Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Patent
1995-11-03
1998-04-14
Vo, Peter
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
29749, 295644, 29 33M, H01R 4304
Patent
active
057378355
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing a wire crimping receptacle connector or wire harness wherein the electric conductive contacts are crimped into the housing's cavities.
BACKGROUND ART
A receptacle connector or wire harness constructed by electric conductive contacts each crimping an end of a wire core and a housing with a single row of the crimped contacts finds wide use in a variety of electrical and electronic devices.
Each housing of the receptacle connector into which a plurality of contacts has been inserted generally is produced by molding a synthetic resin. As exemplified in FIG. 7, a housing 1 is formed to have a plurality of mounting holes or cavities 2 into which electric conductive contacts are inserted at right angles to the longitudinal direction in order to be coupled to the housing. The mounting holes or cavities 2 are formed as through-holes into which the coupling pins of a mating connector are inserted so as to couple with the contacts or terminals of the first-mentioned connector. The housing 1 is provided with locking portions, which utilize the resilience of a resin, so that the inserted contacts or terminals will not fall out.
As shown in FIG. 8, a contact terminal 4 usually is formed by punching and bending work so as to project from the side edge of a thin metal carrier 5. In the example of FIG. 8, the forward half of the conventional contact 4 is formed to have a tubular engaging portion 6 the outer side of which is fitted into the mounting hole or cavity 2 of the housing 1. The inner side of each engaging portion 6 mates with a pin of the other connector. The rearward half of the terminal 4 is formed to have a V-shaped wire barrel portion 7. The recess of the barrel portion 7 receives the tip of a wire from which the wire insulation has been stripped off. The contact or terminal 4 can be crimped to the wire by being squeezed strongly from above and below. In spite of the tubular porion 6, the V-shaped portion can be used.
The contacts 4 are formed at a regular pitch along the side edge of the metal carrier 5. The spacing of the contacts 4 is considerably larger than that of the mounting holes or cavities 2 of the housing 1 owing to the expanded shape of the material necessary in order to form the engaging portions 6 and wire barrel portions 7 of the terminals.
The conventional receptacle connector is fabricated by cutting off the contacts 4, which have been formed along the side edge of the metal carrier 5, one at a time, crimping the wire cores to the contacts one at a time and then inserting the contacts, to which the wires have been connected, into the mounting holes or cavities 2 of the housing of the connector. With this conventional manufacturing method of cutting off the contacts, crimping the wire cores and inserting the contacts into the housing of the connector one at a time, production is limited to 60 wires per minute. Accordingly, in the case of a harness composed of a large number of wires, manufacture requires a great deal of time. The result is higher cost.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing a wire crimping receptacle connector in which the cycle time for crimping the wires to contacts and inserting the contacts into the housing is shortened over that of the conventional manufacturing method.
According to the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a method of manufacuring a wire crimping receptacle connector wherein contacts or terminals formed along a side edge of a metal carrier are severed from the metal carrier, end portions of cores of wires are gripped or crimped to respective ones of the severed contacts and the contacts are inserted into respective ones of mounting holes or cavities of a housing to couple them to the housing, the method comprising the steps of (a) severing a contact from the metal carrier, (b) inserting a distal end of the severed contact into a corresponding holder hol
REFERENCES:
patent: 4214361 (1980-07-01), Coldren et al.
patent: 4419817 (1983-12-01), Funcik et al.
patent: 5127159 (1992-07-01), Kudo et al.
patent: 5365659 (1994-11-01), Ueda et al.
Murata Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Nguyen Khan
Vo Peter
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