Wire Harness
Combining Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Making Complexity Manageable
EPLAN 3D computer aided engineering enables you to automate typical workflows for wiring and wire harness design, including the nail board layout: from transferring connection information and intuitive routing to the creation of manufacturing documentation.
The trend of electrification is increasing the proportion of electrical components, cables and wires in many products – from construction vehicles and robots to our personal home computers. Using professional tools and intelligent software is becoming increasingly important to maintain an overview of important factors during product design including the necessary space, the total weight and resulting costs. Additional complexity is added to product development due to frequent change requests from clients. This complexity can be made manageable – by using sophisticated systems that connect mechanical engineering and electrical engineering and that derive information relevant for manufacturing. This allows you to increase the quality of your products while lowering costs at the same time.
Wire Harness Development: Comparing Traditional and 3D Designs
Constructing and documenting wire harnesses can be viewed as a critical juncture at the interface between design and production. Working with a digital twin in wire harness development is worth the effort – for both you and your company. This can be seen with a direct comparison to the traditional approach.
Waiting Time in the Traditional Workflow
In traditional workflows for developing wire harnesses, work is completed sequentially. Data relevant for production isn’t determined until a physical prototype is manufactured. Iteration loops and re-working designs are therefore common, with frequent errors, time delays and additional costs due to increased wastage.
3D Wire Harness Development with a Digital Prototype
Using 3D CAD software means a much more efficient development process for wire harnesses and cables. First, a digital twin is created instead of a physical prototype. All the relevant data and manufacturing drawings can be automatically derived from the digital twin. This digital model demonstrates its advantages even if there are frequent changes made, because the changes can quickly be implemented at almost no cost.
EPLAN Harness proD for Wire Harness Designs in 3D
EPLAN Harness proD is a modern software for efficiently designing and documenting wires and wire harnesses. Automated steps from reading the EPLAN Project to routing the wires and creating the documentation are the system’s strengths. EPLAN Harness proD offers you the potential for seamless integration into PDM landscapes thanks to its openness to importing mechanically relevant information from various MCAD systems and ECAD connection information. Your wire harness design is independent of the availability of a mechanical prototype.
EPLAN Harness proD for Wire Harness Designs in 3D
EPLAN Harness proD is a modern software for efficiently designing and documenting wires and wire harnesses. Automated steps from reading the EPLAN Project to routing the wires and creating the documentation are the system’s strengths. EPLAN Harness proD offers you the potential for seamless integration into PDM landscapes thanks to its openness to importing mechanically relevant information from various MCAD systems and ECAD connection information. Your wire harness design is independent of the availability of a mechanical prototype.
The Digital Twin and Designing Wire Harnesses
Gartner says it. Deloitte says it. EPLAN says it, too: the digital twin is becoming the driving force of industrial production in the twenty-first century. Embedded into the megatrends of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things, the digital twin brings manufacturing companies significant advantages across the entire product life cycle.
Background on the Digital Twin in Wire Engineering
This whitepaper, “Electrified – The Digital Twin”, shows what a digital twin consists of and which disciplines and fields can work with it, with a special focus on the engineering field of designing and documenting cabling and wire harnesses in 3D.
Ten Good Reasons for Designing in 3D
The digital twin is gaining ground: according to a February 2019 study by Gartner, a global research and advisory firm, 75 per cent of companies surveyed are planning to use a digital twin within the next year. If the twin also includes electrical engineering information in 3D, your engineering will benefit greatly. EPLAN gives you ten good reasons.
The Digital Twin – Today and Tomorrow
Our infographic “Wiring the Digital Twin?” outlines how you can use the digital twin to harmonise processes and to save time in every individual step of the production process – now and in the future. Request the graphic here.
Seven Steps to the Virtual Prototype of the Wire Harness
Find out in this tutorial video how you can plan and design wiring within a very short period of time using EPLAN Harness proD.
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