CABLES & CONNECTORS FEATURE
The design of automotive cable harnessing and looms has changed over the years, especially with the introduction of electric cars and driverless vehicles. Kent-based Convert looks into the challenges faced and what the future holds
LIGHTING THE WAY TO automotive cabling developments E
lectric cars and driverless vehicles are bringing about massive changes to every area of the automotive industry – including cable harnessing and looms. Take car lights as an example. Gone are the days when the housing contained just a few components. Although the size of this remains the same as it was twenty years ago, the number of electronic controls and features used in today’s cars has increased. The result is more wire and more terminations (connectors, switches or terminals) per vehicle – meaning more complex harnesses, with more sleeves, clips and other hardware. One company at the forefront of
this electrical step change is Convert. With over a decade of experience in the automotive industry, it is a leading manufacturer of cable looms and harnesses that can be found in the headlamps of several of the world’s top car makers. With a dedicated design department, Convert is often asked to either input into, or take charge of, the design process – particularly when it comes to more challenging lamp wiring projects. This is typified by a project the
company worked on with Wipac - a world class design and manufacturing company specialising in high technology exterior LED lighting for the prestige automotive market.
GROMMET DEVELOPMENT For the project, the company needed to design a standalone waterproof grommet
CargoPod is an autonomous electric delivery van. But, with four doors on each side, each with their own LEDs, door locks, sensors and internal lights, it required a complex loom – approximately 250m of cabling – in order to connect all the different components to a power source and control unit
for a British luxury and high performance sports car manufacturer. A waterproof yet compact high performance LED lighting system was required, with an external profile of between 3-5mm for the sealed connector which would house the wiring. In order to provide a watertight finished unit, traditional methods of mounting 35mm electrical connectors onto the lamp housings were not feasible due to their physical size. Dave Lord, Convert managing director,
Convert designed a standalone waterproof grommet for a British luxury and high performance sports car manufacturer
explained: “To overcome this challenge, our team of engineers conceived a design with a grommet – basically a ring of rubber or plastic that lines a hole to prevent abrasion damage to the cable passed through it. The grommet was integral to the cable harness for the lamp enclosure. A second grommet was also required to protect the vehicle’s internal compartments from potential water ingress.” Lord added: “This new style of grommet required cable tunnel guides of exactly the correct size to allow the cable to pass through the grommet. This created a waterproof seal once fixed to the cable harness which, in turn, would be stable and secure when fitted to the finished lamp.” The prototype grommet met the automotive waterproofing standard IP66K and has now been successfully used in Wipac’s lamps for both the British luxury car manufacturer and a British high-performance sports car manufacturer.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE CHALLENGES Turning to autonomous vehicles, what wiring challenges do these new breed of cars throw up? According to Lord, it’s all about the
complexity of the looms – as illustrated by CargoPod, an autonomous electric delivery van which had its first UK grocery delivery trial last year. “We were approached by Shape
Machining, a composites manufacturer, to design and manufacture the cable harness and electrical system integration for a project they were working on. This was to build the cargo compartments for a prototype autonomous electric delivery van developed by Oxbotica, a leading driverless car software firm, and trialled by Ocado Technology,” said Lord. “With four doors on each side, each with their own LEDs, door locks, sensors and internal lights, it was a challenge as it required a complex loom – approximately 250m of cabling, the length of five Olympic swimming pools – in order to connect all the different components to a power source and control unit!”
THE FUTURE So, with more cars on the road, including electric and autonomous vehicles, what does the future hold for cable and harnessing? Experts are predicting wiring to get
smaller, and more lightweight and environmentally friendly, in order to meet carbon and other regulatory demands. “Light weighting will be a big driver
in the future,” added Lord. “We’ll see a move away from copper to aluminium which is lighter. This is one of the reasons we invested in our Komax Gamma 255 fully automatic crimping machine, which excels at handling small wire like aluminium.” If automotive manufacturer’s current
predictions are correct for fully self-driving cars to hit the streets by 2025, it could be Convert’s lightweight aluminium wiring that’s helping to keep them on the road.
Convert
www.convertltd.co.uk
DESIGN SOLUTIONS | JUNE 2018 25
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