Automotive Wiring Harness Development Trends

Automotive wiring harness is the main network of automotive circuits. Without wiring harness, there would be no automotive circuit. In modern automobiles, the electronic control system is closely related to the wiring harness. Comparing the functions of ECU, sensors and actuators with the human body, it can be said that ECU is equivalent to the human brain, sensors are equivalent to sensory organs, and actuators are equivalent to motor organs. Obviously, the mind and various organs, without nerves and blood vessels, the human hands and feet will not be able to perform their due functions. With the continuous improvement of automobile safety, comfort and environmental protection requirements, the number of circuits and electricity consumption on automobiles have increased significantly, so how to arrange a large number of wiring harnesses more effectively and reasonably in limited automobile space has become a problem faced by automobile manufacturing industry. In this paper, the present situation and future development trend of lightweight, modularization and vehicle communication technology of automobile wiring harness are briefly introduced.

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Lightweight wiring harness Automotive wiring harness adapts to the multi-functionality of vehicles and the diversified needs of users, and the space occupied by vehicles is gradually expanding. In fact, in order to improve the fuel economy of automobiles and reduce the weight, the diameter of the wire itself continues to decrease from the original AV wire, and the diameter of the wire harness continues to decrease from the AVS wire to the AVSS wire. One of the effective ways to reduce the weight of wiring harness is to reduce the volume and weight of connectors and relays. We know that there are hundreds of wiring harness connectors in the vehicle wiring harness. With the development of technology and the development and application of materials, the volume and weight of wiring harness connectors are decreasing. At present, the weight of small connectors developed by Sumitomo Corporation of Japan will be reduced by 20% to 40% under the same functional requirements. Similarly, as an important component in the wiring harness system, relays are also miniaturized and lightweight and integrated into various controllers, so that the volume occupied by relays is reduced when arranged, and the importance of the whole vehicle is reduced accordingly. The application of aluminum wires is also an important symbol of lightweight wiring harness. Compared with copper, aluminum wires can reduce the total weight of the body wiring harness by more than 30%, and for ordinary cars, it can reduce the weight of the car by about 1.8 kg. The use of aluminum wires can effectively reduce the weight of automobiles, improve fuel economy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. With the continuous improvement of technical level, the proportion of aluminum wires used will be greatly increased in the future. RIM polyurethane foaming technology can also effectively reduce the weight of wiring harness. Using foaming technology instead of the traditional guard plate and bracket can not only reduce the weight of the wire harness, but also facilitate the spatial arrangement of the wire harness. The wire harness made of polyurethane has the characteristics of light weight, strong resistance to oil and dust, and no noise after installation. In recent years, polyurethane, as one of the polymer materials, has been widely used in the manufacture of automobile parts because of its good material characteristics. Modularization Since the 1990s, European, American and Japanese automobile companies have been the center, and the use of modular production methods has been continuously promoted. As the in-module wiring medium, a planar wiring material such as a flexible printed circuit (FPC) or a flexible flat cable (FFC) is employed. Modularization is used in roofs, doors and consoles where wiring space is very limited. As a method of expanding cabin space and improving the effectiveness of wiring harness layout, it is expected to be further promoted in the future. Flexible printed circuits are applied to modules, as well as electronic component assembly or sensor component integration, which makes wiring materials develop in the direction of high functionality. For example, the application on the FPC instrument panel and the application on the membrane supporting sensor or antenna are good examples. At present, domestic independent car manufacturers mainly adopt the traditional way of integrating wiring harness and fuse box when designing fuse boxes, and the wiring harness and fuse box cannot be detached. A model usually uses 2-4 fuse boxes with dozens of built-in relays. In the wire harness assembly, the fuse box occupies a large proportion of space and weight. With the continuous development of technology and the continuous improvement of product quality, the wiring harness fuse box of self-owned brand OEMs will use more BCM (body controller) in which the wiring harness and fuse box are separated and detachable, and more relays, control units and other components are integrated together. With the high development of production line automation, modular assembly will greatly reduce assembly time and improve work efficiency. Vehicle communication technology Electronic technology is widely used in automobiles, which leads to huge and complex body wiring. In recent years, the application of multiplexing technology (vehicle local area network (LAN)) has greatly reduced the number of circuits. Automotive network technology came into being as the times require and became a direction of automotive technology development. For a long time, multi-channel communication technology has been regarded as a solution to the increasing number of automotive wiring harnesses. All major automobile manufacturing companies in the world have set special standards. Multiplex communication technology is expensive and only used in high-end vehicles. In recent years, the number of automotive electronic systems has been increasing, and the data transmission speed is insufficient. Small and economical vehicles are also required to develop in the direction of high functions [1]. For communication wiring harnesses, with the rapid development of communication speed, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues must be considered and necessary shielding measures must be taken. Table 1 below shows the application rules of anti-interference ability. In the future, it is possible to change from twisted pair wires to shielded wires. Change to plastic optical fiber (POF). Multimedia transmission on Land Rover Evoque has adopted optical fiber transmission. The use of plastic optical fiber can not only solve the problem of electromagnetic compatibility, but also achieve lightweight. The application of optical fiber manufactured from glass will further realize higher speed communication, but the problems of cost, assembly and environmental friendliness must be solved. Conclusion With the continuous development of science and technology, the future development of automobile wiring harness will inevitably be more lightweight and modular. At the same time, the continuous development of vehicle communication system will be more widely applied to automobiles. With the development of new network communication, automobiles will be more intelligent, data transmission will be more reliable, and the requirements for wiring harness will be continuously improved.

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