Custom Cable Harness for the Automotive Industry

Cable harnesses are the critical component in all modern vehicles. They are manufactured in various forms for use in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, two wheelers, hybrid and electric vehicles, recreational vehicles (RVs), multi utility vehicles, and off road vehicles. They are crucial for assembling power windows, power door locks, circuit breakers for headlights, back up lights, central locking, wipers, and brake lights, among others in a vehicle.

Custom Cable Harness – The Smart Choice for the Automotive Industry

With ever increasing electrical and electronic content in modern vehicles, the demand for specialized wire harness is also on the rise.  Unlike in the past, the automotive manufacturing industry prefers customizing wire harness than selecting standard assembly available in the market.

There are several reasons that add to the popularity of custom wire harness for automotive applications. A few of them are given below.

• Cable harnesses for the automotive applications are required to operate in high stress conditions. Since the quality of the wiring harnesses determines the performance of the final assembly, they must be ruggedly manufactured. By opting for customization, you can demand using specialized wires with high tensile strength, good quality connectors, and abrasion resistance insulations. Also, customization allows you to hermetically seal cables with specialized cements, or design pot wire harnesses with low-expansion compounds. These help protect assemblies from external hazards and temperature variations respectively.

• Customization helps you produce extremely light weight cable harness, which is an ongoing trend in the automotive industry. In the past, overall weight reduction of harness was achieved by thinning insulation material or devising the structure of conductors. However, thinning of insulation materials was associated with several safety and reliability issues. Now, you can custom manufacture light weight cable harness without compromising on the insulation quality and conductor structure. There are three types of wires largely in use for producing extremely light weight cabling systems. These include:
  • Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wires
  • Automotive copper-clad aluminum (CA) wires
  • High-strength thin wire for automobiles

Customizing option allows the application user to choose any of these wires to create light weight automotive wiring harness.

• Customization allows you to design wiring harnesses in desired colors by embedding desired logo or text. This helps in easy identification, whilst minimizing installation and maintenance time.

Needless to say, custom manufacturing cable harness brings you several benefits. There are many manufacturers offering customization option. By availing this option, you can produce specialized harnesses to carry electric signals to start the engine, and lighting brake lights, among others in a vehicle.

FAQs – Cable Assemblies for the Automotive Industry

When it comes to the automotive industry, cable assemblies, otherwise known as wiring harnesses, are of paramount importance. As a customer of automotive cable assemblies, you might have several questions pertaining to these cable systems. This blog attempts to answer a few of the frequently asked questions.

General FAQs Answered!

The following are the general questions about the automotive wiring harness assemblies.

1. What are the challenges faced by automotive cable assembly manufacturers today?

Ans. Over the years, there have been several advancements in the design of electronic steering, satellite radio, infotainment systems, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) in vehicles. More the complexity of these elements, the higher are the demands for convoluted cable assemblies with several wires. However, the problem lies in insufficient packaging space to accommodate additional wiring. This calls for miniaturization of cables, and the entire cable systems. This in turn increases production cost, human labor, whilst consuming a lot of time in manufacturing.

2. Are there any regulations or standards pertaining to the design and manufacture of automotive cable assemblies?

Ans. Yes, there are.

Several regulatory authorities call for testing (temperature, vibration, and environmental tests) automotive cable assemblies to minimize the risk of failure. Generally, cable assembly manufacturers conform to the guidelines and recommendations of UL, RoHs, PPAP, SAE, and ISO when designing and manufacturing wire harness.

3. What are the important advancements happened in the automotive cable assembly manufacturing sector in the last few years?

Ans. As mentioned earlier in the post, miniaturization is the latest trend. Miniaturization has revolutionized the way wiring harnesses are designed and assembled. Manufacturing of miniaturized cable assemblies requires extreme care and an especially clean environment to manage crimping and insertion of terminals to connectors.

The other positive change is the widespread use of aluminum cables and terminals as an alternative to copper. Aluminum is found to be the best substitute to copper as it largely contributes in reducing CO2 emissions, whilst withstanding corrosion.

4. What are the important factors a designer must consider when producing cable assemblies?

Ans. There are several parameters a designer must pay close attention to when designing wiring harnesses. The temperature level of the application, weight reduction, compatibility of wires to accommodate higher temperatures, material cost, etc. are a few amongst the many factors.

When procuring cable assemblies, it is important that all your answers must be answered before placing an order. When in doubt, contact the manufacturers. Like so, you can gain important information that leads you towards informed selection.