What is a wire loom? It’s natural to ask such a question since wires are an inherent part of any vehicle.
Vehicles cannot do without wires.
Today’s average car contains more than five thousand feet of wiring, which is a lot.
Properly managing these wires is critical; otherwise, it’ll be impossible to tell which wire connects to what.
For this reason, cars come with cable assemblies, wire looms, and wire harnesses.
Many people don’t know a wire loom and interchange it with harnesses and assemblies. We’ll address that in this post.
Table of Contents
What Is Wire Loom？
Wire looms are bundles of many wires, like cable assemblies and wiring harnesses.
However, they are unique as they typically feature more complex wires and layouts.
For example, a wire loom can feature different wires that connect to and perform distinct tasks in an automobile.
A wire loom can contain an assembly of multiple wiring harnesses.
Like cable assemblies and harnesses, wire looms require a bounding material to hold the wires together.
This bounding material is usually a braid, cable lacing, cable tie, or straps.
Wire looms offer the advantage of minimal space consumption. Also, since the wires are usually complex, they make installation relatively quicker and easier.
Cars don’t feature wire looms as much as they feature wiring harnesses and cable assemblies.
This is one of the reasons wire looms aren’t popular among automobile enthusiasts.
You’ll find the term “wire loom” more in the aerospace and automotive industries. Experts in the industry coined the term.
（Wire loom collection of wires）
Cable Assemblies, Harnesses, and Wire Looms Differences?
The distinction between cable assemblies, wire harnesses, and wire looms is minimal. So minimal that many experts consider them the same.
As a result, if you interchange cable assemblies, wire looms, and wire harnesses, you’re not outrightly wrong.
Nevertheless, check out the difference between the three below:
Wire Harness
Wire harnesses contain multiple wires in a well-arranged fashion. The wires are held together by a thermoplastic or thermoset sleeve, but sometimes, it’s just a simple wrapper.
Note that each wire still has its outer covering. So, picking out each wire is still possible while they’re in a bundle.
Furthermore, wire harnesses are relatively affordable compared to cable harnesses and wire looms.
（Close view of a wiring harness）
Cable Assemblies
Cable assemblies come with multiple wires bound by a more durable material.
In particular, the material is either thermoplastic rubber, vinyl, or shrink-wrap.
You may wonder why the material is more durable. Well, it’s because, unlike a wire harness, the wires in a cable assembly don’t have individual coverings.
Each wire depends on one outer cover.
As a result, it’s critical for the outer material to be more durable to protect the wires from harmful elements.
Harmful elements like abrasion, friction, heat, and moisture.
（Set of cable assemblies）
Wiring Looms
As explained, wire harnesses and cable assemblies feature multiple wires.
And so does a wire loom. But wire looms have more complex wires, which is the subtle difference earlier mentioned.
Due to this complexity, a wire loom typically relies on multiple binding materials.
（wire loom）
Conclusion
Wire looms are similar to cable assemblies and harnesses.
However, a complex collection of wires will likely be a wire loom. Sometimes, wire looms also feature multiple harnesses.
You’re not completely wrong if you consider cable assemblies, harnesses, and wire looms to be the same.
After all, each is an assembly of multiple electrical wires.
