Wire Harness, also referred to as cable harness, wiring assembly or cable harness is simply an clustering of electrical wires or cables which are connected together for the transmission of electrical power or electronic signals. A long-lasting material such as electrical tape, rubber or conduit is usually used to bind them together. Put in other words, a wire harness is an exterior enclosure that covers and serves as a protection to some cables or wires. Wire harness are applied in so many fields such as automobiles, railway, construction, and others. Most wire harness are manufactured with the use of thermoset materials whose purpose is to shield the wires from harsh environmental conditions. Wire harness are mainly produced to serve as a cost effective option for electrical systems and owing to this, they do not possess the properties that is capable of protecting the wires from fluctuating temperature ranges, irrational frictions and other factors that could cause havoc to the wires.
Wiring harness tools are designated tools that are used to produce the wire harness. For each process through out the manufacturing sequence, there are specific tools that are used. There are wiring harness tools for designing, wiring harness tools for assembly, wiring harness tools for taping and other processes in the production of wiring harness.
Some of the wiring harness tools include;
v Cutting machine tool: This is used to cut the individual wires or cuts to the desired lengths and diameter
v Stripping machine tool: This machine tool is used to cut open the wires to expose the metal part.
v Crimping tool: This is used to crimp wires to more than one terminal or inserting sleeves into one another.
v Terminating tool: This tool is used to connect the terminals to the wires. There are both manual and automatic terminating tool. The automatic tool helps to join different types of terminals to the wires in a fast and strong manner than the manual type.
v Taping machine tools: This machine is used to fasten strands of wires to tapes.
Some other tools that are used in the production of wiring harness includes soldering tools, twisting tools to wound the wires. For almost all these tools, some have both manual and automatic. After the production of wiring harness, there are also some set of tools that are used to test the quality and functionality. The wiring harness is usually placed in a test board that is programmed or it can undergo the “pull test”.
