Electromechanical Assemblies and
Wire and Cable Harnesses

Electromechanical Assemblies

The build-to-print electromechanical assembly approach is an important process applied to the manufacture of complex and high-value products for scientific instruments and capital equipment. The challenge for the assembler is to conform to the customer's price, delivery and field reliability expectations.

An example of a product assembled by this technique is an industrial process control device. Hundreds of discrete items comprise such a device. They can include formed sheet metal components, machined parts, circuit breakers, motor starters, solid-state relays, solenoids, indicator lights, switches, barrier strips, wire terminations, labels, and fasteners.

Other common electromechanical assemblies include:

• Control Box Panels
• Power Supplies
• Elevator Controls
• Power distribution boxes
• R-rack mount chassis
• Motion and robot control
• De-ionized water distribution
• High vacuum assemblies
• Gas and pneumatic distribution assemblies

Look for a job shop that works with a carefully selected vendor base for both fabricated and off-the-shelf parts. They should constantly monitor vendor performance to ensure quality and on-time delivery, offer Prototype to Production services, and have available sheet metal vendors that can fabricate custom enclosures and panels and offer plating, painting and silk-screening.

Do you need help with a product design? Another consideration in selecting a source for your electromechanical assemblies is a job shop that can produce a custom assembly design, help with a redesign, or suggest a more cost-effective way of producing your assemblies.

Wire and Cable Harnesses

A wire or cable harness is a bundle of wires (or cables) with a male plug on one end and a female plug on the other. A harness simply replaces individual wiring. Used in a wide range of electronic and electric products, a harness greatly simplifies the assembly: no one has to figure out which wire/cable is which.

Types of wire available include:

• SXL (Special Purpose Crosslinked)
• GXL (General Purpose Crosslinked)
• PVC (PolyVinyl chloride)
• Nylon
• Teflon-Jacketed
• Solid, Stranded
• Multi Conductor
• Coax

Specialty applications are available, such as Single Wire cables to Multi Wire harness with numerous Breakouts and Terminations, soldered and crimped; Automatic Termination, Wire Cutting and Stripping, and Wire Marking.

In selecting a job shop to source your wire and cable harnesses, things to look for include:

• Top rated, high quality technicians who undergo continuous training, mastering the techniques of running, tying, terminating and labeling harness assemblies.

• Automated wire processing and crimping equipment, which provides the ability to build very complex harnesses at any volume depending on your company's needs.

• To cut down lead times, they keep in stock many of the popular connectors and as well as a large inventory of wire and cable.

• Customized labeling to suit your specific requirements.

• An engineering team that can offer assistance in specification and harness design.

• Build to Commercial and Military Specifications.

• UL-Approved for Cable Assemblies.

• Quality systems ISO-9001:2000 certification.