Shielding connection

A Routing Electrical design may require that you make a connection to shielding, which is material inside of or surrounding a wire bundle. You make the connection from the shielding to either a connector, or to a backshell attached to a connector.

The connection to the shielding material may require a physical component, such as a ring or a clip, or the connection may be a direct attachment (soldering) of the wire to the shielding material.

This section provides instructions for the design of harnesses that contain connections from an electrical connector or a backshell to shielding material, by a wire attached directly to the shielding or through a physical component.

Connector qualification

Qualifying a connector that is to connect to a shield requires no special consideration. The wire that attaches the shield may connect to any of the pins defined for the connector, although you can define a special pin (Virtual Port or Terminal Port) specifically for this purpose. Assign the characteristic unique_id to the port. Alternatively, create a multi port with a single virtual port defined. The Pin ID value is irrelevant other than it must match the Pin ID given for the wire in the Connection List.

Shielding component qualification

A shield connection component is necessary even if there is no physical component involved. If there is no physical component, the shield connection component simply has no solid body — this virtual component consists of only a fixture port.

Create a fixture port in the shielding component part file. Use this fixture port to attach the shielding component to the bundle path. If the shielding component has a solid body, position the fixture port at the location at which the bundle passes through it. You can give values to the extension and back extension values as needed.

A virtual shield connection component for use with a backshell consists of a fixture port only.

Use a fixture port (not a fitting port) since a shielding component is placed directly onto the path segment of the harness. A fitting port breaks the wire bundle at the component, whereas a fixture port does not.

Related topics

• Component Navigator content for shielding
• Routing Electrical best practices introduction