Home Appliance Wiring Harness

Wire harnesses are typically designed to simplify the fabrication of larger components and are designed based on the geometric and electrical requirements of the device in which they are to be installed.

Wiring harnesses are commonly used in the electronics industry, the automotive industry, the manufacturing of construction machinery and industrial equipment, as well as the manufacturing of white goods such as washing machines and dryers, and refrigerators.

Wiring harnesses simplify the construction of these larger components by integrating the wiring into one or more units for "drop-in" installation. By bundling many wires, cables and components into a single harness, the OEM or installer only has to install one component. In addition, wire harnesses better secure the complete assembly, protect against the effects of wear and vibration, and optimize space utilization by compressing the wires into non-bent bundles.

Once the design is determined, the process of building the wire harness begins with the development of schematics, which are used to create the manufacturing files and assembly boards for the wire harness. An assembly board or pinboard is a full-scale drawing of a wire harness that shows all components and their locations and also serves as a workbench for the wire harness. The wires required for the harness are supplied from the main reel cut to the required length and identified by printing or labelling where necessary. Once cut to the appropriate length, the wire is stripped to expose the uninsulated conductors and any required terminals or connector housings are installed. These wires and components are then placed on the patch panel and tied together by any necessary strapping, zip ties, cable ties, sleeves, tape, extruded rope braid, or any combination of these.

Despite the desire for greater automation, wire harnesses are still generally manufactured by hand due to the many different processes involved.

These processes include, but are not limited to, the following:

Mount wires and/or components to the mounting plate.
Thread wires and/or components through any desired sleeving.
Use wraps, ties or tape, especially around any branches.
Crimp terminals onto wires, especially when more than one wire is inserted into a terminal.

Automating the wire harness building process is difficult. Manual production is still more cost-effective than automation, especially for small batches. The pre-production or matching of wire harnesses can be automated to a certain extent.

This will affect the following steps:

Cutting and identifying individual wires (cutter/stripper).
Crimp the terminals to one or both sides of the wire.
Insert the pre-terminated wire portion into the connector housing.
Welding wire ends (welding machine).
Twisted wires.