Sliding Protective Wire Harness Structure for Connector Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wire harnesses experience displacement of fixing members due to bending forces during transportation or packaging, especially when integrated with vehicle on-board devices, leading to potential misalignment and wear of electrical connectors.
Innovation Solution
A wire harness design featuring a sliding portion where adjacent protective member ends overlap to allow sliding, reducing displacement of fixing members closest to connectors, and incorporating a multilayer structure with protective and waterproof members to enhance impact resistance and waterproofing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the wire harness is integrated with a vehicle on-board device and transported in a state in which the cable is wound around the device, then the wire harness can be compactly packaged and transported, but the fixing members are likely to be displaced in the longitudinal direction due to bending forces
Solution Approach 1:
The protective members are divided into multiple segments arranged side by side in the longitudinal direction of the cable. Each protective member can move independently within its segment, allowing the wire harness to bend and coil during transportation without transmitting displacement forces to the fixing members, thus maintaining their positional stability while enabling compact packaging
Solution Approach 2:
The protective members are designed with movable connections between adjacent segments, allowing them to dynamically adjust their positions during bending operations. This dynamic structure absorbs bending forces and prevents them from being transmitted to the fixing members, enabling the wire harness to be wound around the on-board device without compromising fixing member stability
2Manufacturing precision
If a more stringent tolerance for the mounting position is applied to the fixing member closest to each connector, then connector alignment can be maintained, but the manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The protective members are segmented into multiple independent units with movable connections between them. This segmentation isolates the connector region from bending forces, allowing the fixing member near the connector to maintain its position with standard tolerance rather than requiring stringent tolerance, thus reducing manufacturing complexity while preserving connector alignment
Solution Approach 2:
The movable protective members act as a cushioning mechanism that absorbs and dissipates bending forces before they can reach the fixing members near the connectors. This beforehand cushioning protects the critical connector region from displacement, allowing standard mounting tolerances to suffice for maintaining connector alignment
Data Source
AI summary
A wire harness includes a first connector and a second connector respectively provided at opposite ends of a cable, protective members that are arranged side by side in a longitudinal direction of the cable and cover the cable, a first fixing member that is provided on the protective member closest to the first connector and configured to fix the wire harness to a mounting target, and a second fixing member that is provided on the protective member closest to the second connector and configured to fix the wire harness to the mounting target. The cable is covered with the protective members in an entire region between the first fixing member and the second fixing member. End portions of each pair of the protective members that are adjacent to each other in the longitudinal direction overlap with each other to slide on each other, thereby forming a sliding portion.