Wireworking – Article making or forming – Forms and frames
Patent
1996-04-12
1998-03-31
Larson, Lowell A.
Wireworking
Article making or forming
Forms and frames
29755, B21F 2712
Patent
active
057327505
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method and to apparatus enabling a harness of electric wires or fibers or tubes or cables (hereinafter collectively and/or generically called wires) to be built up, i.e. to be shaped in particular by binding and/or taping.
The technical field of the invention is that of manufacturing electrical harnesses.
Electrical harnesses are made up of runs of electrically conductive wires whose ends are "processed", i.e. they are generally stripped and provided with crimped tabs and/or engaged in slots of electrical connectors.
The preparation of components for electrical harnesses can be automated, and apparatuses for that purpose are described, in particular, in patent application WO 93/00730 (L'Entreprise Industrielle) which describes apparatuses for inserting and handling electrical wire runs for the purpose of making up electrical wire harnesses; other apparatuses for manufacturing electrical harnesses are also described, e.g. in patent GB 2 087 760 (Yasaki) which describes devices for inserting and preparing the ends of wire runs that are to be used in making up harnesses; in particular, FIG. 8 of that document shows an electric wire harness having a ramified structure comprising a plurality of branches.
In the present application, the term "terminal branches" is used to designate portions of an electrical harness constituted by portions of wire runs whose ends are grouped together to make up an end (called a "free end") of the terminal branch, with the other end of the terminal branch being called a "node" and also constituting an end of another branch; in the present application, the term "central branch" is used to designate a branch extending between two nodes and not having any wire run end, being made up of solely of parts of wire runs and serving to interconnect at least two branches (which may be terminal or otherwise).
FIG. 8 of the above-cited Yasaki patent shows a conventional manner of manually building up electrical harnesses in which wire runs for making up the harness are placed on a work table or surface which may be horizontal and which includes pegs serving for guiding and positioning the various portions and ends of branches in an electrical harness, thus making it possible to hold said branches in position and allowing an operator to bind and/or tape together each of said branches of said electrical harness by hand; that type of apparatus enabling a harness to be built up manually is sometimes referred to as a "peg board".
Tests have been performed to enable the above operations of building up and/or binding and/or taping the branches of electrical harnesses automatically, as described, for example, in patent application EP 403 350 (Aerospatiale).
The apparatus described in that document comprises a horizontal work surface provided and parallel rectilinear guide paths along which pegs and supports can slide, each support holding a connector; the pegs or the supports can be put into place by sliding along the guide paths. The connectors and pairs of pegs are spaced apart from one another along the guide paths, and then pairs of pegs are moved towards each other so as to define nodes in the harness, after which supports are pulled transversely to the guide paths so as to stretch the respective conductors, thus making it possible subsequently to secure the conductors together mechanically so as to form branches of the electrical harness.
A system similar to the above is described in European patent application EP 490 795 (Ricard) which comprises a clamp for placing ties that is itself displaced by a robot provided with an arm; the apparatus further comprises a plurality of parallel conveyors between which slideways are provided parallel to the conveyors and receiving moving abutments which deflect and organize the branches of the harness; the harness to be built up is held firstly at its ends and secondly at its nodes by means of parallel clamps; the clamp for placing ties moves to different points of the parallel conveyors; that apparatus requires operator in
REFERENCES:
patent: 4835858 (1989-06-01), Adlon et al.
Larson Lowell A.
The Whitaker Corporation
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