Moving Beyond Plywood and Nails with Panduit's Wire Harness Assembly Board System

Prototyping and building wire harnesses might well be labeled the sausage-making process of electrical engineering—no customer should have to see it to enjoy its benefits.

From manufacturing and aerospace to automotive and consumer applications, harness assembly is crucial to safety and customer satisfaction, but it often relies on painstaking, outdated techniques such as plywood-and-nails assembly boards. There must be—and there is—a better way to get the job done.

Although there are no precise estimates, it’s likely that billions of wire harnesses are built each year due to the large number of industries reliant on them. The automotive industry is undoubtedly the largest market as tens of millions of vehicles are built annually and each depends on multiple harnesses, with demand accelerating with the growing adoption of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and the shift to electric vehicles.

The total market for wire harnesses was estimated at $95.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 4% through 2032. In addition to automotive, other applications contributing to wire harness demand include air and spacecraft instrumentation, smart manufacturing, consumer appliances, telecom, medical, numerous defense systems, and the overall growth of electronic devices and systems across industries and consumer markets.

This growth is at risk due to critical hiring gaps. In manufacturing, although employment now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, companies are still experiencing substantial difficulties in retaining existing employees and attracting new ones. This could result in more than half of an estimated 3.8 million positions going unfilled between 2024 and 2033 as manufacturers struggle to replace some 2.8 million retirees and fill other roles created due to growth.

In many cases, companies are seeking to overcome workforce issues with accelerated adoption of digital technologies and processes. But while producers are utilizing advanced tools such as 3D modeling and computer-aided design, the harness assembly process still requires human skills for nailing design patterns on plywood blocks.

These blocks have provided a stable surface on which to lay out a harness design. Nails driven into the plywood provide a physical guide for assemblers to accurately route wires, apply the needed connectors and terminals, and bind the assembly. New jobs usually require grabbing a plywood board from stock and starting a board from scratch. The result is inefficiency, with assemblers continually having to restock boards.

Easing a bottleneck

The costs of acquiring and storing plywood and nails—and the impact on productivity—represent stubborn inhibitors to industries striving to speed up time to market and improve their sustainability footprint.

Panduit, a provider of physical electrical and network infrastructure solutions across a wide spectrum of business environments, offers a solution it says can boost productivity in harness build time by up to 18%, cut storage space by more than half, and shave as much as 65% off the costs of layout and board builds for high-mix, low-volume harness producers.

The company's Quick-Build harness board system, based on 12 in by 12 in (305 mm x 305 mm) QB-Tile grid tiles (Figure 1), is modular and reusable. Eight are included in each package and can be added or removed as needed for different harness configurations.

Figure 1: A single QB-Tile that connects with others to create an assembly board to meet the needs of a harness configuration. (Image source: Panduit)

Tiles can be installed and reconfigured on top of plywood with user-installed screws, making it easy to reuse plywood and cut down on stock and storage costs. Or, assemblers can avoid the use of plywood with QB-CONN connectors (five per package) that provide accurate alignment of a grid system.

Reusable accessories for routing

Once a grid is in place, an assortment of reusable Quick-Build accessories twist and lock into place to provide fast routing and design flexibility, avoiding the need for nails, snap-in, or magnetic fixture methods. These accessories can easily be repositioned in the holes on the grid tiles to optimize the harness layout.

Repositionable QB-MOUNT-L mounting pegs (Figure 2) can be inserted into grid tile holes and locked into place with a quarter turn, providing anchors for other accessories that can be rotated as needed to ease the assembly process.

Figure 2: A Quick-Build mounting peg that is inserted into a tile to provide an anchor for other Quick-Build accessories. (Image source: Panduit)

These mounting pegs accommodate a variety of Panduit Quick-Build board accessories, including:

• Single nail holders, including the QB-SN1-Q, that accommodate HBN1-T 1-inch harness board nails, as well as 2-inch and 3-inch versions, which are used to create pathways and breakout channels
• Multi nail holders, including the QB-FN1-Q, that accept from one to five 1-inch harness board nails, as well as 2-inch and 3-inch versions
• Wire end holders, including the QB-WEH1012-Q (Figure 3), that hold three wires of #10 to #12 gauge, with versions also available for #14 to #16 and #18 to #22 gauge wires

Figure 3: The QB-WEH1012-Q Quick-Build wire end holder. (Image source: Panduit)

The mounting pegs also accommodate mounting platforms, such as the QB-BASE175-Q (Figure 4), which measures 1.75 in x 1.75 in (44.45 mm x 44.45 mm), and the QB-BASE120-Q, which measures 1.2 in x 1.2 in (30.48 mm x 30.48 mm). The platforms allow assemblers to mount traditional harness board accessories such as elastic retainers, harness board nails, bundle retainers, corner posts, wire end holders, fanning strip holders, and user-supplied test fixtures.

Figure 4: The QB-BASE175-Q mounting platform sits atop a mounting peg to configure breakouts and cable pathways, as well as accommodate traditional harness board accessories and user-supplied test fixtures. (Image source: Panduit)

Panduit also provides starter kits, including the QB-KIT2 (Figure 5) with eight tiles, 35 mounts, 10 each of mounts for #10 to #12, #14 to #16, and #18 to #22 gauge wires, a variety of 1-inch, 2-inch, and 3-inch assembly board nails, and other accessories.

Figure 5: The QB-KIT2 starter kit with eight tiles, 35 mounting pegs, and various accessories. (Image source: Panduit)

Putting the board together

Whether using a starter kit or individual grids and a supply of accessories, Panduit recommends a dry layout of grid tiles starting from a bottom corner, adjusting the size and shape of the board to fit a specific harness design.

Assemblers can then place accessories to guide the routing of the wires in the harness. These accessories can readily be moved around the board to achieve an optimal layout. The accessories raise the harness above the board, making it easy to apply cable ties, labels, abrasion protection, and tape or insulation.

Conclusion

The Panduit Quick-Build system is a versatile and efficient solution for wire harness manufacturing. It allows more flexible creation of custom harness boards while saving on time, space, and the cost of materials. In addition to improving the quality, consistency, and productivity of wire harness production, it also helps companies meet sustainability goals by cutting down on the use and storage of plywood and nails.