Rethink Harness Board Assembly

The creation of a harness board is often fairly time consuming, as is keeping it maintained with the latest updates and options so that it always produces the correct wire harness. Additionally, the time to fetch a board and store the one that was just completed is a regular cost, as is the cost for space to inventory hundreds or even thousands of boards. These costs are not insignificant in high volume, low mix situations, but they are especially burdensome for high mix, low volume houses.

At Delta Sigma Company (DSC), we recently released our new HarnessWorks product, making significant steps toward solving all of the issues mentioned above. DSC and Panduit teams recently began work on a joint project to integrate the Panduit Quick-Build™ Harness Board System to bring you an ideal toolset for your harness assembly operations. Having one board per harness-builder and then quickly reconfiguring that board to build the next harness is what this integrated system provides. That means no fetching and no storage.

The combination of these systems will offer assembly operators great tools that make assembly easier, faster, more efficient, and more accurate.

Panduit Quick-Build

We at DSC are always looking for ways to create the best tools for our customers. HarnessWorks is one of those tools; the solution uses software and a projection system to automate wire harness assembly. From your imported harness design files, step-by-step instructions are projected onto the work surface. Calibration takes seconds, and operators can navigate through steps by clicking a specific step or moving forward or back in the sequence so they can see and correct errors before they move on.

HarnessWorks is flexible enough to work with any board-and-nail harness fixture. But when we met Panduit representatives at the 2016 Wire Processing Technology Expo, we knew these two systems could work seamlessly together to create the modular, scalable, flexible solution that our customers have dreamt about.

Panduit has been around since 1955, and its employees are committed to providing pioneering electrical and network solutions to the marketplace. The Quick-Build Harness Board System provides a modular alternative to the conventional board-and-nail method. This system is designed for manufacturers who need to build a variety of wire and cable assemblies.

The system features a reusable grid tile system that makes it easy for operators to move from one configuration to another without having to retrieve bulky plywood boards for multiple harness assemblies. That means your operators can produce a higher volume of cable and wire harnesses at a more competitive price.

Because the system is modular and reusable, Panduit reports customers who have implemented the Quick-Build Harness Board System see up to 65% cost savings in materials. And even more important, they can reuse layouts to cut harness assembly time by as much as 18%!

An ideal integration

DSC and Panduit complement each other perfectly. HarnessWorks projection technology easily solves multiple issues, projecting highly accurate CAD data, line widths, sizes, part numbers, and notes directly onto the board, so operators do not have to look away or flip through documentation. The projections are easy to update, and operators can see step-by-step instructions in real time, rather than trying to trace a path on a paper guide. By eliminating these problems, assemblies can move much quicker with reduced errors and rework. Panduit provides devices to make wire assemblies easier to produce more efficiently.

Together, Panduit and HarnessWorks bring simplicity and efficiency to harness assembly: fast, accurate, and flexible.

[cta]For answers to more questions about reducing or avoiding rework in your environment, call DSC at (770) 575-5100 or email info@deltasigmacompany.com.[/cta]