Introduction to Wiring Harnesses

Wiring Harness Basics

A wire harness or cable assembly is an assembly of wires or cables that transmits signals or electrical power.

• The wire or cable is frequently bound together with wire ties, lacing, sleeves, tape conduit or a number of other options including a combination of the above.
• A harness provides advantages over loose wires and cables by offering decreased installation time and allows for standardization.
• Wires often have terminals attached which can then be assembled into keyed housings for error proofing and connection to other parts of the final assembly.
• Harness assembly is typically done manually due to the many different processes involved.
• Refer to Ever First wiring harness design guidelines for more information.

Wiring harness design is often overlooked in the product development.

• This can result in incomplete drawings and obstacles in the manufacturing process.
• Early partnership with Ever First can help guide the design by avoiding many last minute changes.
• OEM Tooling and material lead times can be very long – advanced planning is important.

  Harnessing can be broken down into several areas:

  • Leaded wire
  • Frequently used in point to point wiring
  • Typically made on automated equipment
  • Low complexity
  • Minimal labor
  • Good quality
  • Additional savings opportunities for customer with bundling the leads into a harness

    Wiring Harness or Cable Assembly

  • Usually includes terminals and housings along with other components
  • This can be made via a mix of manual and automated operations
  • Often this has a higher labor content and need for the higher quality controls developed by Ever First which includes 100% testing
  • Wiring Harnesses are made up of individual wires where as Cable Assemblies are made with a multi conductor jacketed cable

  Cutting/ Stripping/ Crimping

  • A key aspect of a high quality harness is the terminal crimp
  • Crimping is a method of attaching a terminal or contact end to an electrical conductor
  • Essential to control for maintaining good electrical and mechanical characteristics
  • Use of OEM components and tooling contribute to a high quality consistent connection
  • Ever First goes well beyond simply checking crimp height, width and pull test by use of a full terminal verification which includes a cross section analysis of the crim
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