Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Making electrical conductors of indefinite length
Patent
1995-05-03
1997-04-15
Aftergut, Jeff H.
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Making electrical conductors of indefinite length
156 55, 156 56, 156196, 156213, 1563084, 1563099, 156433, 156443, 1564771, 156499, 174 71R, 174 72R, H01B 1300, B29C 6306
Patent
active
056205406
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method and to a machine for quickly and cheaply manufacturing a bundle of thread-like elements where the bundle includes at least one branch such as the harnesses of tubes or electric cables commonly to be found in motor vehicles.
In the motor industry, electrical wiring is generally performed by preparing one or more bundles of wires on an assembly jig, in holding the wires together by means of tape or of a split sheath of plastics material, and in covering the assembly with a polyurethane foam or with an adhesive baize structure.
The sheathing or taping has the essential function of imparting a certain amount of cohesion to the bundle so as to make it easy to install along the structure of a vehicle, and simultaneously it forms a flexible covering that absorbs vibration and damps shocks between the bundle and the bodywork, which shocks would otherwise generate noise.
Such bundles are generally built up manually, taking a large amount of time, and the materials used are poor at withstanding aging or the severe environmental conditions that exist in the engine compartment of a motor vehicle.
Several methods exist for making a sheath around a bundle of electric cables, and one of them consists in enclosing the bundle of cables in a tape by wrapping the tape transversely to itself around the bundle, and then uniting the two lateral edges of the tape. That method is used, in particular, for applying thermal insulation to pipework. The problem which is poorly solved by known apparatuses and methods is the problem of allowing branches of the bundle to pass through the sheath.
One way of overcoming this difficulty, that has been proposed in the past but that is not satisfactory, is to place a sheath on branching bundles by building up the bundles on a board having means for determining the shape of each of the wires making up the bundle; the board including sheet material that is cut out to the shape of the bundle and its branches; the wires being placed on the sheet in their final configuration; the entire structure being covered by the same sheet material cut out in similar manner; and the wires of the bundle being enclosed between these two cut-out sheets that are united along their edges by gluing, welding, or by any other means. That method is labor-intensive and does not provide a satisfactory technique for rapidly sheathing bundles that include branches.
The invention differs from prior techniques of sheathing a bundle of cables or tubes by the way in which the problem to be solved is taken into consideration. A bundle including branches can be considered as comprising a plurality of bundles that are to be combined, which bundles can be treated successively providing it is not necessary to close the sheath at the junction point of each branch. Accepting such imperfect sheathing goes against the prejudices of those concerned with sheathing and insulation, but for the special case of cable harnesses and the like in motor vehicles, sheathing is not there to protect the wires of a harness hermetically, but is essentially used for lagging purposes in order to avoid noise. Thus, accepting small imperfections in the sheathing of cable harnesses in motor vehicles does not have any undesirable consequences on the main technical effect that is desired.
Thus, in a first aspect, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a bundle of thread-like elements such as tubes or electric cables of finite length, in which the bundle includes at least one junction point for a branch, and in which the thread-like elements of a branch are enveloped in a plane thermofusible insulating material that is wrapped transversely about the elements and that has its longitudinal edges united by welding.
According to the invention, when a bundle has a branch, each of the branches of the bundle is sheathed in succession by means of a respective tape that is wrapped transversely around the thread-like elements composing said branch, and the edges of the tape are united by welding except at the
REFERENCES:
patent: 3080892 (1963-03-01), Plummer
patent: 3128214 (1964-04-01), Lay
patent: 4566502 (1986-01-01), Kellogg
Bigot Henri
Caure Michel
Aftergut Jeff H.
Ferguson Jr. Gerald J.
Plasto SA
Safran David S.
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