Custom cable assemblies and wire harnesses from China, built to your drawing

For custom cable assemblies and wire harnesses, Aslan Sourcing offers a factory search project: we screen the Chinese factories that make assemblies like yours, visit the shortlist, negotiate in Chinese, pull samples and hand you a ready-to-order file, quoted per project. We have no standing partner factory in this category and no engineers, so you supply the drawing, the drawing is the specification, and we do not review tolerances, materials or design.

Other terms are on our pricing page. Factory visits, audits and inspections are charged at a day rate, with travel at cost. If we then manage the order, you pay a commission of 4 to 8 percent of order value, and the factory pays us nothing.

What to put in the request for quotation

A request for quotation (RFQ) gives comparable prices only when every factory prices the same assembly. Send your drawing with these lines filled in. This page gives general information and is no substitute for engineering advice.

IPC/WHMA-A-620 and its three classes

IPC/WHMA-A-620 sets requirements and acceptance criteria for cable and wire harness assemblies. It is published by IPC, the electronics industry association, with WHMA, the Wiring Harness Manufacturer’s Association (WHMA). IPC describes it as covering “materials, methods, tests and acceptance criteria” for crimped and other interconnections (IPC). Cirris, a test equipment maker, summarises them (Cirris):

• Class 1: the main requirement is that the finished assembly works.
• Class 2: the end-use environment would typically not cause failures.
• Class 3: continued performance or performance on demand is critical.

The class is yours to set. IPC’s rail addendum to the standard says the user or designer is responsible for identifying the class, and if the user does not document it, the manufacturer may (IPC). Write it on the drawing.

UL styles and what UL recognition of wire means

In the US, appliance wiring material (AWM) is tested and certified to UL 758, and UL Solutions lists more than 7,000 AWM styles (UL Solutions). Each style number fixes a construction and a rating. Wire certified this way is a UL Recognized component, and UL says using Recognized wiring components can help show compliance in the end product. Ask for the wire maker’s UL file number and check it in UL Product iQ, UL’s certification database.

RoHS and REACH

RoHS, the EU directive restricting hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, caps lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and four phthalates at 0.1 percent, and cadmium at 0.01 percent, by weight in homogeneous materials (EUR-Lex).

REACH is the EU chemicals regulation. Under its Article 33, a supplier of an article containing a substance from the candidate list of substances of very high concern above 0.1 percent weight by weight must give the recipient enough information for safe use, at least the substance’s name (EUR-Lex).

What we check at the factory

• Connector authenticity: purchase invoices from the connector maker or its authorised distributor, matched to the lot labels on the reels.
• Crimp height records: Molex calls crimp height a quick, non-destructive check and recommends at least five readings per set-up and a check every 250 to 500 parts.
• Pull test records: a destructive test, with at least five readings per set-up.
• 100 percent electrical test: every assembly on a tester programmed to your pin-out, with logs. The hi-pot test finds sudden insulation breakdowns between conductors (Cirris).
• IPC training: how many operators and inspectors hold a current Certified IPC Specialist (CIS) credential for the standard (IPC), and whether the site is on IPC’s Qualified Manufacturers List, which records Class 1, 2 and 3 for each site.
• RoHS and REACH declarations signed for each part number.

Our factory audit guide explains what a visit covers and costs. Before shipment, a pre-shipment inspection samples finished assemblies against your drawing.

Questions buyers ask

Do you already work with a cable assembly factory? No. Our standing factory relationships are in brushes and vacuum cleaners. For cable assemblies we run a factory search project for your part, quoted before we start.

Will you check our drawing? No. We have no engineers. The factory quotes and builds to your drawing, and we check the product against it.

Can the factory use branded connectors? Yes, if the quote names the maker’s part number and the factory shows purchase invoices. If you allow an equivalent, state who approves it.

Who owns the drawing and the overmould tooling? You do, if the contract says so. Put tooling ownership in writing and sign an NNN agreement (non-disclosure, non-use, non-circumvention) before you send drawings; see our NNN guide.

Can the housings be sourced in the same project? Moulded and machined parts follow the same factory search approach; see injection molding and CNC (computer numerical control) machining.