Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Electrical device making
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-26
2001-03-06
Young, Lee (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Electrical device making
C029S755000, C029S03300H, C029S747000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195884
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a wire harness and a method and an apparatus for manufacturing the same, and more particularly to the manufacture of one wire harness (or one sub-harness) by combining a plurality of partial harnesses.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 9-230711, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is known, there are a plurality of wire harnesses used in the electrical wiring of an automobile, including such as an engine harness, an instrument panel harness, a cowl side harness, a door harness, and a roof harness.
As a method and an apparatus for manufacturing such wire harnesses, as shown in
FIG. 13
, a method and an apparatus are known which use a wire clamping bar
101
in which a multiplicity of wire clamps
100
are juxtaposed at equal pitches. Incidentally, each wire clamp
100
comprises a pair of mutually opposing clamp members
100
a
, and electric wires are clamped therebetween.
After a plurality of electric wires
102
for forming one wire harness are cut to a predetermined length, opposite end portions thereof are retained by mutual adjacent wire clamps
100
and are held in U-shapes on the wire clamping bar
101
. In this state, end processing such as stripping (removal of an insulating sheath) of a wire end and crimping of a terminal is performed.
This wire clamping bar
101
is set in or transferred to a case fitting station
103
, and terminals
104
at wire ends are respectively inserted and fitted into terminal accommodating chambers (not shown) of a connector housing (hereafter, simply referred to as the connector)
105
by using an automatic terminal inserting device
107
.
A plurality of connectors
105
are arranged in advance on a setting table
106
as shown at reference numerals
105
1
, to
105
4
. The terminals
104
are inserted into and retained in predetermined terminal accommodating chambers of connectors selected from the plurality of connectors
105
1
to
105
4
in a predetermined order.
As shown in
FIG. 14
, the automatic terminal inserting device
107
has a mounting head
108
, a pair of terminal gripping claws
109
for a wire connecting portion
104
a
of the terminal
104
and a pair of wire gripping claws
110
are provided at a lower end of the mounting head
108
in such a manner as to be capable of being raised or lowered and of being opened or closed. Further, a pair of wire clamp plates
111
which can be opened or closed is provided at the lower end of the mounting head
108
, and a terminal holding plate
112
is provided between the pair of terminal gripping claws
109
in such a manner as to be capable of being raised or lowered.
Further, the mounting head
108
is provided in such a manner as to be capable of moving close to or away from the wire clamp
100
(or the wire clamping bar
101
) and of being raised or lowered with respect to the same. Further, a moving plate
113
for supporting the mounting head
108
is mounted on a supporting frame
114
of the case fitting station
103
, and is provided in such a manner as to be horizontally movable with respect to the setting table
106
on which the plurality of connectors
105
are arranged.
Accordingly, according to the automatic terminal inserting device
107
, the terminal
104
can be automatically inserted into the connector
105
by repeating the following steps a to d.
a. The mounting head is moved to immediately above desired wire clamp
100
of the wire clap bar
101
by means of the moving plate
113
.
b. At the same time as the lowering and raising operation of the mounting head
108
, an end portion of the wire
102
including the terminal
104
is gripped by the opening/closing operation of the terminal gripping claws
109
, the wire gripping claws
110
, and the wire clamp plates
111
, and is lifted up from the wire clamp
100
which retained the wire.
c. Then, the mounting head
108
is moved in parallel to the wire clamping bar
101
, and is stopped at a position opposing a desired terminal accommodating chamber of the desired connector
105
.
d. The mounting head
108
is advanced forward toward the connector
105
, and while the terminal
104
is being inserted into the terminal accommodating chamber, the terminal gripping claws
109
, the wire gripping claws
110
, and the wire clamp plates
111
are opened consecutively beginning at the front side, thereby releasing the wire end portion. Namely, the terminal
104
is automatically inserted and fitted into the predetermined terminal accommodating chamber of the predetermined connector.
Thus, there is an advantage, among others, in that, by using the wire clamping bar
101
in which the multiplicity of wire clamps
100
are juxtaposed, all the end processing of wires, including the cutting, retention, stripping, terminal crimping, and case fitting (insertion and fitting of a terminal into a connector) of a multiplicity of wires which make up one wire harness, can be handled on one side of the wire clamping bar. A method and an apparatus similar to the above-described method and apparatus have been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 5-55994.
However, since the engine harness, for example, is made up by numerous wires which generally comprise as many as 200 circuits (the number of wires: 200, the number of both end portions that are retained in U-shapes: 400), the number of connectors that are fitted to the wire ends is also numerous. As such, if end processing is performed with respect to these wires by using a single wire clamping bar, troubles are liable to occur, such as erroneous wiring of wires, erroneous crimping of a terminal, erroneous insertion into a connector, and entanglement of wires or terminals.
On the other hand, to handle numerous wires by a single wire clamping bar, an extremely long bar is required, and not only is a wide working space required, but also a pitch time from the cutting of the wire until completion of final case fitting becomes very long. Hence, the apparatus becomes large and automatic control becomes complex and expensive. Furthermore, if there occurs erroneous wiring or erroneous insertion or the like, since it takes time and trouble in correcting them in an ensuing process, wastage can occur such as discarding the entire wires on the wire clamping bar as defective products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks. More specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a wire harness which can be fabricated in a relatively narrow space in a short time, and in which erroneous wiring of wires, erroneous crimping or insertion of terminals, and entanglement of wires are unlikely to occur, as well as a method and an apparatus for manufacturing the same. In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a wire harness and a method for manufacturing the same which are suitable for production of a large variety of products in small lots.
In order to achieve the above objects, the present inventors first analyzed various forms of wire harness which are used in a single automobile.
Namely, as shown in
FIG. 1
, one wire harness WH is provided with a plurality of connectors C
1
to C
5
and connectors C
1
′ to C
4
′ in correspondence with its installation routes. The connectors C
1
to C
5
are connectors which are proper to a relevant partial harness and in which only terminals of wires making up the partial harness are inserted and fitted, as will be described later. The connectors C
1
′ to C
4
′ are hybrid connectors into which terminals of different partial harnesses are respectively inserted and fitted in mixed form.
For example, among a plurality of wires
1
making up a partial harness H
A
to one end of which the proper connector C
1
is fitted, three wires
1
5
to
1
7
are fitted to the proper connector C
5
. However, other wires
1
1
and
1
2
are connected to the hybrid connector C
1
&prime
Aikawa Jiro
Kudo Shigeji
Miyamoto Yutaka
Nakayama Tsutomu
Suzuki Hiroo
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
Trinh Minh
Yazaki -Corporation
Young Lee
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