Electricity: measuring and testing – Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components – In vehicle wiring
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-29
2002-09-10
Le, N. (Department: 2858)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components
In vehicle wiring
Reexamination Certificate
active
06448778
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to testing systems used during assembly of an article of manufacture, such as a vehicle engine, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for automatically verifying that a plurality of components are properly connected to a wiring harness during assembly of the article of manufacture.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention will be described for determining whether each of a plurality of engine components are properly connected to a wiring harness during manufacture of a vehicle engine. However, the present invention may be used for determining whether a plurality of components are properly connected to a wiring harness during manufacture of any type of article of manufacture, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from the description herein.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a wiring harness
12
includes a plurality of electrically conductive nodes (each electrically conductive node is represented as a black dot in FIG.
1
). During manufacture of a vehicle engine, each electrically conductive node of the wiring harness
12
is coupled to an ECU (engine control unit) for coupling a plurality of engine components of the vehicle engine to the ECU (engine control unit), as known to one of ordinary skill in the art of automotive technology. The ECU (engine control unit) is a data processing device that controls the operation of the plurality of engine components for proper operation of the vehicle engine, as known to one of ordinary skill in the art of automotive technology.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, example engine components coupled to the wiring harness
12
are an ignition coil
14
, a knock-sensor
16
, and a linear solenoid
18
. (A wiring harness typically has more numerous electrically conductive nodes than illustrated in
FIG. 1
, but fewer conductive nodes are illustrated in
FIG. 1
for clarity of illustration and description. In addition, more numerous engine components are coupled to the wiring harness within a vehicle engine, but three example components
14
,
16
, and
18
are shown in
FIG. 1
for clarity of illustration and description.)
Referring to
FIG. 1
, each of the plurality of components
14
,
16
, and
18
has two component nodes that are coupled to the wiring harness
12
with each component node being coupled to a respective node of the wiring harness
12
. A first component node
24
of the ignition coil
14
is coupled to a respective first harness node
26
of the wiring harness
12
via a ground node
28
. The ground node
28
within a vehicle is typically the chassis of the vehicle, as known to one of ordinary skill in the art of automotive technology. The first component node
24
of the ignition coil
14
is coupled to the ground node
28
which is in turn coupled to the respective first harness node
26
of the wiring harness
12
. The ignition coil
14
has a second component node
20
that is coupled to a respective second harness node
22
of the wiring harness
12
.
Similarly, a first component node
34
of the knock-sensor
16
is coupled to the respective first harness node
26
of the wiring harness
12
via the ground node
28
. The first component node
34
of the knock-sensor
16
is coupled to the ground node
28
which is coupled to the respective first harness node
26
of the wiring harness
12
. The knock-sensor
16
has a second component node
30
that is coupled to a respective second harness node
32
of the wiring harness
12
.
Further referring to
FIG. 1
, the linear solenoid
18
has a first component node
36
that is coupled to a respective first harness node
38
of the wiring harness
12
. A second component node
40
of the linear solenoid
18
is coupled to a respective second harness node
42
of the wiring harness
12
.
During manufacture of the vehicle engine, an operator couples each of the components
14
,
16
, and
18
to the wiring harness
12
. For coupling a component to the wiring harness
12
, each of the first component node and the second component node of the component is connected to a respective node of the wiring harness
12
via a plug coupler, as known to one of ordinary skill in the art of automotive technology. For example, referring to
FIG. 2
, the first component node
36
of the linear solenoid
18
is connected to the respective first harness node
38
of the wiring harness
12
via a first plug coupler
44
(shown within dashed lines in FIG.
2
), and the second component node
40
of the linear solenoid
18
is connected to the respective second harness node
42
of the wiring harness
12
via a second plug coupler
46
(shown within dashed lines in FIG.
2
).
Referring to
FIG. 2
, for the first plug coupler
44
, the first component node
36
of the linear solenoid
18
is connected to a male-half
48
of the first plug coupler
44
, and the respective first harness node
38
of the wiring harness
12
is connected to a female-half
50
of the first plug coupler
44
. Similarly, for the second plug coupler
46
, the second component node
40
of the linear solenoid
18
is connected to a male-half
52
of the second plug coupler
46
, and the respective second harness node
42
of the wiring harness
12
is connected to a female-half
54
of the second plug coupler
46
.
The male-half
48
fits into the female-half
50
within the first plug coupler
44
, and the male-half
52
fits into the female-half
54
within the second plug coupler
46
. The vendor manufacturer of the linear solenoid
18
provides the linear solenoid component
18
with the male half
48
of the first plug coupler
44
connected to the first component node
36
of the linear solenoid
18
and with the male-half
52
of the second plug coupler
46
connected to the second component node
40
of the linear solenoid
18
. In addition, the vendor manufacturer of the wiring harness
12
provides the wiring harness
12
with a respective female-half of a plug coupler connected to each of the nodes of the wiring harness.
During assembly of the vehicle engine, an operator manually fits each of the male-half of a plug coupler that is attached to a node of an engine component into a female-half of the plug coupler of a respective node of the wiring harness
12
to connect that node of the engine component to the respective node of the wiring harness
12
. For example, referring to
FIG. 2
, the operator manually fits the male-half
48
into the female-half
50
within the first plug coupler
44
to connect the first component node
36
of the linear solenoid
18
to the respective first harness node
38
of the wiring harness
12
. In addition, the operator manually fits the male-half
52
into the female-half
54
within the second plug coupler
46
to connect the second component node
40
of the linear solenoid
18
to the respective second harness node
42
of the wiring harness
12
.
Referring to
FIG. 3
, during assembly of the vehicle engine, the operator fits together each of the respective male-half of a plug coupler connected to a node of each of the plurality of engine components to the respective female-half of the plug coupler connected to a corresponding node of the wiring harness
12
. After such assembly of the plurality of engine components
60
to the wiring harness
12
, the nodes of the wiring harness
12
are plugged into a wiring harness connector
62
of the ECU (engine control unit)
64
to provide connectivity of the ECU (engine control unit)
64
to the plurality of engine components via the nodes of the wiring harness
12
.
The ECU (engine control unit)
64
is a data processing device that controls and monitors the operation of the plurality of engine components
60
for proper operation of the vehicle engine, as known to one of ordinary skill in the art of automotive technology. For example, for the ignition coil
14
, the ECU (engine control unit)
64
causes an application of an ignition voltage pulse across the first component node
24
and the second component node
20
for ignition of spark plugs during operation of t
Choi Monica H.
Honda of America Mfg. Inc.
Le N.
Teresinski John
LandOfFree
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