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OPTIMISING THE DESIGN OF WIRE HARNESS

Conference Paper · November 2012

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 OPTIMISING THE DESIGN OF WIRE
HARNESS
Mr. Ajay Pradhan, Asst Professor
D Y Patil College Of Engineering, Akurdi, Pune
asp12765@gmail.com
ABSRTRACT
Wiring harness forms the back-
bone of the electrical architecture in any
vehicle electrical system design. However,
due to lack of clarity at the beginning of
the project, the design of wire harness is
given the last priority. Also, due to its
inherent flexibility to accommodate
modifications, too many changes happen
in the wire harness design as the project
progresses. This gives very little scope for
Electrical and Electronics engineer to
optimise the design of the wire harness.
The resulting design of the wire harness
should be reviewed at the proto stage of
the vehicle design. The final design should
take care of the design faults and any
interference with the other systems in the
vehicle. It should be also used as an
opportunity to optimise the design from
cost, serviceability and assembly point of
view.
ROLE OF WIRE HARNESS IN
VEHICLE ELECTRICALS
The electrical design activity in any
vehicle starts with the first draft of vehicle
specifications. But actual design of wire
harness can start only after the other
vehicle aggregates ( as engine,
transmission, cabin etc ) get finalised and
the feature list of the vehicle is frozen.
During earlier vehicle design the electrical
system role was limited to few functions as
starting & charging system, lighting
system, few items on dash board and few
connections on the engine. However, this
has drastically changed over the years to
meet the safety / regulation requirements,
comfort requirements, improved
performance and driver information.
The increased number of systems
and complexity of wire harness design has
resulted in manufacturing facilities
becoming sophisticated and in order to
supply a ready to assemble wire harness,
the requirement is to check / test the wire
harness before despatch. During vehicle
assembly, even a minor fault in the wire
harness functionality at any stage of
vehicle clearance will put the complete
vehicle on hold and rectification becomes
time consuming job for vehicle production
team. So proper in-line checks should be
done at different stages of wire harness
production and in the vehicle aggregate
sub-assemblies to improve the overall
reliability of the wire harness and thereby
the total electrical system in the vehicle.
WIRE HARNESS DESIGN STEPS
The wire harness design will
follow the steps listed below which can
occur sequentially or concurrently;
- Preparing the electrical feature list
- Compiling Electrical circuit diagram
for the vehicle
- Electrical power distribution and
circuit protection
- Deciding on number of wire harness
- Wire Harness layout and branches in
wire harness
- Wire Harness routing, clamping and
supports
- Selection of cable / wire for function,
type and rating /capacity
- Deciding the earth/ ground points
- Mechanical protection required
- Environmental protection required
- Selection of connector types /
housings, parking of connectors
WIRE HARNESS BUILDING
BLOCKS
Wire Harness usually involves
many other components other than the
basic wires /cables. After the preparation
of the wire harness design, the next logical
step is to prepare the bill of material (
BOM ) for the wire harness which is the
input to the wire harness supplier for
planning the manufacturing and testing of
the wire harness. The BOM will generate a
list which includes;
- Wire sizes, types and colour codes
needed
- PVC sleeves, Corrugated tubes, heat
shrink tubes
- Connectors – Terminals, Housings,
seals, dummy plugs, locks/latches
- Relay / Fuse Boxes – Fuses , Relays,
Covers
- Clips, Clamps and supports for fixing
the wire harness
- Rubber grommets , Bellows
The BOM will enable the wire
harness supplier to identify;
- Sources for the connectors and other
special items
- Develop sourcing for items plastic
parts, brackets, rubber items
OPTIMISING THE DESIGN OF
WIRE HARNESS
DESIGN REVIEW
The wire harness Design review should
be done periodically during the
development phases of the vehicle project
and as the different proto-types of vehicle
mature the wire harness should also get
updated. The design review is not only
limited to ensuring the correct
functionality of all the circuits. The checks
for the different logics under normal and
abnormal conditions especially fail safe
operation should be evaluated. The Design
review of wire harness should include the
following major issues ;
- Physical layout of wire harness on the
vehicle
- Electrical schematic circuit diagram
- Interconnections
o Between two wire harness
o Between wire harness and
component
- Routing and clamping of wire harness
- Protection from
o Mechanical damage
o Hot / Cold components
o Moving / Rotating parts
o Electrical overload
o Sharp edges /corners of sheet
metal
- Wire size and total bundle size of wire
harness branches
- Grommets, brackets, clamps and
channels used for supporting wire
harness
- DFMEA of wire harness
- Water / Dust sealing provided in wire
harness
ACTIONS FOR WIREHARNESS
DESIGN OPTIMISATION
In order to achieve optimised wire
harness design the process should include;
- Use of design manuals
- Wire harness manufacturers catalogues
for components and raw materials
- Set up for testing the wire harness at
end of manufacturing line
- Wire harness acceptance criterion for
supplies
OPTIMISING THE COST
- Standardising the connectors
- Variety reduction
o Wire size
o Colours of wire
- Use of standard components as Relays,
Fuses, Clamps, Grommets / Rubber
parts.
- Identifying areas where protection
given is in excess of requirement
- Wire Harness version control matrix
OPTIMISING THE QUALITY
- Testing process and acceptance
criterion
- Process audits at wire harness supplier
- Automatic / semi-automatic process of
wire harness assembly
- Circuit testing at final stage of wire
harness assembly
- Training and skill development of wire
harness assembly line operators
- Inward / raw material quality checks
OPTIMISING THE RELIABILITY
- Making design full proof or blind
assembly
- Introducing poka-yoke at all assembly
stations
- No reworks or rectification actions
allowed in intermediate testing
- DFMEA of wire harness with design,
manufacturing supplier, vehicle
assembly, service/customer support
and testing / quality clearance teams
- Handling of wire harness from supplier
to vehicle assembly line and storage
- Proper provision of environmental
protection on the wire harness
FUTURE TRENDS IN WIRE
HARNESS DESIGN OPTIMISATION
- Integrating the 2D and 3D designs
- Generating automatic BOM
- Linking the final design with
manufacturing
- Building exhaustive component library
- Defining the design rules through
written down procedure - DESIGN
MANUAL
However, the major challenge faced by
designer is with respect to the differences
in actual physical wire harness and its 3D
CAD model. A sharp bending radius
shown in the digital mock up ( DMU ) will
show no interference with adjacent
components. But when the actual harness
is made and assembled it will not follow
the CAD simulated routing. Similarly, the
constraints of availability of components
and their 3D CAD data becomes a
limitation in selection of items. Finally, the
wire harness design has to be optimised
taking into account the contradictory
requirements of cost, assembly,
 manufacturing and servicing on the end
product ie. Vehicle/Automobile.
CONCLUSION
The wire harness design in any
automotive vehicle plays a decisive role in
the success or failure of the product.
Hence, the optimum design can have a
long term impact on the product meeting
the target of quality, cost and timeline.
Also, critical is the final design freeze
which decides many factors as customer
service, assembly sequence and reliability
of the electrical system.
Any problem reported after the
launch of vehicle or in the hands of
customer may result in CALL BACK for
the vehicle. Hence, all project teams
perform a critical analysis of all proto
vehicle running feedback on the wire
harness. They resolve the issues of wire
harness on urgent basis and track them
with zero tolerance till the root cause of
the problem is removed.
About the Author : Mr.Ajay Pradhan has
worked with various in design departments
of Automobile OEMS like beml, Mahindra
& Mahindra and Tata Motors in the past
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25 years. He had an opportunity to work
with all the wire harness suppliers in
INDIA for various products launched
during this period. Currently he plans to
pursue academics and higher studies at
University of Pune.
REFERENCES
[1] Joachim Langenwalter and Thomas
Heurung - “Harness design process - from
idea to manufacture” Seoul FISITA
World Automotive Congress June 12-15
2000, Seoul , South Korea.
[2] Andrew R. G. Patterson, Analogy UK
Ltd. - “ Analysis and Optimisation of
Automotive Wire Harness “ Jan 2000
[3] Carlos Ayala - “ Automotive Wire
Harness – Manufacturing Process “ ECE
539 , Feb 1999.
[4] Katzuhisa Asai, Yuuki Obata ..et al - “
Development of the Furukawa Digital
Assembly system to support the design of
Wire Harness for Automobiles “ ;
Furukawa Review No.25, 2004.
[5] Dip. - Ing. ( FH ) Bernd Hardung – “
Optimisation of the Allocation of functions
in Vehicle Networks”