Package making – Methods – Forming a cover adjunct or application of a cover adjunct to...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-23
2004-06-29
Gerrity, Stephen F. (Department: 3721)
Package making
Methods
Forming a cover adjunct or application of a cover adjunct to...
C053S415000, C053S131200, C053S135100, C053S136100, C053S118000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06755007
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a device for producing individual metal electrical contact parts that are joined together as a unit in a band for electrical plug-in connectors with a processing machine for single-stage or multiple-stage processing of a semi-finished product to produce the electrical contact parts and with a packaging device that is downstream of the processing machine in the direction that the band travels and that has an exchangeable storage and transport module to hold a certain length of the bandware consisting of the individual contact parts that are joined together. The invention also concerns a spool that has bandware wound around it which consists of a number of individual metal electrical contact parts that are put together as a unit in a band for electrical plug-in connectors as well as an individual electrical contact part for an electrical plug-in connector, each made with such a device.
2. Background Art
Metal electrical contact parts for use in electrical plug-in connectors, for example to equip a cable tree for a motor vehicle, are made as bandware. A known device for producing such a band or band section consisting of a number of individual electrical contact parts, which joined together represent the bandware, includes a processing machine into which is fed, on the input side, a sheet metal strip that is unwound from a coil or reel. In the processing machine, the individual contact parts are produced at a specified tempo in several steps, by punching, bending, and/or welding processes, and are still connected together at the exit of the processing machine. Downstream of the processing machine, in the direction in which the band travels, is a packaging device with an exchangeable storage and transport module. The storage and transport module can be, for example, a spool, which has a certain length of bandware wound on it. Here, to prevent interlocking of electrical contact parts in adjacent layers, they can be separated from one another by an intermediate layer that is also fed when the spool is wound.
After such a spool is wound with the intended band length, it can be separated from the packaging device and put into a warehouse. Beforehand, the spool is normally given an identification, giving the type and/or the size of the individual contact parts located on the spool, for example.
When the sheet metal strips are processed in the processing machine to produce the individual contact parts, the individual contact parts are also identified with a manufacturer's identification, as a rule using a stamping process.
The processing speed of the processing machine that is used to produce such electrical contact parts is so high that the packaging device normally has several spools arranged next to one another, so that when one spool is wound, the next one can be wound as soon as the wound spool is replaced by an empty one. However, one of the consequences of the high processing speed and the correspondingly fast winding of an individual spool is that there are mix-ups when the individual spools are manually labeled. This is especially undesirable if such identification also contains a batch number, since then the contact part that is produced is assigned to the wrong batch.
Traceability of the electrical contact parts used in the cable tree of a motor vehicle, for example, is increasingly desired, even if the electrical contact parts are produced in this way.
In the end such a contact part can be traced back to the manufacturer through such stamped-in company identification. However, this identification cannot provide information that could establish within what batch or within what processing interval such an electrical contact part was produced. Such information is also desirable especially for reasons having to do with product liability, since it would also be desirable for the manufacturer of such electrical contact parts to establish who received the section of band with such an electrical contact part, since an error coming from such a contact part can lie not only in the manufacture of the electrical contact part, but also in its further processing by the buyer of the spool.
In theory it would be possible for a batch number also to be stamped into such an electrical contact part along with the company logo. However, this has the disadvantage that every time the spool is changed, the stamping die in the processing machine would also have to be changed. Changing the stamping die in the processing machine normally takes several hours, so that spool-by-spool identification in this way is not economical. Moreover, it would also prove to be difficult to be able to stamp very small contact parts with the necessary resolution.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, starting from the prior art which has been discussed, the invention is based on the task of further developing a device of the type mentioned at the beginning in such a way that it can be used to identify the individual electrical contact parts in the form that is desired, without affecting processing speed.
This task is solved according to the invention by the fact that along the direction in which the band travels, between the exit from the processing machine and the downstream packaging device, there is a labeling device for identifying each individual contact part which belongs to a length of band assigned to a storage and transport module with an identification that identifies this band section and differs from the identification of other band sections on other storage and transport modules, with the labeling device being designed to identify the individual contact parts using a type of stamping.
To identify the individual electrical contact parts of a certain section of band, a labeling device is arranged downstream of the processing machine and upstream from the packaging machine, in the direction in which the band travels. This labeling device is designed to provide each individual contact part with an identification, with it being possible for all contact parts within a section of band to have the same identification or also a different identification. This identification of each contact part differs from that of other band sections.
To ensure that the labeling put on by the labeling device remains identifiable during further processing steps, the labeling device is designed to identify the individual contact parts using a type of stamping, for example by a burning in or a burning off process. It is expedient to use a labeling laser as the labeling device, since such a labeling device not only can ablate material to put on the identification, but also since such a labeling device can also put the identification onto each individual contact part with a high speed. Thus, such a device makes it possible for individual electrical contact parts which are produced as bandware and which are separated into individual parts at a later point in time in their use, to be identified in such a manner that even an individual electrical contact part can be identified, and this is done without affecting the processing speed when these parts are produced.
However, it is always considered sufficient for all the contact parts located on a storage and transport module, for example a spool, to bear the same identification. The manufacturer archives this identification in an appropriate way so that even at a later point in time it can be established from what batch and under what manufacturing conditions such a contact part was produced.
In order to realize an unambiguous assignment between the contact parts located on a spool and an identification of the spool itself which cannot be mixed up, a further development provides that the packaging device has a device to feed an intermediate layer when the band section is wound up onto the spool, and that this device for feeding the intermediate layer includes a labeling device for identifying the intermediate layer with the same information with which the individual contact parts of the band section wound on thi
Desai Hemant
Gerrity Stephen F.
Leopold Kostal GmbH & Co. KG
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