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WIRING HARNESS DESIGN PROJECT 1 AIM:- Design and develop the Wiring harness on Given V6 Engine and…
Ruban Kumar C
updated on 31 Jul 2023
WIRING HARNESS DESIGN PROJECT 1
AIM:-
Design and develop the Wiring harness on Given V6 Engine and Prepare flatten view drawing in CATIA V5. Application of all Packaging rules, Industry best practices studied in this course shall be demonstrated in design.
INTRODUCTION:-
A wire harness, also commonly referred to as a wiring harness, is an exterior sheath used to cover some types of electronic wires. Generally, wiring harnesses are made of thermoplastic or thermoset materials that can help protect the cables from the environment.
Engine Harness
An engine wiring harness is constricted wires, cables, terminals, and connectors controlling a vehicle’s electrical system. It relays electrical power and control information to components such as batteries, alternators, fuel injectors, fuses, audio systems, blower motors, fuel injectors, and computers. Wire harness companies customize it for every location, application, and design it interconnects. Also known as a cable harness, it is more than just a collection of multiple wires put together.
It manages the key functions around the engine including engine controller, oil controller gate, transmission plug housing, air pipe sensors, pressure sensors, and water temperature sensors.
An engine wiring harness is how each part of your vehicle gets electricity. It is crucial to help the vehicle run and it’s usually made of a heat-resistant rubber to handle the high and low temperatures that vehicles often experience. The vehicle needs more than the engine, and it requires a lot of electricity for certain things to function, like the radio or lights. Beyond that, battery, starter, and even alternator run on power, which is provided by the engine. Without an engine wiring harness, we couldn’t start your vehicle.
How Does the Engine Wiring Harness Work?
There are many cables in the engine wiring harness that work to connect electricity to your vehicle parts. This vehicle part has many sensors, and they work to ensure that everything in your vehicle is in working order. Some of these major systems in your car are fuel and transmission. When you get a check engine light, you have the engine wiring harness to thank.
It works by using these cables and a fuse box. They wire the electricity produced by the engine to the various parts and sensors. It is created using high-temperature plastic or rubber because the engine heats up a lot. That could cause the engine wiring harness to melt over time. And while this is a rare occurrence, it does happen.
Think of this part of the vehicle like the brain. Without it, it wouldn’t be possible to get the information your vehicle needs. It’s always working overtime to relay the data your vehicle needs to function correctly. Whenever a sensor goes off, it’s because the engine wiring harness alerted the sensor of the problem.
The exciting thing is that as vehicles get more advanced, the engine wiring harness grows. Some say that new cars have over 100 pounds of wires, so imagine how many things could go wrong with that. In the past, there may not have been many issues. However, as things advance, there are more to go wrong.
Engine Wiring Harness protection
Protecting the wires is crucial to the safety of the vehicle. Wires exposed to high temperatures, erosive chemicals and projectiles will be damaged leading to fires, brake failures and critical malfunctions. To prevent these issues, wires need to be bundled and covered.
install wiring insulation or heat shield sleeve material that can withstand direct contact with high-temperature surfaces and is flameproof. It needs to be a material built specifically for under hood automotive applications and withstand constant temperatures up to 125°C, or 257°F.
There are many options for protecting the wires in a vehicle’s harness. Zip ties securely bundle wire together but offer little protection or insulation. Plastic conduits offer protection from rough surfaces, although they can add weight and are not as flexible as other options. Heat-shrink tubing provides protection from heat, moisture and chemicals. However, the application is time-consuming.
Tape is another option for bundling and protecting wires. Tapes are more flexible and cost-effective than other bundling options because they can be used for protective wrapping, bundling and sealing. With a wide variety of backings and adhesives, tape can offer sound dampening, thermal and electrical insulation and abrasion protection of the same quality of the other methods. Additionally, tapes are more flexible, lighter and easier to apply than tubing or plastic conduit.
OBJECTIVE
DESIGN METHODOLOGY
Step 1- download the engine CAD data and required connectors CAD data from the given source.
Step 2- Download the required Connectors from the source and convert the mechanical connectors electrically by using the electrical part design work bench by following below steps.
Using the geometrical parameters created,
4 pole connector
2 pole connector
2-pole connector (C-282080-1)
2-pole connector (C-173090-2)
Inter Connection Connector (C-776438-4)
Adding Connectors to the Catalogue
STEP 3- Download and Define the plastic channel electrically
Then create a new product assembly with channel bottom and top part assembly
Create Channel symmetrical assembly and define the symmetry bottom channel electrically using define mounting equipment option and also create all the required geometrical parameters on it.
Channel Symmetrical Assembly
STEP 4- download and define P-clamp, L-clamp and cavity clip.
STEP 5- create new product file for inter connection connector and cavity assembly.
STEP 6 – Creating the context assembly
Context assembly is nothing but the product file which contains the engine 3D-CAD data and the engine harness geometrical bundle. Here the geometrical bundle product contains all the connectors and other mounting equipments, clips and clamps which are electrically defined for the assembly. Sheet metal L-clamp are added in the main context assembly.
The we need to switch into the electrical harness assembly workbench and Geometrical bundle product file should be electrically defined using the Define Geometrical bundle option before adding any parts into it.
The Given V16 engine 3D-CAD model requires a total of 23 connectors to be placed on it and an inter connection connector for the engine wiring harness assy. The connectors used in this engine are as follows
STEP 7 – Adding 4 pole connectors to all fuel injector sensors as well as for the camshaft sensors.
4 pole connectors should be added in the geometrical bundle using copy paste connector or directly import from the catalog created earlier.
Connectors can be added again by copy pasting the 1st imported connector.
Place the connectors on all the fuel injector sensors and cam-shaft sensors using the manipulation tools like move, smart move, snap tool and also using the compass.
STEP 8 – Adding all the other connectors for sensors like coolant heat sensor, neutral position sensor, speed sensors
STEP 9 – Placing the Interconnection connector and L-clamp support
However, situation of interconnection connectors are not similar to device connectors. Interconnection connectors are not parked with any device but should be pared with the help of clips/clamps/sheet metal brackets etc. possible to the packaging conditions.
Un parked connectors can create following issues-
Assume the bundle connection from the chassis is coming from right side of the engine and therefore L-clamp is provided on the right side of the engine which provide proper support for the interconnection connector. Here the cavity clip is inserted into the hole provided on the L-clamp.
Additional slack should be provided to the chassis bundle connecting to the engine harness interconnection connector to protect the wiring harness from vibrations caused during the vehicle operation.
From the above pictures we can clearly see that the L - Clip is mounted to one of the holes provide on the Engine block for the screw and it is rested onto the ribs so that it restricts its rotational movement during tightening of the screw.
And also, we can see that the Interconnection Connector have been placed and it is Electrically connected with the cavity provided for it.
The L - Clip should be added to the main product as it is not a part of the Geometric bundle or the Wire harness bundle.
STEP 10 – Add P-clamps for proper Routing of the harness bundle
Adding supporting components like p-clamps and firtree clip can help the harness bundle provide proper routing and also help to prevent the harness bundles fouling from unwanted mechanical components.
STEP 11 - Placement of Channels at the required Locations
Use of plastic guiding channels are recommended to meet the clearances in critical areas if it is difficult to achieve by use of clamps.
Some important packaging rules and best practices to be considered during wire harness routing and placing of the clips and clamps are as follows –
Keeping all the above packaging rules we can start the routing of the wire and provide clipping and clamping wherever necessary during the routing process.
ENGINE with all the components for wiring harness routing
STEP 12 - Wiring Harness Routing
Harness Routing procedure for the channel are as follows
Add branch points at minimum of 25mm distance from clips and clamps to create new sub branches connecting various connectors.
After completing the routing, we need to check that if any of the bundles is interacting with the Engine part.
There must be proper clearance between the wire bundle and the engine part.
Additional slack or Fir tree can be placed to ensure proper routing.
FINAL HARNESS ASSEMBL FOR THE ENGINE
STEP13- After finally completing the wire harness routing by following the packaging rules we need to provide protection parts wherever necessary.
Slit- COT tubes, cotton tapes are added on the wiring harness bundle as shown below. The top part of the plastic guiding channel will also be added at this stage.
Following means can be used to protect the wiring harness in high temperature zones
Use of Corrugated tubes
Plastic materials used and its temperature resistance are as follows,
Use of breaded tubes (Nylon woven loom) and Silica sleeves –
In case of corrugated tube is not suitable for the very high temperature zones (specially in exhaust area), use of breathed tubes and silica sleeves can be done.
Beaded Tube- is an expandable sleeving braided from 8 mil(0.2mm) flame resistant polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) monofilament fiber, extremely lightweight, resistant to high temperature (up to 285 degree Celsius) and virtually impervious to solvents.
Silica Sleeve – it is braided into a strong and flexible sleeve from silica yarns. The thick 560mil (1.5mm) walls of this sleeving provide enhanced thermal protection up to 1800-degree Fahrenheit (982 degree Celsius)
Applying protection part to the required Harness Bundles
Final product
Conclusion
In this project i have successfully routed the wiring harness for the V16 Engine assembly and the flatten-view drawing was prepared in CATIA V5. Various packaging rules and constraints were considered while routing the harness. After finalizing the wire routing, we can request the corresponding Engine design team to provide additional holes for the mounting of Fir tree clips.
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