Aircraft Wire Harness Segmentation for Build Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
The complexity and integration of electrical systems in aircraft lead to increased numbers of wires, making it difficult to differentiate essential wires for flight from non-essential ones, resulting in inefficient space usage, increased weight, and prolonged certification and maintenance times.
Innovation Solution
A wire management system comprising a wire manager and a layout manager that sorts wires into categories based on importance, generating a primary layout for essential wires to be installed independently, optimizing space and reducing unnecessary protection and weight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all wires are bundled together in a single wire harness according to the strictest requirements, then electrical separation and safety requirements are met, but space utilization deteriorates and weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the wire harness into multiple bundles categorized by wire criticality (essential, important, standard). Each bundle is routed separately through the aircraft structure, allowing less critical wires to occupy different spatial paths and reducing overall volume requirements while maintaining electrical separation for essential wires.
Solution Approach 2:
Different bundles are assigned different protection and routing qualities based on their criticality. Essential wire bundles receive the highest level of protection and strictest separation, while non-essential bundles receive standard protection, optimizing the balance between safety and space utilization.
2Ease of manufacture
If all wires are bundled together in a single wire harness, then installation standardization is improved, but differentiation of essential wires from non-essential wires deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The wire harness is segmented into multiple color-coded bundles (essential, important, standard categories). Each bundle maintains standardized installation procedures while visual differentiation through color coding enables rapid identification of wire criticality during installation and maintenance without increasing overall complexity.
3Productivity
If wire harnesses are designed early in the design process, then build efficiency is improved, but the complexity of determining physical layouts increases
Solution Approach 1:
The layout determination process is segmented into hierarchical levels: first establishing routes for essential wire bundles, then adding important bundles, and finally standard bundles. This phased approach enables early design of critical paths while deferring detailed routing of non-critical wires, reducing overall design complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for establishing a wire network for a platform. The apparatus for establishing a wire network for an aircraft comprises a wire manager and a layout manager. The wire manager sorts a plurality of wires for the aircraft into a plurality of bundles based on a plurality of categories established for the plurality of wires with respect to operation of the aircraft. The plurality of categories includes an essential category and the plurality of bundles includes a primary bundle corresponding to the essential category. The layout manager generates a primary layout output for the primary bundle based on an available space within the aircraft. Forming and installing a primary wire harness corresponding to the primary bundle in the aircraft based on the primary layout output independently of a remaining portion of the plurality of bundles improves a build efficiency of the aircraft.