Wiring Harness Research Articles

Design of Routing of In-Vessel Diagnostic Signals for RFXmod2

Reversed Field eXperiment modified 2 (RFXmod2) is the upgraded version of the experiment RFXmod, a toroidal fusion device that can be operated both as a Reversed Field Pinch and as a Tokamak. This experiment is hosted by Consorzio RFX, Padua, Italy, and has a major radius <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R=2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m and a minor radius <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$a=0.5$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m. The upgrade of the previous machine consists mainly on a larger vacuum vessel and a more efficient active and passive plasma control system. Another important improvement involves the already wide set of in-vessel diagnostics, which includes now a large variety of sensors: electrostatic (single-pin, five-pin, 12-pin, ball pen), magnetic (flux loops, pick-up coils, saddle probes, halo shunts), mechanical (strain gauges), and thermal (thermocouples), for a total of about 5000 signals. The technological relevance of RFXmod2 is related indeed to the development of advanced plasma diagnostics and control systems. This work is focused on the integration of all the in-vessel diagnostics, especially from the point of view of electromagnetic compatibility and wire routing. In fact, the presence of several different families of sensors, having considerable differences in voltage and current output, together with the limited space in which those signal have to be routed, poses a challenging problem of electromagnetic compatibility. To solve this problem, the non-compatibilities between different types of signals were identified, and a series of criteria were drawn to design the cable routing of the whole machine. A preliminary and schematic routing map was developed, then a specific cable tray was designed and tested on a mock-up. This article describes all the activities related to the design of the wiring harness for the in-vessel diagnostics for RFXmod2: the signal classification, the electromagnetic compatibility problem, and the design of wire routing and cable trays.

Investigation of the Vibration Induced Harness Failure

A wiring harness in an aircraft engine, and in aircraft systems, has the vital function of conveying sensor information and carrying power to various components. Some harnesses, especially in the vicinity of a broad-spectrum high vibration and high temperature environment, can experience unexpected internal damage and cause faulty readings. This can happen despite following the best industry practices developed for such wire harnesses. A series of investigations have been conducted at the Raytheon Technologies Research Center (RTRC) Structural Dynamics Laboratory to understand the underlying reason for the vibration induced harness failures. When subject to the operational vibration spectrum, we were able to capture the first two bending modes of the suspect harness with a high-speed camera. From the mode shapes, we can extract the harness bending distribution. In addition, the temperature distribution of the harness resonating at its modal frequencies is measured with an infrared camera, and several hot spots are identified. These hot spots coincide with the locations with highest bend locations. The accelerated endurance test was then conducted, in which the harness is excited at the mode of interest. The resistance of the harness shield is monitored in real time to assess the damage severity. Towards the end of the endurance test, the resistance increases exponentially. The tear down confirmed that the failure mechanism is the wire fretting induced by the first harness bending mode. The evaluation procedure of the fretting risk is described, and the mitigation method is proposed at the end.

Іmpact of Ukraine-Russia war on global trade and development: an empirical study

The crisis in Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions and has also dealt a severe blow to the globe economy. The brunt of the suffering and destruction are being felt by the people of Ukraine themselves but the prices in terms of reduced trade and output are likely to be felt by people round the world through higher food and energy prices and reduced availability of products exported by Russia and Ukraine. Poorer countries are at high risk from the war, since they have a tendency to spend a bigger fraction of their incomes on food compared to wealthier countries, this might impact huge political stability globally. From a macroeconomic perspective, higher prices for food and energy will reduce real incomes and depress global import demand. Sanctions will impose economic costs on not only Russia directly but also on its trading partners. Besides Russia and Ukraine, depressed gross domestic product (GDP) will probably be seen mostly in Europe given the region’s geographic proximity and its dependence on Russian energy. Trade costs will rise within the near term because of extraordinary sanctions, export restrictions, higher energy costs and transport disruptions furthermore. As a result, the impact of the war will wear world interchange 2022 might be greater than the impact on global GDP. While shares of Russia and Ukraine in world trade and output are relatively small, they're important suppliers of essential products, notably food and energy. Both countries accounted for 2.5 percent in world merchandise trade and 1.9 per cent in world GDP in 2021. Yet they supplied around 25 per cent of wheat, 15 per cent of barley and 45 per cent of sunflower products exports in 2019. Russia alone accounted for 9.4 percent of world trade fuels, including a 20 per cent share in fossil fuel exports. Many countries are highly obsessed on food imports from Russia and Ukraine. for instance, over 1/2 wheat imports in Egypt, the Lebanon and Tunisia come from Russia and Ukraine. Other countries are more addicted to imports of fuels from Russia, like Finland (63 percent) and Turkey (35 percent). Russia and Ukraine also are key providers of inputs into industrial value chains. Russia is one in all the most suppliers globally of palladium and rhodium, key inputs within the production of catalytic converters within the automotive sector and therefore the manufacture of semiconductors. Semiconductor production also depends to a considerable extent on neon supplied by Ukraine, which further provides variety of low-tech products to the ecu automobile value chain, like wire harnesses. Prolonged disruptions within the supply of those goods could harm the recovery of automobile manufacturing. Sanctions are already having a robust impact on Russia’s economy, with possible medium to long-term consequences. Disconnecting Russian banks from the SWIFT settlement system and blocking Russia’s use of interchange reserves have triggered a pointy depreciation of the ruble, reducing real incomes within the country. Most of the massive international firms also are abandoning the Russian market. Oil and gas exports have yet to be strongly full of the sanctions, but the crisis could accelerate the worldwide transition towards greener energy sources. Longstanding economic relationships are disrupted by the war and by the sanctions imposed in its wake. Eminent economists have simulated various scenarios parenthetically the channels through which trade may well be affected and to explore possible short-run and long-run effects. Global trade growth is projected to slow by up to 2.2 percentage points in 2022. long term impacts could even be large and consequential. there's a risk that trade could become more fragmented in terms of blocs supported geopolitics. whether or not no formal blocs emerge, private actors might prefer to minimize risk by reorienting supply chains. this might reduce global GDP within the long term by about 5 percent, notably by restricting competition and stifling innovation (WTO, 2022). The Global Economy has a crucial role to play in mitigating the negative effects of the crisis and in rebuilding a post-war global economy. Keeping markets open are critical to confirm that economic opportunities remain receptive all countries. this can be very true within the post-war period, when businesses and families will have to repair their balance sheets and rebuild their lives. Through its importance for international trade and its monitoring, convening and other functions, the WTO is central to making sure that international trade continues to serve billions of individuals across the globe. during this paper we are giving an empirical analysis of world trade and development impacted by the present Russian-Ukraine war.

Design of EM Sensor for Non-Contact Detection of Defective Wire Harness in Conveyor System.

For a non-contact detection of defective wire harness in conveyor system, a new method using the electromagnetic (EM) sensor is proposed in this paper. A dual-feed and multi array microstrip patch antenna operating at 5.8 GHz is utilized to design the EM sensor. When the wire harness is located above patch antenna, the equivalent circuit of each patch antenna and wire harness can be modeled as shunt resistor, capacitor, and inductor. Moreover, a capacitive coupling between the patch antenna and the wire harness is generated. Next, the shunt resistor of wire harness increases due to the defect of the wire so that the reflection coefficient of the patch antenna is lower than that of the wire without defect; thus, the defect of wire harness can be detected by magnitude of reflection coefficient at resonant frequency. The performances of the designed EM sensor are verified and compared by the equivalent circuit modeling, full-wave simulation, and measurement.

Automation and industrialisation through global value chains: North Africa in the German automotive wiring harness industry

Debates on the impact of automation on the geography of production are intensifying. Automation, it is argued, will eliminate the comparative advantage of developing countries and drive processes of re-shoring. While some studies have examined this issue at a macro level, there is a need for further research into specific cases and specific global value chains (GVCs). This paper contributes to this discussion by examining the case of the German automotive wiring harness industry. This industry has passed through a phase of offshoring as German firms sought low-cost locations in Eastern Europe and North Africa. Today, German OEMs are pushing their suppliers to automate manufacturing and relocate closer to assembly production in Europe. Through research at the headquarters and in North Africa, we argue that dispersed global production is seen by German OEMs as an unsustainable and costly organisational and geographical fix that is necessitated by the slow progress of automation solutions and facilitated by the availability of low-cost labour within a logistically feasible geographical space. Through this case, we argue that automation represents a threat to the position of some developing countries in GVCs and highlight the need to move beyond the dichotomy of off-shoring/re-shoring into analysing how automation might drive restructuring of GVCs with varied outcomes in production locations.

Synergistic improvement on both the oil-resistance and heat-resistance performance of a single-component acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive

Traditional pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) materials are prone to failure under oily and high-temperature environments. Herein, a new series of acrylate copolymers, poly(methoxyethyl acrylate - butyl acrylate - ethyl acrylate - acrylic acid - (N-methoxy acrylamide)), were developed as single-component acrylic PSAs. The oil-resistance and heat-resistance of acrylic PSAs were improved remarkably through three strategies: 1) using the polar monomer, methoxyethyl acrylate (MOEA), to replace the commonly used monomer of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA), as the dominant ingredient in PSA to increase oil-resistance, 2) innovatively introducing N-methoxy acrylamide (NMOAM) as a new internal crosslinking monomer, thereby maintaining the stability of the PSA system at ambient conditions, while crosslinking with acrylic acid (AA) at high temperature curing conditions to obtain a single-component PSA, 3) owing to the synergistic effects of polarity and crosslinking which occurred during curing process, the oil-resistance and heat-resistance of PSAs enhanced greatly. The molecular weight of the acrylate copolymers and viscosity of the copolymer solutions were regulated by using xylene as a co-solvent to balance the adhesive properties of the acrylic PSAs. Effects of MOEA and NMOAM concentration on adhesive properties were investigated in detail. Results showed that the maximum tack of 12 #, shear strength of >168 h, and 180° peel resistance of 23.47 ± 0.07 N/24 mm could be obtained when 60 wt% of MOEA and 3 wt% of NMOAM were used for the PSA preparation. The obtained PSA tapes were able to maintain excellent adhesive properties even in harsh environments, such as high temperature and oily environment. This work demonstrates that how the comprehensive properties of acrylic PSAs can be improved thereby facilitating their application in the automobile industry, including bundling wire harnesses in car engine rooms or mounting attached parts to tanks.

Tidal Force Leap May Cause Malignant Impact on Zener Standard Measurement and Even Aircraft Instrumentation System

From 1996 to 1997, the National Metrology Centre of Singapore (NMC) coordinated the 3rd Asia Pacific Metrology Program (APMP) comparison of dc voltage using a Zener traveling standard. The comparison results at 1.018 V showed a zigzag curve among those laboratories that used their Josephson Array Voltage Standards (JAVSs) for this comparison. The amplitude of the zigzag was more than 1 part in 107, much larger than the typical uncertainty of such standards. These results motivated NMC to search for an explanation, which finally led to the development of an approximate mathematical model to describe this phenomenon [1]. During this developing period a surprising phenomenon was observed: Continuously measured dc voltage output with a periodic fluctuation pattern correlated with the times of tide high and tide low [2]. In addition to this, [2] also mentioned another observation that some of measurements carried out exhibit vast errors during spring tide. Through water molecules’ adsorption or desorption on the insulation of a wiring harness forming the voltage divider, which is situated in an air sealed thermostat of a measured Zener cell, the dc voltage output was very strongly disturbed by spring tides.

EMPC of aluminium wire and copper terminal for electric vehicles

ABSTRACT Electric vehicle is one of the important development directions of the automotive industry, with a broad prospect. The high-voltage wire harness plays a key role in the power system for electric vehicle. Aluminum wire harness was proposed to be crimped with the copper terminal instead of the copper wire harness, which can decrease the weight and the cost. This work proposes an electromagnetic pulse crimping technology to connect the aluminum wire harness and copper terminal of electric vehicle. A 28 kJ electromagnetic pulse crimping system for crimping aluminum wire harness and copper terminal was established and the reliable joints were obtained and tested. The microstructure analysis results show that the connection interface has a corrugated morphology, and there was no obvious effect on the plating during the high-speed collision. The energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis results show that there was metal element diffusion in the connection interface. The testing results show that the joints with good electrical performance can be obtained, which can promote the realization of the aluminum wire harness instead of the copper wire harness. This work can provide technical reference and theoretical support for the development of high-voltage wire harnesses for electric vehicle.

Dynamic Modeling and Control of Deformable Linear Objects for Single-Arm and Dual-Arm Robot Manipulations

Robotic manipulation of deformable linear objects (DLOs) is important in many applications such as the assembly of deformable wire harnesses and cables in manufacturing. Despite some relevant work in modeling, few studies have studied the comprehensive dynamic modeling and precise automatic control of DLOs using robots due to their high degrees of freedom and high flexibility. To fill this gap, the precise single-arm and dual-arm robot manipulation control of DLOs is studied in this article. First, a more comprehensive dynamic model of DLOs is established based on a discrete elastic rod model, which takes into account the twisting deformation of DLOs. The collisions, contacts, and frictions between the DLOs and the plane, as well as the kinematic constraints of both ends of the DLOs, are also considered in the model. Second, practical dynamic control schemes of robots are proposed to realize the precise control of DLOs for both the single-arm control and dual-arm control. For validations, we built an experimental platform using an ABB Yumi robot to implement and validate the proposed approaches in addition to simulations. Finally, various DLO manipulation tasks are conducted and the results for both single-arm and dual-arm manipulations validate the proposed modeling and control approaches.

Evaluation of materials used for coatings of electrical connectors used in the electrical harness of passengers cars

Automotive electrical connectors are the essential components of a wiring harness. They are typically made of copper, which has excellent electrical conductivity. Due to the limited corrosion resistance of pure copper, connectors are often coated with other metals. In this paper, the qualities of coatings made of gold and tin are investigated and compared. The samples were examined by a metallographic microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The examination revealed uneven thickness, delamination of the coatings, and issues with the preparation of the core material for coating. Numerous burrs and irregularities were observed. Selected samples were examined in salt solution to test their corrosion resistance. Even though gold is a noble metal and its electrochemical potential is higher, the tin coating was more resistant to corrosion.

The Power of Connection between Systems Engineering and 3D Wire Harness: Model‐Based Wire Harness Engineering at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works

AbstractLockheed Martin Skunk Works has extended their digital engineering approach for wire harness engineering to span system architecture, logical design, 3D design and manufacturing representation. Their Model‐Based Wire Harness Engineering realizes the promise of Model‐Based Systems Engineering through significant improvements in integrating SysML models and 3D designs.

Simulation Model for Wire Harness Design in the Car Production Line Optimization Using the SimPy Library

The automotive industry is one of the most important economic sectors in the world. At the beginning, vehicles only had mechanical components, so the use of an automotive wire harness was not indispensable. Cars today are equipped with electronic components that, in addition to the basic operations of moving, turning, and stopping, perform more and more functions every day. Wiring harnesses are indispensable for controlling these electronic components. Automotive wiring harnesses have hundreds of variants, are principally manufactured with customized designs, and are measured specifically for each car. A large number of production variants increase labor hours, as well as rework, inventory, and manufacturing costs. Even when technologies exist to assist in the design of production lines, today, the design of production lines is mainly based on experience from previous cases. This paper aims to show how a discrete event simulation permits support for decision making for the proper design of assembly lines, as well as identifying possible unbalances in production lines and overloaded processes. In our work, we design and implement a discrete event simulation model of this production using the SimPy Python library. Finally, a case study in the automotive sector is presented, a production week is simulated, and the current plant configuration and possible improvement scenarios are analyzed.

Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by Collaborative Robots: Literature Review and Call for R&amp;D

The wire harness assembly process is a complicated manufacturing activity, which is becoming more complex because of the evolving nature of mechatronic and electronic products that require more connectors, sensors, controllers, communication networking, etc. Furthermore, the demand for wire harnesses continues to grow in all industries worldwide as the majority of equipment, appliances, machinery, vehicles, etc., are becoming “smart” (i.e., more mechatronic or electronic). Moreover, most of the wire harness assembly process tasks are done manually, and most of these are considered non-ergonomic for human assembly workers. Hence, the wire harness manufacturing industry is faced with the challenge of increasing productivity while improving the occupational health of its human assembly workers. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review exploring the state of the use of collaborative robots in the wire harness assembly process due to their potential to reduce current occupational health problems for human assembly workers and increase the throughput of wire harness assembly lines, and to provide main findings, discussion, and further research directions for collaborative robotics in this application domain. Eleven papers were found in the scientific literature. All papers demonstrated the potential of collaborative robots to improve the productivity of wire harness assembly lines, and two of these in particular on the ergonomics of the wire harness assembly process. None of the papers reviewed presented a cost–benefit or a cycle time analysis to qualitatively and/or quantitatively measure the impact of the incorporation of collaborative robots in the wire harness assembly process. This represents an important area of opportunity for research with relevance to industry. Three papers remark on the importance of the integration of computer vision systems into a collaborative wire harness assembly process to make this more versatile as many types of wire harnesses exist. The literature review findings call for further research and technological developments in support of the wire harness manufacturing industry and its workers in four main categories: (i) Collaborative Robotics and Grippers, (ii) Ergonomics, (iii) Computer Vision Systems, and (iv) Implementation Methodologies.

Improving Replenishment Flows Using Simulation Results: A Case Study

Background: Replenishment process is one of the success factors for a more efficient management of operations and a regained profitability. The application of the principles of lean manufacturing in the field of industrial logistics, where substantial improvements in the replenishment process are necessary, is relevant with the objective of optimising the replenishment flow of raw materials from assembly lines in order to propose and implement robust solutions capable of mitigating or even eliminating all types of waste and maximising the productivity of value-added activities. Methods: To achieve this goal, the paper follows the spirit of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control) and 5-Why methods that allow the mapping of internal processes of factory logistics in the particular case of a Wire Harness Automotive Plant. Results: Based on the data collected, as well as on specific analysis methods, simulations are launched to challenge and validate the improvements made to the replenishment process. Conclusions: Several generalisable lessons are learnt regarding replenishment flow management, covering topics such as inventory traceability, in addition to logistics costs and process flow optimisation.

Novel Approach to Ensure Safe Power Supply for Safety-Relevant Consumers

The 12 V powernet in vehicles must fulfill certain safety requirements due to the safety demand of consumers. A potential risk is undervoltage for a safety-relevant consumer, which leads to its fault. Therefore, a novel approach is presented in this study, which can predict the minimum terminal voltage for consumers. This consists of diagnostics of the wiring harness and of the lead-acid battery as well as predefined consumer currents. Using simulation, first the beginning of a drive cycle is simulated to determine the state of the powernet, and afterwards a critical driving maneuver is simulated to validate the predicted minimum terminal voltage. It demonstrates that the novel approach is able to predict a fault due to undervoltage. In addition to fulfilling safety requirements, the novel approach could be used to achieve additional availability and miniaturization of powernet components compared to the state of the art.

Evaluation of Engineering Changes Based on Variations from the Model of PGE – Product Generation Engineering in an Automotive Wiring Harness

AbstractEngineering change management is a central part of the product development process. This paper investigates how variations from the PGE - Product Generation Engineering can improve the evaluation of engineering changes from the wiring harness. Engineering changes that occur in an automotive wiring harness development process are analysed in a case study, evaluated in expert interviews with regard to the risk and effort connected to the implementation and compared to the types of variations. Additional influencing factors are discussed. The variations provide an indication on risk and effort.

High-Efficiency Encryption and Authentication Network Security for Automotive Ethernet

Automotive ethernet has the advantages of high bandwidth, low latency, and strong compatibility, which meets the needs of new energy vehicles for the development of network integration. Automotive ethernet can not only solve the problem of increased wiring harness and complicated wiring in the intelligentization of automotive electronics, but also can improve the comfort, reliability and multiple safety of the car. Although the car is connected to the smart phone, Bluetooth, Internet and other network systems to improve the driving pleasure for the driver, but it brings hacker attacks, security loopholes and other car network security problems that cannot be ignored, which seriously affects the safe driving of the car, personal privacy, and even endanger public safety. In this paper, we focus on the need for the network security of automotive ethernet, and analyses problem in encryption authentication algorithm. An improved AES-128 encryption algorithm and an improved MD5 authentication algorithm are proposed innovatively. Through the experimental simulation of CANoe.Ethernet, the improved AES-128 encryption algorithm proposed in this paper is 15% more efficient than the traditional encryption algorithm, and the improved MD5 authentication algorithm is 4 times faster than the traditional authentication algorithm. Thus, the active network security performance of automotive ethernet is further improved.

Mechanisms of destruction of monocore tungsten wire and tungsten harness plastically deformed under uniaxial loading

In the paper the results of studying of mechanical behaviors of tungsten based composites under uniaxial tension deformation are presented. As samples were used wires with different square of cross section and tungsten yarns which were produced by screwing tungsten wires between each other. It is showed that for tungsten wires with 150 μm diameter with increasing of temperature occur evolution of plastic deformation. Thus, for a room temperature happened brittle type of ruining of sample. This are indicated by high quantity of micro cracks which are chaotically placed on a flat surface of rupture. At 300 oC degree microcracks are gradually united to a radial cracks and occur bigger plastic deformation. And at 500 oC of testing digressing mechanical properties of sample to range which are lower that same at room temperature testing. Those results are proved that with increasing of temperature of testing occurs thermal activation of internal processes of deformation and at temperature closed to 500 oC types of mechanisms of deformation are changed. Samples of tungsten yarns are showed the same trends. At room temperature samples are breaking with high value of micro cracks in a surface of rupture. At 300 oC sample are deformed with increased plasticity and larger necking at rupture as for 150 μm wires. But at temperature which is very closed to 500 oC morphology of surface of rupture are changed. And it evidences about changing type of mechanisms of deformation of sample. Information which was got by mechanical testing are proved that in tungsten with increasing of temperature occurs activation of edge dislocations and at temperature which is very close to 500 oC (487 oC for tungsten is 0.206 of melting point temperature) and above proceed changing to mechanisms of destruction based on screw dislocations.

차량 내 전원 배선 및 커넥터 결함 검출을 위한 정상파 반사 측정 시스템

Because of the manifold electronic components, their operation reliability is critical for driving safety. Thus, defects in the wiring harnesses and connectors that may occur in a driving environment should be inspected. This study seeks to determine why conventional cable diagnosis techniques are difficult to apply directly due to the in-vehicle wiring characteristics. To solve this problem, this study proposes a standing wave reflectometry method, which involves measuring the reflection coefficient by generating a frequency sweep signal and acquiring the magnitude of the reflected signal for each frequency. Defects were detected by comparing the reflection coefficients of a normal wiring harness and connector with those from the inspection. Experiments were conducted in both laboratory and driving environments. Following the reflection coefficients being classified into a decision tree, a true positive ratio of 99% and a false discovery rate of 1% were found for open faults.

Processing indoor positioning data by goal-oriented supervised fuzzy clustering for tool management

Indoor positioning systems allow real-time tracking of tool locations. Tool utilization can be calculated based on positional data of the storage and manufacturing areas. Due to the uncertainty of the position measurements, estimation of the state of the tools is problematic when the distance between the examined zones is less than the estimation error. We propose a goal-oriented supervised fuzzy clustering algorithm that utilizes the activity state of the tool, as the algorithm simultaneously maximizes the spatial distribution probability and the probability of a specific activity state occurring in a cluster. By weighting data points according to the time spent in the related states and positions, the resulting cluster weights can be interpreted as tool utilizations. The applicability of the developed method is presented through the processing of position data from crimping tools used by a wire harness manufacturer.