Project 1

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:

Engine Harness:

An Engine Wiring Harness is constructed 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 interconnects. Also Known as Cable harness.

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.

Engine Wiring Harness function:

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.

Wiring harness routing typically involves the following steps:

● Design and planning: Engineers or designers analyze the electrical requirements of the vehicle or machinery and create a wiring diagram that outlines the connections and components of the wiring harness. They also consider the physical layout of the vehicle or machinery to determine the most efficient routing paths.

● Path selection: Based on the design and available space, engineers select the optimal path for routing the wiring harness. They consider factors such as the proximity to electrical components, avoidance of heat sources or moving parts, and accessibility for maintenance or repairs.

● Mounting and securing: Once the routing path is determined, the wiring harness is mounted and secured using various methods such as clips, brackets, or adhesive tapes. This ensures that the harness remains in place and is protected from damage due to vibration or contact with other components.

● Testing and validation: After the wiring harness is routed and secured, it undergoes testing to verify proper electrical connections and functionality. This may involve continuity tests, insulation checks, and other electrical tests to ensure that the harness is correctly installed and operating as intended.

Design Criteria for Wiring harness:

● It is easy to assemble on a vehicle.

● It is easy to access in case of service or failure analysis.

● It should be secured properly so that it should not get damaged by surrounding component interaction.

● It should be kept away from heat zones like engine exhaust,mufflers,turbo chargers.

● It should be kept away from areas of direct water splashes.

● It should be kept away from sharp environments like sheet metal bracket edges, corners, panel edges etc.

● It has to ensure human or machine interaction will not cause any damages to harness.

● It should be kept away from the driver or passenger reach zone.

● It should be kept away from High pressure fluid lines.

● Dynamic conditions of the vehicle should not damage the wiring harness.

● Keep the harness away from tyre envelope.

● The harness should not be visible or exposed inside the vehicle.

Clearance Management:

Wiring Harness components:

Wiring harness is the assembly of different systems, sub-systems in the vehicle. It won’t have any function; it also has many components used for different purposes some of are mentioned below

Wires and Cables: The wiring harness is composed of numerous wires and cables of different gauges and colors. These wires are made of copper or aluminum, which are excellent conductors of electricity. The gauges and colors of the wires are standardized and follow specific industry conventions.

Connector: A connector is a device (or more precisely, a mating pair of devices, often a plug and a socket) for connecting together two or more wires, cables, or hoses, allowing electricity or fluid to flow but also allowing easy disconnection and reconnection when necessary.

Branches and Terminations: Wiring harnesses are designed to accommodate the complex electrical layout of a vehicle. They have branches and terminations that split off from the main harness to reach various components, such as the engine, lights, dashboard, entertainment system, or sensors. These branches ensure that the wiring reaches the required destination without excessive length or unnecessary complexity.

Protection and Insulation: Automotive wiring harnesses are typically protected by non-conductive materials, such as plastic or rubber sleeves, to prevent wires from chafing, short-circuiting, or getting damaged due to heat, moisture, or vibrations. Some areas of the harness may have additional protection, such as conduit or loom, to enhance durability and safeguard against environmental conditions.

Clips and clamps: Wide variety of clips and clamps are available to mount the wiring harness.

Retention device: Plastic molded parts to mount connectors and other harness components. (Connector mounts, secondary locks, connector back shell etc). Primary locking is provided by the terminal itself; secondary locks are not mandatory but they are used to ensure that there is no damage. Back shells are the packaging devices which are used at the end of the connectors. It guides the wire to the connector in a constrained packaging area or to provide a better appearance at the end of the connector.

Guiding channels: are plastic molded or metal parts designed to guide harness bundles in a given geometric area to secure and protect the harness.

Electronic components: Diodes, terminating resistors, Flasher, Timer circuits are sometimes part of harness supply.

Design Methodology Followed:

● Download the Engine Cad Data and Required Connectors CAD data from the given Source.

Defining the connectors electrically and clamps and clips:

● Download the required Connectors from the Source and Convert the Mechanical Connectors electrically by using the electrical part design workbench by following below steps.

● Get into the Mechanical part workbench to create required geometrical parameters. Create Connector Connection point and bundle connection point on the required sides of the CAD part.

● Create an axis system on the Connector Connection point Such a Way that the Y Coordinate facing normal to the connector face, X coordinate facing towards the locking mechanism and Z Coordinates facing to the top.

● Create Cavity Connection Point for Connectors having the cavity for mounting clips.

Using the geometrical parameters Create

● Define part as electrical connector.

● Define bundle connection point.

● Define connector connection point.

● Define Cavity Connection Point.

4 pole Connector

2 Pole Connector

2 Pole Connector

12 Pole Connector

Defining the plastic channel electrically:

● Create a bundle entry point and exit point.

● Create a line Curve between the main entry and exit points for creating the multi-branchable using external curve inside the channel.

● Create 8 bundle entry points on the openings for connecting the injector connectors.

● Using the geometrical parameters define the channel electrical using the define mounting equipment option.

● Create define bundle entry points using the define bundle connection point option.

Create Channel symmetrical and define all the required geometrical parameters and Electrical Properties.

Download and define P-clamp, L-clamp and cavity clip.

create a new Product file for inter Connection Connector and Cavity Assembly.

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 equipment, clips and clamps which are electrically defined for the assembly. Sheet metal L-clamps are added in the main context assembly. Then 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.

● 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 a copy and paste connector. Connectors can be added again by copy pasting the 1 st 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.

● Adding all the other Connectors for Sensors like Coolant heat Sensor, neutral position sensor, Speed Sensors.

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 parked with the Help of clips/clamps/ Sheet metal brackets etc. Possible Packaging conditions.

Un parked Connectors Can Create Following Issues :

● Rattling Noise.

● Physical damage to Connectors.

● Uncontrolled Harness Routing.

● Manual errors during assembly because of undefined parking.

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.

● P- clamp and the Fir Tree can be placed at required locations to ensure best possible routing for the Harness Bundles.

● The p-clamp can be mounted to the holes provided on the Engine Block in which the Screws tighten the Engine Block.

Placement of Channels at the required locations. Use of plastic guiding channels are recommended to meet the clearance in critical areas if it is difficult to achieve by use of clamps.

Harness Routing Procedure for the channel:

● First, We need to create a multi-branchable bundle using the External curve option and select the line which we created earlier.

● After Creating Bundle Segment Create 8 Branch points inside the Channel for Creating sub Branches for the injector sensor connectors.

Final Harness Assembly for the Engine:

Electrical Continuity check:

We need to ensure that Entire Bundle is Fully Connected.

● Go to edit and then click on Search command. Go to advanced. select workbench as Electrical, type as Bundle Segment and attribute as fully Connected.

● Then select result should be as True or False and then click Search to see the connectivity analysis result.

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.

Wiring Harness Flattening:

● Wiring Harness Bundle Packaging Process is done. Now we need to convert the geometrical bundle into a flattened wiring harness in the electrical Harness Flattening Workbench.

● To create the Flattened Harness, We need to create a new Product file and switch into electrical Harness flattening Parameters and then Extract the geometric bundle from the Wiring Harness Context product file.

● Then Select all the Branches and Flatten the entire Geometric Bundle.

The Bundles Can be Rotated and Rolled with a Proper Radius in Order to Fit the Drawing Sheet.

Flattened Harness View in the Drawing Sheet :

● Create a Drawing File for the flattened harness product.

● First we need to make sure that in the flatten parameter settings bundles and protective coverings have different graphical representation which are given below

-Bundle Segments - Single line representation.

-Protective Coverings - Double line representation.

-Create a new drawing file in the drafting Workbench.

● Insert the flattened harness product into the drawing sheet using the view option and selecting the front view command.

● Modify the Drawing Sheet with Required Parameters.

CONCLUSION

● Routed the Wiring harness on Given Engine.

● Checked for wiring harness continuity and found fine.

● Prepared flatten view drawing in CATIA V5.

Note: The file was not getting uploaded. So, I attached the Drive link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZPQw7xCi1KDn4VmjI-yPw11iCgSNDM5C/view?usp=drive_link