Customized Wire Harness: An Essential Component for All Types of Industries

The use of customized wiring harnesses and cable assemblies is increasing at an impressive rate, and almost every industry uses them to enhance their performance and speed up the process. This article will detail the customized wire harness and discuss its benefits and applications. Let’s read further.

What are customized wire harnesses?

A wire harness is an assembly where multiple cables and wires form an integral arrangement. These cables and wires are protected inside insulating material. Here, wire bundle together to create a routing pattern to enhance the efficiency of the harness. For better management, these harnesses use various products such as loom, tubing, PVC, and other sleeving components. These harnesses have integrated drop-in connections to simplify wiring interconnections.

The customized wire harness is the one you get according to specifications and requirements. The options are endless, with a wide range of sizes, colors, labels, and functions.

Caption: Automobile Harness And Wire Repair

Major Advantages of Custom Wire Harness Assembly

There is no doubt that store-bought cables and wires are easy to get, but sometimes, a custom wire harness is supposed to be your first option.

Easy installation

Nowadays, ever-evolving requirements are put on various hi-tech devices. So, you may need to rewire them. With store-bought cables, you may need other components (for example, adapters) for the connection. However, harness manufacturers source wires with bundles, label them, and fix easy-to-install connectors to make installation easier. With a store-bought one, you may need other. 

Saves time 

Customized wiring harnesses are very easy to install. Without wiring harnesses, your technicians may waste time managing individual wires and cables.

Superior materials

If you compare store-bought cables and wires with wires from professional manufacturers, you will see a major difference in quality. Your custom wire harness manufacturer only uses high-grade materials for cable manufacturing. As a result, you receive the best power and signal transmission quality.

Serves a variety of applications

With customized manufacturers, you get space-saving, durable and sturdy designs for your specific applications from different industries. 

Additional services

With custom harness manufacturers, you get several other services that improve your products’ quality. These manufacturers help in laser stripping, mark the cables and wires for identification, and provide customized insulation and jacketing materials. These manufacturers also look for innovative ways to improve the quality of the products, thus saving time, effort, and money when you work with cables and harnesses.

Where is the custom wiring harness used?

All industries need custom wiring harnesses for their electronic devices. For example,

• Agriculture: The use of wiring harnesses in modern technical devices in agricultural fields help in increasing productivity.
• Appliances: Many appliances use wire assemblies to power and control them.
• Automotive: The automobile industry is a leading industry that uses wiring harnesses in innovative ways.
• Computers/peripherals: Computers and peripheral devices need wire assemblies that enhance the performance and reliability of the products. 
• Electronics: Many original equipment manufacturers outsource the design and production of various items, such as wiring harnesses, to electronics manufacturing services to control costs.
• Marine: Marine environments often use customized, waterproof wiring harnesses that fulfill the hostile environment’s unique requirements.
• Medical: The medical industry is advancing rapidly; thus, it needs customized electronic assemblies for its different devices.
• Military and aerospace: Customized wiring harnesses are in high demand in the military and aerospace industry for various hi-tech devices and the ever-evolving requirements.

Caption: Copper electric power cable assemblies in PVC insulation jackets 

The Materials to Choose for Customized Wire Harnesses

As mentioned above, manufacturers usually choose high-quality materials to make your harness. But most of the time, you can choose according to your needs.

Conductor

In a wire harness, a conductor is essential as it helps flow electric current in one or more directions within the wire. Commonly, the conductors used in the wire are copper; nickel, tin, silver, and aluminum are also in use. The properties of these conductors are as follows:

• Copper has high conductivity and low thermal expansion. Also, you can find it at a very reasonable price.
• Nickel is a conductor you can rely upon in high temperature, low temperature, acidic conditions, or high humidity.
• Silver is also very conductive, but it is an expensive conductor.
• Tin has medium conducting capability; however, it is easily solderable.
• Aluminum is very less conductive, but it is lightweight and is an inexpensive conductor.

Stranding

Along with the wire material, it is also essential to choose the stranding nature of the wires. The different ways of stranding include:

• Bunching: Here, you can twist the wires together without any arrangement.
• Inlay stranding: In this, you will find strands in a circular path having different layers twisted in the same direction.
• Concentric stranding: In this, you will see a central wire surrounded by another layer of wires. This layer is again surrounded by another layer that twists in the opposite direction.
• Rope lay stranding: it includes a concentric arrangement where wires lay upon each other to form a rope-like structure.

Insulation and jacketing

Insulation refers to the cover that protects the inner conductor against all types of leakage. It also prevents any physical damage caused to conductors due to external factors. Over the insulation, there is another protective layer called jacketing. The jacket layer protects the wire from moisture, chemicals, and mechanical damage. The common and popular insulation and jacketing materials used in the wires are:

• PVC- PVC or polyvinyl chloride is an effective material that performs well under temperatures ranging from -200C to 1050C. This insulation material has high resistance against chemicals, UV rays, and fire. Also, it shows good flexibility and durability.
• Polythene and polyurethane: these materials can also perform in the temperature range of -600C to 800C. These also show excellent chemical resistance, durability, flexibility, and UV resistance. However, they have poor resistance against fire.
• Thermoplastic rubber or elastomer: you can use this material in applications in the temperature range of -400C to 900C. These materials also show resistance against fire, chemicals, and UV rays and have good flexibility and durability.

Customized Wire Harness: Shielding

If you use wires for telecommunication applications or are close to other wires and cables, you have to protect wires from electromagnetic interference with an extra shielding layer.

• Braid shielding: In this type of shielding, materials get interwoven in a tube-like structure or rectangular cross-section. With such shielding, you get moderate flexibility in wires and cables; however, this is the most reliable and robust shielding available. You can use materials like copper, aluminum, or steel for braid shielding.
• Spiral shielding: This steel is most common in this type of shielding. It offers very high flexibility with the lightest weight.
• Foil shielding: It appears like a foil gum wrapper. Mainly, mylar or aluminum is used as tape to create foil shielding. Foil shielding has good resistance to EMI and noise.

Customized Wire Harness: Fillers

You can use fillers to add extra strength to the cable. Here you support the outer layers and increase the flexibility of the entire construction. Commonly, the fillers used are:

• Polyethylene: It is a lightweight material that you can mold quickly. It is suitable for longer wires.
• Cotton: Cotton is a cost-effective solution that offers excellent flexibility but lesser durability.
• Steel is a solid and durable material that you can tie off at both ends of a harness. With this, you can transfer the force the wire faces away from the wire conductors to the housing of the harness. 
• Foam: It is suitable for filling small spaces between wires so that the harness retains its shape.

Conclusion

So, it was a short glimpse of the custom wire harnesses. If you also deal with a device or an industry where your electronic assemblies have special requirements, you should work with a professional custom wire harness manufacturer like Cloom. Our vast experience can help you develop the harnesses from prototyping to packaging according to your needs.