Everyday, leaps and bounds are made in the world of technology, and wire harness systems are no exception. Before you can learn about the new and exciting features that are being developed, it helps to know about functionality and the basics. When you think of wires, you may just picture the conductor part: the strip of metal that performs the main connectivity part of wires. But there’s more to a wire than it’s center, and in fact, the outside is sometimes the more important part, since it protects the wire, and you.
The most basic wire harnesses can be found at most electronics supply stores. For example, installing a new CD or MP3 player requires a wire harness that will connect the hardware to your vehicle. The basic harnesses are generally more popular than more advanced or customized assemblies for the simple reason that they are produced according to a more or less standard schematic, making it familiar, universal, and easy to use. They also tend to be cheaper, and faster to install than other harnesses for the same reasons. Most are color-coded so that you can easily follow the instructions for connection by connecting corresponding colors.
While there are many benefits to keeping it simple with harnesses, there are often needs for a harness to go above and beyond. That’s where you get into specialty and custom wire harnesses. Special harnesses tend to come with the more advanced technology. To stick with the same example situation from above, if the basic harness attaches a CD or MP3 player capability in your car, a specialty harness might need to be used if your car has a more advanced sound system. A car that just needs CD’s played will need different wiring than a car with surround sound, GPS, OnStar, and other car gadgets.
With specialty harnesses often comes the need to customize. If you need a special harness, chances are it is for a somewhat unique situation, and a custom harness will be more guaranteed to work. This is especially important when it comes to not just everyday use, but military and safety applications as well. With all the many various options for conducting core metals, braiding, jacketing and much more to choose from, creating a wire harness that will work seamlessly with what it is needed for is highly useful.
Because the need for technological advancement grows day by day, the need for innovative wire harnesses grows as well. Wire harnesses are essentially the central nervous system for many devices and vehicles, whether they are civilian or military, and therefore must be constantly updated and innovated to keep up with growing demands. Innovations currently being pursued range from rethinking how we design wire harnesses, to how they are born and assembled, learning about and testing the limits of the materials they are traditionally made up of and possibly identifying or creating new ones.
If there is a synthesized material that is more flame retardant than what is on the market now, it is part of the innovation and evolutionary process of the wire harness industry to offer it to consumers. That’s a great benefit of customizing wire harnesses: the flexibility to choose materials, and the privilege of having the best and most innovative materials and schematics to choose from.
For more information on wire harnesses, visit www.LoDanElectronics.com today!