So your wire harnesses are built, but how then are they tested and validated? Here at Rim Rock Wire and Assembly we use an automated electrical tester that measures between each point on the harness to every other point on the harness to check for opens, shorts, resistors, diodes, etc. A map of the harness can be generated within a second or two and compared to the original schematic to ensure that every harness manufactured matches the design or a sample harness exactly. This is far superior to a manual electrical test because it is far faster and takes human error out of the equation. The tester will never forget a test point! And an electrical test is obviously far better than any visual inspection process because abnormalities can be detected electrically that might visually appear fine.
I get it, your harness is complicated, it’s not an off the shelf cable, but that’s okay, our test fixture has a base setup of 156 points that can be measured on the harness, but is expandable up to 2048 test points in a single scan. These points can all be broken out into a special mating harness or board designed to exactly fit your harness with mating connectors, flying leads, etc so that every aspect of your completed harness can be verified.
So what exactly are we checking for once a wiring harness is completed? Well, actually a number of things. First, every single point of the wiring harness is tested electrically against every other point on the harness. This will map out the connections, and also rule out any accidental connections such as short circuits. Not only that, but all of those electrical checks are highly accurate resistance measurements that are capable of identifying connection points that have higher than expected electrical resistance that might indicate a problem with the wire or termination. Additionally embedded components such as resistors or diodes can be identified, measured, and compared against the standard to ensure they are in the correct place, of the proper value, and pointed in the correct direction. And if that wasn’t enough macros can be added to test in multiple stages, useful if the harness is attached to a switch assembly, the full assembly can be tested in each switch position possible. This data is all saved and can be recalled later so every batch of your harness will be tested in the exact same manner. Additionally an unknown harness can be identified using this system, so if you have a lot of similar harnesses and aren’t sure which one was returned to you, we could run it through and match it with an existing model for you (testing the returned harness for abnormalities in the process).
If an exception is found that part can be easily flagged and an exception report can be printed showing exactly what the problem was and what needs to be done to fix it. This makes identifying problems fast and a decision can be rendered immediately about if the harness should be reworked or scrapped. Time saved means lower costs for us and you. Additionally this 100% testing process can be integrated into a serial number labeling system so every harness could have a serial number assigned at time of testing and that label could be permanently affixed to the harness to allow traceability in the field. This data is also logged and could be sent showing the test results for all your traceable cables, useful if your industry requires 100% traceability of your assemblies, or to comply with quality standards and metrics.
When you order your wiring harnesses through us, you can be confident that everything you receive will be perfect. And we can prove it! Thanks for following, have a great week and please let us know if there is anything we can do for you or your business.
Rim Rock Wire & Assembly 