness assembly process

  1. Provide a diagram either on paper or on a monitor for operators to assemble wires correctly.
  2. Make it impossible for operators to assemble wire harnesses incorrectly.

This is what in the industry we refer to as Poka Yoke.

Here’s an example; only one end of the wire harness works for a correct assembly; it won’t fit if an operator tries to use the other end.

You can find the details of the example above here, 10 Mistake Proofing Ideas to Eliminate Electronics Assembly Errors  

8- THE PROCESS TO DO A WIRE HARNESS

To develop a good design is necessary to know how a wire harness is done; it’s pretty simple.

  • A wire cutting machine cuts the wires to the desired length.
  •  Both ends of the wires are peeled to expose the metal of the wires.
  • The ends are covered with the required terminals or connector housings.
  • According to the design specifications, the wires are assembled and clamped together on a pin assembly board to form the cable harness.

Here’s a video that shows exactly how it’s done

9- WIRE HARNESS AND CABLE HARNESS CUSTOMIZATION

A wire and cable harness will vary a lot based on the specific requirements of the electronic, but that’s not it, the level of customization for wire and cable harnesses is almost limitless in style and material options; check out this list.

  • Individual tagging
  • Independent circuit IDs
  • Four-color ink stamping
  • Polypropylene, nylon, and paper fillers
  • Custom colors
  • Heat-shrink coatings
  • Custom shielding
  • Wire ties
  • Lacing
  • Insulation materials of all kinds
  • Custom labeling or barcoding

10- WIRE HARNESS MANUFACTURING

The manufacturing process for wire harnesses is still highly manual because of the many different processes involved.

  • Inserting wires through sleeves.
  • Using fabric tape for tapping.
  • Adding connecting terminals onto wires, sometimes more than one wire goes into one terminal
  • Inserting sleeves on top of others
  • Fastening strands with tape, clamps, or cable ties.

Automating this process is way too complicated, and small to big suppliers still use manual methods, as it is more cost-effective, especially when dealing with small to medium size orders.

If you’re looking for a custom wire harness manufacturer or cable harness manufacturer for your electronic device, make sure it’s a company that has experience with all the stages of electronics manufacturing, as manufacturing a specific part of a product in isolation never goes well.

You can read why on How to quickly design a product for manufacturing?

Prototype