Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Material guide or guard – With material confining portion
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-24
2001-02-13
Jillions, John M. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Material guide or guard
With material confining portion
C242S564400, C029S741000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06186440
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire guide nozzle which is usable for feeding a wire into a wire measuring apparatus in a manufacturing installation for producing wire harness to be arranged in e.g. an automobile. Further, the invention relates to a wire guide nozzle unit and an attachment and detachment mechanism for the wire guide nozzle.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (kokai) No. 2-263533 discloses a conventional wire guide nozzle.
This wire guide nozzle assembly includes a first guide nozzle, a second guide nozzle on the front side of the first guide nozzle as a center and a third guide nozzle on the rear side of the first guide nozzle. The first guide nozzle is straight connected with the second guide nozzle through a connecting rod, while the first guide nozzle is straight connected with the third guide nozzle through another connecting rod. Provided between the first guide nozzle and the second guide nozzle is a wire holding section which includes a pair of opposing feed rollers. Also, another wire holding section having a plurality of calibration rollers is defined between the first guide nozzle and the third guide nozzle.
The first guide nozzle is provided with a wire pusher pin which penetrates the nozzle. The wire pusher pin has a wire through hole formed at the intermediate portion and a coil spring disposed on the base portion. When the wire guide nozzle assembly is not in use, an electrical wire inserted into the wire through-hole is urged against the inner wall of the nozzle by the wire pusher pin, in order to prevent the wire from being withdrawn from the wire through-hole. When the wire guide nozzle assembly is in use, that is, a pair of opposing feed rollers are closed to each other, then a release lever on the opposite side of the coil spring acts to press back a leading end of the wire pusher pin in opposition to the force of the coil spring, thereby allowing the wire to be fed. In this way, the wire is fed to a wire measuring apparatus.
Under condition that the first and third guide nozzles are fixed on profile members respectively fixed on two timing belts through bolts, a plurality of wire guide nozzles are arranged mounted in the longitudinal direction of the timing belts at regular intervals.
However, the above-mentioned wire guide nozzle assembly has the following problems to be solved due to the structure where three pieces of guide nozzles are assembled to each other through two connecting rods.
First, it should be noted that there is a difficulty of assembling three guide nozzles in a straight line. When the nozzles are not assembled in the straight line, then the rollers moving in the wire supporting area interfere with the guide nozzles, so that the guide nozzles may be damaged or the wire may be fed inappropriately.
Additionally, because of the structure composed of five components, there is a possibility that the components are mutually deviated from each other when a worker handles the wire guide nozzle. For this reason, the above-mentioned wire guide nozzle assembly has not been handled as a single unit and therefore, it has been used on condition that it is fixed to the above-mentioned timing belts. Under such a situation, it is impossible to apply so-called “outside setting” on the conventional wire guide nozzle assembly in advance. For example, when the wires have to be exchanged due to the required change in wire's color or diameter, the operation of machines (e.g. measuring apparatus) has to be stopped to withdraw or insert the wires. In such a case, the availability factor of the machine will be reduced. It should be noted that, under the reduced availability factor of the machine, the more the number of wires requiring to be exchanged is increased, the more seriously the productivity is influenced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Under such a circumstance, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wire guide nozzle, a wire guide nozzle unit and an attachment and detachment mechanism, all of which are capable of solving the above-mentioned various problems caused by such a poor assembly, and which are capable of the above “outside setting” thereby to improve the productivity.
The object of the present invention described above can be accomplished by a wire guide nozzle for guiding a wire being fed to a wire measuring apparatus, the wire guide nozzle comprising:
a long-size body having a path formed to penetrate therein in a longitudinal direction of the long-size body, the path allowing the wire to pass through the long-size body; and
a wire check pin provided for preventing the wire from being withdrawn from the long-size body when the wire guide nozzle is not in use, the wire check pin being installed in the long-size body so as to slide in a lateral direction of the long-size body and cross the path;
wherein the long-size body is provided, at appropriate intervals in the longitudinal direction, with a plurality of wire nipping spaces each of which allows opposing rollers to enter, the rollers being provided for nipping the wire being inserted into the path.
According to the invention, since the path for guidance of the wire is formed to penetrate the long-size body in the longitudinal direction, it is possible to provide the whole wire guide nozzle without requiring any assembling but assembling the wire check pin into the long-size body. Furthermore, the straightness of the path can be maintained at the time of using the single wire guide nozzle.
Additionally, since the plural number of wire nipping spaces are formed in the single long-size body, it is possible to bring the wire guide nozzle into a position where the interference with the rollers for nipping the wire is avoided, with high accuracy. Further, even when using the wire guide nozzle as a single component, it is possible to maintain the position of the nozzle.
In the present invention mentioned above, preferably, the wire nipping spaces are provided for rollers for feeding the wire, rollers for measuring a length of the wire and rollers for detecting a joint formed in the wire, respectively.
Also in this case, it is possible to bring the wire guide nozzle into a position where the interference with the feed rollers, the measuring rollers and the joint-detecting rollers is avoided, with high accuracy. Further, even when using the wire guide nozzle as a single component, it is possible to maintain the position of the nozzle.
According to the invention, there is also provided a wire guide nozzle unit comprising:
a plurality of wire guide nozzles for guiding wires being fed to a wire measuring apparatus, each of the wire guide nozzles including:
a long-size body having a path formed to penetrate therein in a longitudinal direction of the long-size body, the path allowing the wire to pass through the long-size body; and
a wire check pin provided for preventing the wire from being withdrawn from the long-size body when the wire guide nozzle is not in use, the wire check pin being installed in the long-size body so as to slide in a lateral direction of the long-size body and cross the path;
wherein the long-size body is provided, at appropriate intervals in the longitudinal direction, with a plurality of wire nipping spaces each of which allows opposing rollers to enter, the rollers being provided for nipping the wire being inserted into the path; and
a nozzle base detachably mounted on a base holder of the wire measuring apparatus, the base holder being provided so as to move up and down intermittently in accordance with respective wire introducing positions that the wire measuring apparatus can occupy;
wherein the wire guide nozzles are detachably attached to the nozzle base so as to be parallel with each other in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the base holder, at intervals coinciding with the intermittent movement of the base holder.
With the above-mentioned arrangement, the outside setting can be carried out under condition that the plural
Hoshino Atsushi
Yamakawa Nobuaki
Jillions John M.
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Yazaki -Corporation
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