Wire harness production begins with prototyping, which requires product design and low-volume production for testing. This process is quite costly, especially due to the design duration and specialized tooling preparation that is needed to build the final cable assemblies. But 3D printing and AI are changing these, making the prototyping process cheaper. Let’s look at how these two technologies are disrupting the wire harness manufacturing industry.
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How AI is Redefining Wire Harness Prototyping
Wiring harness prototyping for custom cable assemblies always begins with product design, which incorporates functions like defining and refining the wiring layout, component selection, eliminating failure points, etc. Traditionally, this process could take a lot of time because it had a lot of manual tasks and required multiple iterations for improvements. But AI has revolutionized wire harness design in the following ways.
Automation of Manual Design Workflows
Tasks like connector placement, wire length calculation, and compliance verification take a lot of time and introduce opportunities for making human errors. AI automates these manual design workflows, eliminating human errors and freeing designers of more time to focus on the critical aspects of the product design process.
With connector placement, for instance, AI can automatically analyze the performance parameters of the cable assembly and recommend the best possible connector locations that will provide both spatial efficiency and durability.
Wiring Harness Routing Optimization
Considering the installation area, such as in a vehicle, AI-powered wiring harness design tools can analyze the vehicle’s structure and determine the most optimal and efficient cable paths that reduce mechanical stress and material wastage.
Enabling Predictive Simulation and Virtual Testing
While considering wiring harness routing, advanced AI tools can also determine the most optimal route by predicting stress factors in the real world, such as EMI, vibrations, mechanical stress, and thermal stress. These simulations eliminate the need for physical testing, which saves a lot of money while also exposing possible electrical and structural weaknesses along the cable assembly.
How 3D Printing is Reshaping Wire Harness Prototyping
After design, the next step is to manufacture the cable assembly. This involves making parts like connectors, clamps for securing wires to the assembly boards, and test fixtures. Traditionally, making these parts first required tooling or mold manufacturing, which could then be used to make them. 3D printing eliminates this layer, bringing the following benefits to wire harness prototyping.
Accelerated Iteration and Testing
Legacy wiring harness manufacturing methods usually take weeks or months (depending on the complexity) to fabricate the sample cable assembly. But 3D printing doesn’t need tooling or mold manufacturing, so the process takes a shorter time, allowing for accelerated iteration and testing.
3D-printed prototype parts usually include routing brackets, guides, and enclosures, which are manually integrated with the connectors and wires to make a prototype cable assembly. Connectors can be 3D printed as well if they need to be customized. If issues arise with these 3D printed parts during testing, they can be redesigned and reprinted, then integrated into the prototype for fresh testing without beginning from scratch. Reprinting usually takes hours, which is significantly less time than what is needed in legacy manufacturing because this would need mold creation first.
Cheaper Low-Volume Manufacturing
The low-volume manufacturing needed for prototyping can be expensive if you have to invest in manufacturing tools and molds first. This limits the improvement iterations if on a budget, especially when dealing with custom wire harnesses or experimental products.
3D printing eliminates tooling costs, making low-volume manufacturing cheaper. This is handy for emerging products, such as new tech features in EVs, which might need unique, custom-built connector housings or enclosures that are not available in the market. Low-cost production of these parts accelerates the prototyping-to-mass-production journey of these parts.
Ability to Make Complex Product Geometries
As cars and other machines host more electronics, space availability for wiring harnesses has become scarce. Engineers are now using 3D printing coupled with AI-powered design to produce complex, custom-designed components that conform to the available spaces or form factor of the installation area to save on space. For instance, instead of using a round off-the-shelf connector, engineers can make a crescent moon-shaped connector with the same number of pins to fit in tight spaces between panels in EVs to utilize the available space.
Streamlining Product Validation and Pre-Production Testing
With the accelerated iteration provided by 3D printing, engineers can print working cable assembly components and run physical tests in quick succession, such as checking the routing viability, cable flexibility, vibration resistance, and thermal performance. These physical tests verify the correctness of the AI models and streamline the wiring harness validation and pre-production testing before pouring money into mass production.
Conclusion
AI and 3D printing have become critical in the modern manufacturing process of most products, including wiring harnesses, because they reduce costs significantly and the time taken for prototyping. However, you still need a reputable manufacturer who understands all these technologies and manufacturing metrics in order to pass these benefits to you as the customer. I recommend Wiringo and Cloom Tech because they specialize in fabricating custom cable assemblies, meaning AI-powered design and 3D printing are at the heart of their operations. Contact them to learn more about their wiring harness prototyping and production capabilities for your project.
