OEM Design Engineers know better than anyone how long it can take to thoroughly validate a new component or product to drive business value. When quality lacks in a product and it fails testing, nothing is more frustrating than needing to find a replacement – one that is not only responsible to both the cost and innovation – but that is able to pass all the testing without holding up the larger development and production timelines.
The heavy-duty vehicle industry is especially prone to quality challenges. Building machinery for some of the most variable and complex environments often involves custom design, assembly and maintenance. Heavy-duty vehicles must be durable to withstand dirt, debris, high heat, extreme cold, friction, corrosion and rigidity. Exposure to these elements or even slight damage to small wire components can strain an entire system. It is for this reason that durable and dependable wire harness systems for heavy-duty vehicles, while often overlooked, can make a huge impact in not only ensuring on-time production, but a product’s success in the industry.
So, what type of wire harness solutions can you incorporate to ensure a smooth pathway to production?
- Heavy Duty Cable Ties – promoting design flexibility through added tensile strength, heavy duty cable ties can withstand internal and external temperatures and exceed industry standards for use in high vibration areas. Additional improvements in reliability and productivity can also be found by increasing bundle diameter variations.
- Automatic Cable Tie Tool – automatic cable tie installation systems can maximize bundling productivity six times faster than manual cable tie methods. Our PAT 4.0 Automatic Cable Tie Installation System can attach 84 cable ties per minute, which is 25 percent faster than other automatic cable tie systems, helping to reduce user fatigue and improve tool maneuverability.
- Harness Board System components – incorporating grid tiles and repositionable accessories can greatly improve the productivity of wire harness assembly builds. Panduit’s Quick-Build™ Harness Board System components such as grid tiles, mounting pegs, mounting platforms and grid tile connectors can help reduce layout and board build material costs as much as 65 percent, while delivering more than 50 percent in storage space savings by reducing the number of required bulky plywood boards.
One OEM that successfully implemented wire system solutions to maintain its continued excellence in the road transportation market is Iveco, the world’s leader in industrial special vehicles like firefighting, off-road missions, the military, and civil defense. The company needed to update its wire assembly during a system redesign of its Eurocargo truck in order to comply with the Euro 6 standard, which designated the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of newly registered road vehicles sold in Europe.
Iveco worked with Panduit to install a complete fastening solution including cable tie mounts, plastic and stainless steel cable ties, accessories, and installation tools. Specifically, Iveco anchored two cables alongside the engine muffler on approximately 13,000 trucks – equaling about four cable tie mounts per vehicle. The solution to anchor those cables can withstand high temperatures up to 392°F, is weather resistant and has passed select chemical resistance tests. Iveco then improved its assembly line efficiency by using the PAT 4.0 system for installation, giving workers the ability to be more agile and install the fastening solution more quickly. With more than 50 years of experience in wire harness, heavy duty cable management and control panel solutions, Panduit has supported heavy-duty vehicle OEMs worldwide through its global manufacturing, warehousing and diverse technical and sales support capabilities. To learn how you can design wire assembly and bundling to be more productive for your heavy duty vehicle application, read our new eBook.
