Wiring harness design in CATIA V5 - 3D modeling Week 4 Challenge

WIRING HARNESS ROUTING

Aim

The aim of the project is to study and understand the design procedures for wiring harness routing and apply them to the given input data by following the available input layout and guidelines for wiring harness routing in the CATIA V5 tool.

Introduction

Wiring harness design and Routing

Wire harnesses are a mixture of wires that are bundled together to form a wire harness. Wire harnesses range in complexity from a few individual wires going point to point to hundreds of individual wires, multi conductor cables and welded wires all forming a complex wire harness used to transmit power and all types of data. Wire harness designs are highly customizable, as harnesses are typically designed to suit specific applications. They may need to be concealed behind walls, fit within electrical boxes, or conform to other space constraints. Precise measurements of environment, power demand, and lengths must be taken during design to prevent costly mistakes and ensure proper safety and functionality of the final product.

A wiring harness routing structure includes a wiring harness routing member configured to be attached to a vehicle body and a protector that accommodates and holds a wiring harness. The protector has a recess shape in which the protector is opened in one direction in a sectional view. At least one of the wiring harness routing member and the protector includes a fixing mechanism that fixes the protector to the wiring harness routing member. The protector and the wiring harness routing member are configured to be integrated via the fixing mechanism.

Steps followed

Connector to the electrical part

• Download the neutral data file (step file / igs file) of the connectors from the given source (TE connectivity website) and open it in the CATIA part workbench.
• Identify the faces of the connector connection point, bundle connection point and mechanically locking sides.
• Create the geometries like center points of the connector connection point and bundle connection point by selecting appropriate edges and create an axis on the connector connection point by placing the Y axis towards the connector connection point (mating point) direction and the X axis pointing towards the side of the locking mechanism. The same axis direction should be followed for the compatible mating part.
• Now switch to the electrical part design workbench and define the model as an electrical connector part by using the define connector command.
• Define the connector connection point by giving the representation as the back connector connection point, selecting the face of contact, coincidence direction as Y axis and orientation direction as X axis.
• By using the define bundle connection point command select the face of the bundle entry side and the bundle center point to define the bundle connection point of the connector.
• Now the connector part file is converted into the electrical part file with all electrical properties.
• Follow the same steps for converting all connectors into electrical

Study and understand the harness layout diagram and position the connector for routing

Create different product file for wiring harness assembly and adding the relevant components to each product file

• First create the main product file for the wiring harness assembly and then add or create the product files for geometrical bundle assembly and electrical bundle circuit.
• Open the geometrical bundle assembly in a new window and switch to the mechanical assembly workbench and add all the connectors and other accessories required for the harness assembly routing.
• By using various commands available in the mechanical assembly workbench position the connectors to the desired location.

Define the geometrical bundle assembly file into an electrical bundle and applying electrical routing to the assembly

• Convert the geometrical bundle assembly file into an electrical bundle by using the geometrical bundle command available in the electrical harness assembly workbench.
• By using the multi-branchable document command define the routing by adding the desired connectors and adjust the options available, connector dia, bend radius ratio, build mode, and with the help of routing objects options we can select the desired elements.
• It is always recommended to use multi-branch routing during the wiring harness assembly.
• We can add branches or split the existing branches by double-clicking the multi-branch-able command then it will automatically switch into the wiring harness installation workbench from there we can add branch point on the existing bundle to the required position.
• Again go to the multi branch-able document command and select the appropriate elements to create sub-branches in the assembly.

Applying protective covering to the bundles

• In the electrical assembly workbench go to the command protective covering and open the catalog for corrugated tubes then select and apply the matching corrugated tubes to each bundle of the assembly. By double-clicking on the start/end points of corrugated tubes, we can give extreme point values.

INPUT DATA

Layout diagram

INPUT CONNECTOR CAD FILE

Convert the connector cad part file into the electrical part file

INPUT CONNECTOR CAD FILE

Convert the connector cad part file into the electrical part file

INPUT CONNECTOR CAD FILE

Convert the connector cad part file into the electrical part file

INPUT CONNECTOR CAD FILE

Convert the connector cad part file into the electrical part file

Create different product files for wiring harness assembly and added the electrical connectors to geometrical bundle assembly product file

Positioned the connectors to the desired location for routing operation

Adding bundles between the connectors in routing assembly using multi-branchable document command

Added all the required bundles, sub-branches to the routing assembly

Applying the protective covering like corrugated tubes to the bundles and finish the routing process

Conclusion

The given connectors are converted into electrical parts then add to the new product file and then applied routing to the assembly by positioning them in an appropriate location, adding bundles between the connectors and branches and applying protective covering like corrugated tubes with appropriate extremity for each bundle. Thus the entire routing process is understood and practically done using CATIA V5 tool.