Cable and Wire Harness Design is challenging at the best of times. Choosing the right design solution can make a world of difference to the effort needed to produce a high-quality cable or wire harness. Moreover, the cable and wire harness design is not the end goal. The goal is to create an assembly that is the nerve center of a product while minimizing production and manufacturing overheads. The process of picking a design and manufacturing solution that addresses the increasing complexity and demands of an ever-changing competitive landscape is challenging. More so, considering that the traditional manual, labor-intensive cable and wire harness design-to-manufacturing processes are largely obsolete. An efficient design-to-manufacturing process needs a solid ecosystem of intelligent systems collaborating to produce the best results in the least time at the lowest price.
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So the question is, how do you pick the right Cable and Wire Harness Design tool for the job? What critical components make the design process an asset and not an overhead?
Commonly, the initial list of requirements gravitates towards abstract terms like easy-to-use or some set of features that solve a sore point in the current design process. The list adds more features as the cycle goes on; some nice-to-haves and some fillers. In an ideal world, all the design solutions solve the same challenges, with the only selection factor being the user interface. Unfortunately, the design solutions are not equal and vary wildly in capabilities across the design spectrum.
Let&#;s explore in detail the top 10 features that make a cable and wire harness design solution ready for next-generation design-to-manufacturing flow.
Often quotes lack details from the preliminary design that add to the project&#;s cost. For instance, consider a connector; the contacts are essential to estimate material costs, and the assembly complexity impacts the labor costs. Ignoring critical material and labor costs underestimates the project&#;s overall cost, affecting profitability.
A harness design solution must have the ability to capture components and related labor costs at the project or subassembly level. Furthermore, an ideal tool will connect with business systems to ascertain the current prices and provide a draft roll-up of assembly costs driven by the preliminary design data. Additionally, a design-driven quote enables the reuse of the initial design reducing rework.
Mundane errors and omissions are near the top of the common causes for delays and cost overruns. Wire harness designers need a solution that automatically checks for errors during the design process. What are some of the error checks that can save the most time and effort? Typically, the list should go from the most frequent errors seen in the design process to the least frequent while also considering their impact on the overall process.
Signal compatibility and short circuit avoidance checks are necessary for any wire harness design software from a logical design standpoint. Whereas ensuring wire sizes match the connector and contact specifications will avoid delays and rework during assembly. Many such checks help simplify the design process. For instance, checking the compatibility of mating connectors without manually looking up the datasheet every time goes a long way.
Every design team or product type will have rules guiding the design process. The lack of design rules to establish guard rails around the design process is a tell-tale sign of an inefficient workflow. Typically, the leading cause for unenforced design rules is the inability of the current tools to seamlessly and effectively enforce them. Suppose a design team is enforcing the design rules manually; sooner or later, the process will morph the rules to find efficiencies.
A cable and wire harness solution needs built-in automated design rules forming an integral part of the design process. Also, the design rules must work with minimal manual intervention. The design rules may be as simple as the naming convention or as complex as the type of connector contact material used in the product. Nevertheless, assigning rules simplifies the design overhead for wire harness designers and helps them focus on the design itself.
The old adage of reinventing the wheel still stands true. Repeatedly creating the same designs or subset of it is a drain on resources and inevitably causes slight variations in the end product. A design solution that provides an efficient path to reuse established designs improves the design-to-manufacturing process.
The reuse options must enable designers to save small design subsets or entire harnesses to apply intelligently as and when required. Moreover, the reuse must keep the original intent of the design while providing the opportunity to make minor edits, if needed. Importantly, the reuse options must integrate seamlessly into the design and reporting framework without causing additional overheads.
A library of parts is a defacto core of a harness design tool. That is to say, if a solution does not have a library of components, it is time to move away from it at light speed. The number of parts in the library is essential since it helps eliminate the parts creation step during the design process. That said, all libraries are not made equal. Notably, the content of the part library plays a vital role in facilitating the automation, error checking, documentation, and manufacturing automation.
The richness of parts data is key to unlocking the next level of productivity. The library needs to store complex relationships and critical information about the components. As the information available to the design engineers increases, the less time they have to spend searching catalogs and datasheets. For instance, storing and associating the correct connector parts such as contacts, crimps, caps, boots, backshells, and related assembly tools ensure the designers can focus on the design.
The parts library for a design solution must also have the ability to capture component attributes. These attributes typically drive various stages of the product development cycle. For instance, crucial business processes rely on details like cost, labor time, manufacturer, supplier, part numbers, and many more to enable final product delivery. Also, the application must provide functions to connect to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems to ensure attributes are up to date in the library. Furthermore, the library needs to be shared across teams and sites to enable users to work from a standardized dataset.
Logical designs are essential to complete the functional architecture of any product. Similarly, the manufacturing drawings are critical to the assembly and manufacturing process. An ideal wire harness design software must provide a platform to accurately communicate logical and manufacturing information. Moreover, the documentation needs to provide ample instructions to eliminate ambiguity on the manufacturing floor.
For instance, a 1:1 scale manufacturing drawing helps assembly teams to follow the harness design details more effectively. Also, assembly teams need details like angles, segment lengths, connectivity, splicing, wire bundling and protection, and much more to boost productivity. Most importantly, the manufacturing drawings must be automatically in sync with the logical design to ensure consistency across the project.
Creating reports such as bills of materials, wire run lists, cable schedules, and more is a design overhead in the harness design process. Although the documentation is critical to harness development, the data to drive the reports is readily available in the logical and manufacturing drawings. The wire harness design software must provide an easy and repeatable option to create reports from the project data.
Data formatting is also vital to improve efficiency during the design-to-manufacturing process. Often, data formatting requirements differ based on team composition and work processes across teams. Therefore, flexibility to create custom formats and templates is critical to improving efficiency. Notably, an automated reports generation driven by customizable templates empowers designers to ensure adequate documentation for upstream and downstream processes. Similarly, even partial automation of mundane tasks can pay dividends. For instance, documentation for automating label printing, splice assembly, and other simple tasks streamlines the design to manufacturing workflow.
It is surprising to see many teams not testing the wire harness before release to manufacturing. Unsurprisingly, the commonly stated reason is the time constraints harness testing puts on the release process. Wire harness testing is essential to maintain quality and eliminate delays in the manufacturing and service phases. Fortunately, automatic testing machines provide test options like connectivity, impedance, signal integrity, and more. However, manually setting up test machines detracts many design teams from adopting a robust testing process.
A solution to these challenges is to drive the test creation and set-up process from the design data. A wire harness design software must provide accurately formatted data to set up automated wire harness testing machines. Automating the test creation process removes the barriers to utilizing automatic wire harness testing machines, drastically raising the quality of any design.
Wire Harness assembly and manufacturing teams require detailed instructions to assemble a wire harness efficiently. A majority of harness design teams create manufacturing instructions with varying levels of granularity. Unfortunately, the process of work instructions creation is predominantly manual. Ideally, the rich design data drives the manufacturing documentation to simplify the creation of manufacturing instructions. However, there are many challenges in automating work instruction creation.
The manufacturing instructions are rarely consistent across projects and teams to create an efficient automation process. A wire harness design software must provide configurable options for authoring work instructions either automatically or semi-automatically driven by the design data. Most importantly, the solution must have a template-driven approach with powerful automation interfaces to address the variations in requirements.
Digital formboards driven by augmented reality solutions and automated wire processing machines are revolutionizing the cable and wire harness manufacturing process. The traditional formboard demands an extended set-up and storage cycle, which is not an affordable luxury during a supply chain crunch. Additionally, wire cutting and processing have traditionally been manual processes. There is a considerable potential to reduce harness design and manufacturing costs by adopting automated assembly and wire processing. For instance, augmented or mixed reality has significant benefits over the traditional visualization process with 70% potential time savings.
The next-generation wire harness design software must connect with cutting-edge assembly and manufacturing tools to pave the road to adopt the industry 4.0 manufacturing philosophy. An ideal solution is not only ready for the automation options today but also can connect with the future potential of automated manufacturing solutions.
The E3.series cable and harness solution empowers engineers to take advantage of innovative automated test, assembly, and manufacturing solutions to stay ahead of the competition. Zuken&#;s powerful and versatile wire harness design platform caters to various industry verticals, including transportation, defense, aerospace, machinery, and consumer electronics. The intelligent and purpose-built library structures help capture vital manufacturing data to improve the design to manufacturing workflow. For harness manufacturers, the Harness Builder for E3.series is an integrated module purpose-built to support the custom wire and cable harness market.
The digital formboard determines wire lengths automatically, and a packing algorithm calculates the outside diameter of the harness segments. The interactive automation functions simplify the placement, sizing, dimensioning, and arrangement of harness components and branches. Industry partnerships create a collaborative ecosystem to drive automated testing, manufacturing, and assembly. The comprehensive reporting capabilities help extract data from the design to produce wire lists, bills of materials, quotes, labels, and design packages for connected business systems.
Do you want to discuss the automation options and their advantages with us? Contact us to set up a call. Also, we will be at the annual WHMA wire harness conference. Join us to see the advancements in the wire harness quote-design-manufacturing process.
Electronic connector
Electronic connector is a very common electronic device, with it, the assembly and manufacturing of electronic products becomes easier. Now, the application of the connector has spread all over the fields of communication, computer, industrial machinery and consumer electronics. Although the connector is a very common electronic product, the requirements for the connector in each application field are still very different. Divided by major categories, there are dozens of types of connectors, and only one connector supplier has hundreds of categories. How to find a connector product that meets the needs in a large number of products is an arduous task for designers.
The focus of this article is to start from the application, select the most popular connector application fields, and recommend some representative connector products according to the application characteristics of these industries to facilitate designers' selection.
Key elements in connector selection
Before introducing the specific selection points, let's take a look at the major categories of connectors.
The National Electrical Distributors Association (NEDA), supported by many companies, defines the industry level of connectors and divides them into 5 industry levels, namely:
Circuit to circuit board or sub-component to sub-component level 2. Box-to-box or input/output level 3. IC chip or chip to package level 4. IC package or board-level package 5. PCB board to board level
In fact, there is no fixed classification of connectors in the industry. Although there are many types of connectors on the market, these connectors can generally belong to one (or more) of the above five categories. In recent years, connector technology has undergone major changes. The growing 3C applications (computers, communications and consumer electronics), the increasing miniaturization of electronic devices, and the increasing demand for products with advanced features, convenience and connectivity have created new technologies for various connectors Opportunity. Such as optical fiber and RF (radio frequency) coaxial connectors, which have played a key role in automotive and data communication applications, and have also driven a substantial increase in the demand for connectors. The leaders in the connector market such as TE Connectivity, Amphenol, and Molex, on the one hand, play a leading role in technology, on the other hand, they are also beneficiaries of market growth.
As connector manufacturers continue to introduce new products to the market, the range of connector choices in practical applications has become wider, and the selection seems to be more complicated. To sum up, as long as starting from the following aspects, designers can easily find the most suitable connector products.
Determine the type of connector required
This is well understood, that is, we must first clarify the requirements and find the corresponding connector type according to the purpose and shape. For example, whether we choose PCB connectors, wire-to-board connectors, wire-to-wire connectors, or ribbon and flat connectors. Cable connector.
Electrical performance or electrical parameters of the connector
The main purpose of the connector is to transfer electrical signals from one place to another, playing the role of bridging the circuit. The electrical parameters of the connector usually refer to the rated voltage, rated current, contact resistance between the terminals, the insulation resistance of the connector itself, and the insulation dielectric strength of the connector. These parameters directly affect the material selection of the connector. For example, in high-voltage occasions, the connector must use insulator materials with strong insulation properties.
Signal integrity
When there is coupling (inductance or capacitance) between different signal lines, crosstalk will occur, thereby affecting the overall signal integrity of the circuit. Especially for high-speed data transmission systems like data centers, crosstalk between multiple signals on the backplane is a big problem that cannot be ignored. Although the PCB layout process will try to avoid the occurrence of crosstalk, if the connector is not selected properly, all the previous efforts will be in vain.
Electromagnetic interference
As a passive electronic component, although the connector itself does not bring electromagnetic interference to other components, the surrounding electromagnetic interference (EMI) radiation will affect the electronic system connected to it through it. Some connector suppliers have even done strict protection inside their products.
Mechanical and environmental considerations
During normal operation, connectors are usually affected by mechanical stress. For example, in some applications, the connector needs to be plugged in and out regularly or frequently. In addition, in harsh environments, such as national defense, industry, aerospace, etc., the entire components including connectors are inevitably subject to shock and vibration. Of course, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, etc. are also important factors that must be considered at the beginning of the connector selection. In any case, the selected connector must be able to work properly in the environment in which it is used.
Selection of Connectors in Electric Vehicle Charging Pile
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According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in January , the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China were 194,000 and 179,000 respectively, a year-on-year increase of 285.8% and 238.5% respectively. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles (EV) were 166,000 and 151,000 respectively, a year-on-year increase of 366.6% and 287.8% respectively. The market share of electric vehicles is steadily increasing.
When people choose an electric car, in addition to the appearance of the vehicle and the driving experience, the most concerned thing should be its charging mode. Currently, electric vehicle charging piles mainly have two modes: fast charging and slow charging. The AC charging pile is commonly known as the "slow charging pile", which provides AC power by connecting to the AC power grid. The slow charging pile itself does not have a charging function. It needs to be connected to an on-board charger, and the charger can convert alternating current to direct current before it can charge the electric vehicle. It takes about 5-8 hours to charge the battery using an AC charging station. The DC charging pile is also called "quick charging pile", and it is also connected to the AC grid, but the input voltage is three-phase four-wire AC380V, the frequency is 50Hz, and the electric vehicle is charged by converting the alternating current into adjustable direct current. The output power of the DC charging pile is relatively large, so it can realize fast charging.
Nowadays, the charging sockets for electric vehicles adopted by various countries are very different. Figure 2 shows the mainstream connector types on the market. In North America, Japan, the European Union and other countries and regions, Type1 and Type2 are used for alternating current (AC) charging piles, and CHAdeMo and CCS (joint charging system) are used for direct current (DC) charging piles. In China, the connectors used in charging piles need to comply with the GB/T standard, which is somewhat different from the aforementioned products. Tesla has developed its own set of standards for electric vehicles, and on the far right is a special plug that meets the Tesla charging standard. 2: Types of electric vehicle plugs adopted by countries or regions
Type1 plug
This is an American/Japanese standard and is a plug used by Asian manufacturers such as Nissan and Mitsubishi. It allows us to charge the car at a speed of up to 7.4kWh. Of course, the specific value depends on the charging power of the electric car itself and the grid capacity.
Type2 plug
It belongs to a European standard, which is used by European automakers such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Almost all electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) can be charged in Type 2 sockets. At home, the maximum charging power of the Type2 plug is 22 kilowatts, while the public charging station can reach up to 43 kilowatts.
CCS plug
CCS is the Combined Charging System (Combined Charging System) released in by the eight major auto companies in the US and Germany (Ford, GM, Chrysler, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Porsche), which is the CCS standard. CCS adds two additional DC power cords to the Type2 plug to increase the charging voltage. CCS is a plug for fast charging, charging speed is 25kWh to 350kW, very popular in Europe.
CHAdeMO plug
CHAdeMO is the abbreviation of Charge de Move. It is a DC fast charging plug that can provide fast charging up to 50kWh. These chargers usually charge an electric car to 80% in 20-40 minutes. Compatible car brands include: Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Toyota and other Japanese car companies.
Amphenol PwrBlade and PwrBlade+ connectors
Charging pile solution
Amphenol provides various power connectors for EV charging stations that support 15A-A ratings, low contact resistance, high thermal environment applications, and component modularization. Among them, PwrBlade and PwrBlade+ connectors can be used for various electric vehicle chargers, including 2-level, 3-level, and ultra-high-speed chargers. For custom power products, Amphenol EazyPwr IP67 field-mounted connectors with up to 125A per contact are the best choice for wireless charging stations.
JAE KW series electric vehicle charging pile connector
Charging pile solution
The KW series electric vehicle charging pile connector developed by Japan Aviation Electronics Industry Corporation (JAE) is positioned as the electric vehicle charging pile market. The KW1 series, which was put on the market in , is the company's first-generation product, a fast charging connector that meets CHAdeMO specifications. The KW02/KW03 series are based on the development experience of KW1. While ensuring high reliability, the product is miniaturized and lightened, and meets the various indicators of V2H within the range of CHAdeMO standard specifications. The KW04 series is a connector for fast charging that complies with the CCS standard popularized in Europe.
TE Connectivity
Charging solution
TE Connectivity's next-generation AMP+ charging sockets have a complete range of AC, DC and CCS products suitable for the European, North American, Japanese and Chinese markets.
The Type 1 AMP+ charging socket is a product specially designed for the North American and Japanese markets. It is suitable for AC and CCS charging piles. There are many options to choose from. Type 1 AMP+ charging socket complies with SAE J (IEC -2) and IEC -3 standards and specifications;
The Type 2 AMP+ charging socket is specially designed for the European market and is also suitable for AC and CCS charging piles;
The GB AMP+ charging socket is a product specially launched for the Chinese market. There are two versions of AC and DC charging, which comply with China's GB/T .2 and GB/T .3 standards.
TE AMP+ HVA 630 connector system can provide advanced high-voltage protection for the on-board charging system of hybrid and pure electric vehicles.
Connector selection for wearable devices
In recent years, people have paid more attention to the management of personal health. Therefore, we see such a result: the global smart wearable device shipments in the first quarter of increased by 29.7% year-on-year.
According to IDC forecasts, global shipments of wearable devices are expected to reach 396 million units in , of which the shipments of ear-worn devices in will be approximately 234 million, and the shipments of smart watches will be approximately 91 million. The shipment of smart bracelets is approximately 68 million. Therefore, IDC predicts that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of smart wearable device shipments in the next five years will reach 12.4%, with global shipments of 637 million units by .
Wearable devices are electronic devices that can be worn on or embedded in the body. According to its intended use, it can be roughly divided into two categories: one is equipment that monitors and records physiological data, such as heart rate, blood pressure, steps, sleep, and calorie consumption; the other is equipment that enhances the connection to the digital environment, such as smart watches. Such devices will further strengthen and promote the development of the wearable device market, making it more complex, lighter, thinner and smaller.
In addition, smart devices can be embedded in clothes, enabling them to record and collect more advanced information when a person is exercising. The use of smart clothing is expected to expand in the medical sector for patient monitoring. For the component industry, as the volume of wearable devices becomes smaller and smaller, coupled with new requirements such as energy saving, higher accuracy of sensor data, and wireless connectivity, the required components are not only smaller in size, but also in electrical performance. Also better. Faced with the huge market potential, electronic component manufacturers will certainly not sit back and watch. They have been sparing no effort to innovate technology and products, and have developed a series of components specifically for the wearable market. As the main components of wearable devices, a variety of new connector products have come out one after another, mainly used in antennas, sensors, power supplies, battery connections, board-to-board, wire-to-board, and removable storage devices.
Their purpose is to connect peripheral devices to the main device for easy repair in the event of a component failure. JAE provides a variety of connector solutions for wearable devices. Among them, the RK01 series is a connector for smart textiles with excellent customizability; the WP series is used to connect the substrate to the substrate (FPC) The small and thin connectors are optimized for high performance and small size devices. Compared with wearable devices (such as smart watches) worn on the body, smart textiles are less invasive and can surround the user more closely, making it easier and more accurate to read biomedical signals. On-site worker safety management, physical condition or performance tracking in sports, and patient monitoring in the medical field are all commercial use cases for it. JAE is the first company in the industry to develop and sell easy-to-operate, user-friendly and customizable connectors. The company&#;s "RK01 series" is the first connector developed for smart textiles in the industry. It consists of a plug contact on the fabric side connector, a top insulator, a bottom insulator, and a socket contact surface mounted on the transmitter circuit board. Point composition. Because the RK01 series connector uses the snap-type connection method widely used in clothing products, it is a user-friendly connector.
With just one action, you can easily connect and disconnect with smart textiles, and you can even use multiple contacts. The RK01 series is also highly versatile and can be customized to adapt to various smart textile materials and pin numbers, making it an excellent connector solution for miniaturization and enhancing the functions of smart textile products. Figure 7: JAE RK01 series products used in smart textiles
In addition to smart textiles, smart watches are also a key typical application in wearable devices. As a wearable device that aims at ease of use and additional functions, smart watches must support multiple functions. As a result, the components and interconnections within the device will change. For example, high-performance cameras and displays need to be connected using very small board-to-board (FPC) connectors. JAE's WP series products provide a variety of rugged FPC connectors, which are small and low-profile connectors, which are ideal solutions for high-density installation in compact equipment.
Most wearable devices now support the Internet of Things, so antennas and RF connectors are also an important product category. The selection of this type of connector depends on the radio frequency technology. The antenna can be hard-wired into the PCB, it can be an SMD antenna, or in some rare cases, an external antenna.
In , the size of the connector market exceeded 60 billion U.S. dollars, and it is estimated that by , the annual installation volume will exceed 6 billion sets. As enterprises and consumers have higher and higher requirements for the convenience, mobility, power and speed of electronic devices used, design engineers have higher and higher requirements for the connection solutions they use. Choosing the most suitable connector solution can get twice the result with half the effort.
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