An electric wire conductor capable of achieving both flexibility and a space-saving property, a covered electric wire and a wiring harness including such an electric wire conductor. The electric wire conductor contains a wire strand containing a plurality of elemental wires twisted together, and has a flat portion where a cross-section intersecting an axial direction of the wire strand has a flat shape. A covered electric wire contains the electric wire conductors and an insulator covering the electric wire conductors. A wiring harness contains such covered electric wires.

Provided are methods for forming a rigid cable harness. An example method includes providing a curable sleeve comprising a curable compound, an adhesive, and a backing; wherein the curable adhesive tape has a longitudinal direction. The method further includes placing a plurality of cables on the sleeve in the longitudinal direction and wrapping the curable sleeve around the placed plurality of cables to form a cable harness, wherein the wrapping comprises wrapping the plurality of cables with the curable sleeve in the longitudinal direction. The method additionally includes positioning the cable harness into a desired shape and curing the curable compound of the cable harness to form the rigid cable harness, wherein the rigid cable harness has the desired shape.

A wire harness includes: a first wiring member including a plurality of first linear transmission members and at least one first intermediate connector, some of the plurality of first linear transmission members being connected to the first intermediate connector; and a second wiring member including at least one second linear transmission member and a second intermediate connector to which the at least one second linear transmission member is connected. The first intermediate connector and the second intermediate connector are connected to each other, thus at least one part member of plurality of first linear transmission members which are connected to the first intermediate connector are connected to at least one second linear transmission member.

A device for inserting wires into a wiring harness connector includes a light source and an assembly to cause rear illumination of a particular pin cavity of a plurality of pin cavities of the wiring harness connector by light from the light source. Rear illumination of the particular pin cavity indicates the particular pin cavity where a selected wire is to be inserted into the wiring harness connector based on an identification of the selected wire.

A bent portion of electric wires is protected at a high versatility by a protective member having a simple shape. A wire end of a wire harness 11 is protected. The wire harness 11 includes a wire bundle 13 and a connector 14 connected therewith. The wire bundle 13 includes the wire end, and the wire end includes a bent portion 13a and faces the connector 14. First, a sheet member 15a is folded perpendicularly to a wire lead-out surface 14a of the connector 14, thereby forming, concurrently, counter sides 31 facing the wire lead-out surface 14a, side surface covering portions, and a tip end protection portion 33. Next, the side surface covering portions are folded along a top protection portion formation portion 44, thereby forming, concurrently, side surface protection portions 32, a top protection portion 34 and an extending portion 35. Next, a wire end protection portion 15 is secured, with a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape or the like, to a wire bundle 13 portion while the relative position of the counter sides 31 with respect to the wire lead-out surface 14a is maintained. The wire end protection portion 15 is secured only to the wire bundle 13 portion, but is not secured to the connector 14.

An apparatus includes an electronic controller having a memory device and an extruding device connected to the electronic controller. The extruding device has a dispensing head configured to dispense a dielectric material though an orifice in the dispensing head as commanded by the electronic controller. A wire feed device is connected to the electronic controller and the extruding device and is configured to feed a conductive wire through the orifice as commanded by the electronic controller. A cutting device is connected to the electronic controller and the extruding device. The cutting device severs the wire after it is fed through the orifice as commanded by the electronic controller. An electromechanical device is connected to the electronic controller and to the extruding device. The electromechanical device is configured to move the extruding device, the wire feed device, and the cutting device within a 3D space as commanded by the electronic controller.

Methods and apparatus for temporarily holding one end of a wire on a harness form board during automated transfer from one robot to another robot. The apparatus includes a wire holding device which is designed to facilitate the transfer of a wire end from a first end effector of a first robot to a second end effector of a second robot. The wire holding devices have different structures, but share the common feature that opening of the wire holding device (to enable wire insertion) involves applying a contact force which overcomes a spring force that urges the wire holding device to be closed. The end effectors are designed and their movements are controlled in a manner such that the moving end effector applies the contact force necessary to overcome the closure-inducing spring force being exerted.

A wiring harness comprises a first covered electric wire, and a second covered electric wire. The first covered electric wire comprises a first electric wire conductor made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy and an insulator covering the first electric wire conductor. The first electric wire conductor comprises a wire strand of a plurality of elemental wires twisted together, and has a flat portion where a cross-section of the wire strand intersecting an axial direction of the wire strand has a flat shape. The second covered electric wire comprises a second electric wire conductor made of copper or a copper alloy and an insulator covering the second electric wire conductor. The second electric wire conductor has a lower flatness and a smaller conductor cross-sectional area than the first electric wire conductor of the first covered electric wire.

The device, system and process of the present invention greatly reduces the time and space necessary to assemble a wire harness enables efficient manufacture of wire harnesses and cable assemblies. The present invention comprises at least a wire or cable viewer module, a machine vision and optical character recognition module, one or more receptacles designed to receive and hold in place a wire harness or cable assembly connector, having multiple pin-hole cavities illuminated by a light source to identify a cavity for wire or cable insertion. Moreover, the present invention may further comprise a portable, computer-implemented system capable of executing a series of automated process steps designed to identify wire and cable markings and guide the error-free insertion of identified wires and cables into wire harness connector pin-hole receptacles for assembly of a wire harness or cable assembly.

Virtually-integrated wire harness design and automated production systems and methods that achieve completely integrated data management by automatically producing scripts to dynamically propagate production commands and data to various subsystems for handling assembling necessary circuits and wire harness layout boards to produce corresponding batches of wire harnesses while script-based methods control configuring, testing, and using wire harness layout boards, and assembling, testing, reworking, and delivering wire harnesses. Augmented reality is used to assist in the assembly of layout boards and wire harnesses.