Automotive wiring harnesses and connectors form the backbone of a vehicle's electrical system. Without these components, the automotive circuit would not exist. The inspection of automotive wiring harnesses and connectors involves environmental testing, electrical performance testing, and mechanical performance testing. As some of the most critical components within a vehicle, their quality, safety, and reliability significantly impact the overall quality of the automobile. Failure of a harness or connector can lead to signal transmission loss, rendering functional devices inoperative; excessive contact resistance causing overheating or fire; short circuits; or insulation breakdown resulting in electrical leakage. Therefore, inspecting automotive wiring harnesses and connectors during production or before use is vital to ensuring their quality, safety, and reliability.
Falab Laboratory boasts a seasoned technical team and extensive equipment resources. Leveraging cutting-edge knowledge and deep industry expertise, we assist OEMs and module manufacturers in evaluating the quality and performance of mass-produced automotive connectors and wiring harnesses to meet the requirements of their end-use applications. This enables swift decision-making in component selection. Falab offers comprehensive testing capabilities and a full suite of inspection and analytical services for automotive connectors and wiring harnesses, covering:
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Appearance and Dimensional Inspections
- Surface roughness, profile parameters, roundness, cylindricity, line profile, surface profile, parallelism, perpendicularity, inclination, coaxiality, symmetry, positional tolerance, circular runout, total runout, axial hole parameters, length, width, thickness, diameter
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Electrical Performance Testing
- Dielectric strength, insulation resistance, low-level contact resistance, shorting bar contact resistance, constant current contact resistance, voltage drop, electrical intermittent contact, temperature rise test, current-carrying capacity, current cycling, LCR testing, derating curves, conductor resistance, insulation volume resistivity, withstand voltage
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Mechanical Performance Testing
- Insertion and extraction forces between terminals, terminal bending resistance, terminal-to-housing insertion force, thrust force, retention force, terminal normal force, connector mating and unmating forces, insertion and extraction forces of CPA (Connector Position Assurance) and TPA (Terminal Position Assurance), locking device mechanical strength, fixing structure mechanical strength, actuator mechanism mechanical strength, terminal and terminal hole anti-mismatch structures, connector anti-mismatch structures, seal retention force, board-end pin retention force, inspection of tractor electrical connector insertion/extraction forces, locking devices, ejection forces, locking device and cable fixation strength, low-temperature shear strength, static load, fretting corrosion, mating/unmating cycles, connector mating engagement sound, free-fall, drum drop, hose clamp retention force (high-voltage connectors), vibration/mechanical shock/three-axis combined testing, connector mating/unmating life cycle, crimping cross-section inspection, cable stripping force, cable low-temperature flexing, cable impact, cable abrasion, cable marking durability, terminal-to-wire crimping strength, insulation crimping bend test
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Environmental Stress Testing
- High-temperature, low-temperature, constant damp heat, damp heat cycling, thermal shock, rapid temperature changes, condensation, continuous salt spray/cyclic salt spray, mixed flowing gas, ammonia exposure, chemical resistance, IP (Ingress Protection) ratings, cable ozone resistance, cable hot water resistance, short-term/long-term thermal aging, airtightness, UV exposure, xenon arc exposure, ozone exposure, mold corrosion, HAST (Highly Accelerated Stress Test), solderability, soldering heat resistance, tin whisker growth, reflow sensitivity, liquid resistance, water immersion test, airtightness test
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VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) and Hazardous Substance Testing
- Component-level VOC testing (bag method, chamber method), material-level VOC testing, odor test, fogging test, formaldehyde test, total carbon test, tube method test, micro-chamber test
- Hazardous substance restrictions (ELV): Limiting the content and use of hazardous substances in all automotive components and materials.
- Reducing hazardous substance use during vehicle design.
- Ensuring vehicles placed on the market after July 1, 2003, are free from Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr(VI) (except as exempted).
- Maximum allowed concentrations for prohibited components in all parts and materials:
- Cadmium (Cd) ≤ 100 ppm (0.01%)
- Mercury (Hg) ≤ 1000 ppm (0.1%)
- Lead (Pb) ≤ 1000 ppm (0.1%)
- Hexavalent chromium (CrVI) ≤ 1000 ppm (0.1%)
- PBB (Polybrominated Biphenyls) ≤ 1000 ppm (0.1%)
- PBDE (Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers) ≤ 1000 ppm (0.1%)
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Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Testing
- Power line conducted disturbances (time domain), power line conducted disturbances (frequency domain), signal line conducted disturbances (frequency domain), radiated disturbances (antenna method), radiated disturbances (TEM cell method), electromagnetic immunity (EMS), power line pulse immunity, signal line pulse immunity, RF energy direct injection, bulk current injection, power line audio frequency coupling immunity, radiated immunity (antenna irradiation), radiated immunity (TEM cell), radiated immunity (stripline), radiated immunity (magnetic loop irradiation), electrostatic discharge test
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Cleanliness Testing
- Cleanliness refers to the degree of contamination by impurities at specified locations on parts, assemblies, or complete units, expressed in terms of the mass, size, and quantity of impurity particles collected from designated critical areas. "Specified locations" refer to areas critical to product reliability. "Impurities" encompass all residues, external contaminants, and system-generated particles during design, manufacturing, transportation, use, and maintenance. Reference standards include ISO 16232 (Road vehicles—Cleanliness of fluid circuit components), VDA 19 (Technical cleanliness inspection—Particle contamination of functional automotive components), PV 3370 (Automatic transmission and peripheral components—Foreign contaminant testing), ISO 4406 (Hydraulic fluid power—Fluids—Method for coding the level of contamination by solid particles)
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Metallic Material Analysis for Wiring Harnesses and Connectors
- Fracture analysis, welding inspection, metallographic analysis, plating analysis, mechanical property analysis, microscopic analysis, corrosion analysis, non-destructive testing
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Non-Metallic Material Analysis for Wiring Harnesses and Connectors
- Mechanical properties, compositional analysis, thermal properties, plastic electrical properties, flammability
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Failure Analysis for Wiring Harnesses and Connectors
- Failure analysis is a post-mortem examination of failed products to identify failure phenomena, modes, or mechanisms, and determine root causes. It provides recommendations for improving design and manufacturing processes to eliminate failures, prevent recurrence, and enhance connector reliability, forming a crucial part of product reliability engineering. Comprehensive failure analysis techniques include decapsulation, sampling, cross-sectioning, dye and pry, SEM/EDS (Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy), FEA (Finite Element Analysis), TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy), Micro-Raman Spectroscopy, XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), AES (Auger Electron Spectroscopy), EMMI (Emission Microscopy), SAM (Scanning Acoustic Microscopy), X-Ray, Infrared Thermography, XRD (X-Ray Diffraction)
