Have you ever gone through the electrical wiring of your car? If your answer is yes, then you know what a cable harness is. Also known as a wire loom or a wire harness, it is an assembly of several independent cables and wires connected by a common sheath on the top of cables' own insulation and jacket. What purpose does a wire harness serve? The simple answer is that it is an easy and cheap solution that keeps the electrical cables organized. There are many more exciting details about cable harnesses that you are about to find out.

Applications of Wire Harnesses

Wire looms are used in a wide variety of electrical applications across industries. They are commonly applied within the building and telecommunications sector and are often used for medical equipment and even household appliances. What is more, this construction of electrical cables is a common solution for aircraft and spacecraft. However, an average person is more likely to recognize a wire harness as part of the automobile's electrical construction.

What Problems Do Wire Looms Solve?

Basically, cable harnesses are designed to overcome the physical limitations of limited space and easily meet electrical cables' expectations when creating a complex electrical system for certain equipment.

Take a particular machine, whether it is an automobile, aircraft, or a spacecraft. If we take out all of the wires that constitute these machines, they will likely stretch for miles and miles. A harness helps to optimize the space by keeping all of these cables together. As a bonus, it protects them from the harmful impact of water, abrasion, and other types of negative impact. The wiring loom also minimizes the risk of a short circuit, which is very high when a lot of different cables interact with one another.

  Naturally, wire harnesses also help meet electrical requirements because they allow us to efficiently combine very different types of cables needed for particular equipment or electrical projects. For instance, complex construction projects are in need of many different electrical cables at once, and wire looms allow to bring all of these functions together while also saving a lot of space. Likewise, the car's electrical system is a complex multi-purpose mechanism, and the wire loom helps to keep it together.

Types of Wire Looms

Cable harnesses are made from a variety of different materials that are commonly used for insulation and jackets. These include but are not limited to different PVC types, CPE, EPDM, TPE, PU, PUR, PE, LSZH plenum, and many others. Basically, wire harnesses can be made of most types of materials used for insulation. You should choose one just like you choose any cable protection: by examining the properties of the environment where the harness will be located and the properties of a material. For example, you will need a moisture-resistant wire loom for wet conditions, and PE will likely do the job just right.

Wire harnesses can be custom-made to fit the requirements of a particular electrical project. They can have many custom features, including unique labeling, lacing, color, fillers, and the combination of different insulation materials. Typical harnesses differ depending on the kind of equipment they will be used for. The rules behind the manufacturing of automotive wire harnesses, electronic wire harnesses, and engine wire harnesses will most certainly differ.

How Are Wiring Harnesses Made?

Unlike cable splicing, a cable harness is not something that you can easily make on the spot. They are manufactured industrially, usually by companies that exclusively make wire harnesses or cabling systems. These companies offer both typical harnesses and custom-designed ones. Harnesses go through complex design and manufacturing processes before reaching the customer. The designers need to consider all geometrical measures and electrical properties of the electrical system where the harness will be located. Except for pre-production, the cable harnesses' manufacturing can not be automated because of all the different factors that producers have to consider. For once, wiring harnesses need to make sense from a logistical and financial standpoint. After the manufacturing is complete, the harnesses often go through rigorous post-production testing to determine their effectiveness.

So, the next time you open the back of your car, take a moment to appreciate all the effort and the magic it took to design a thing as difficult and simple as a cable harness.