Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Combined
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-28
2002-05-21
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Combined
C174S1170FF, C174S261000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06392148
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a wire harness joint for connecting harness within a vehicle such as motorcar and, particularly, to such a wire harness joint which can be reduced in thickness, disposed within the vehicle at any position and yet assembled in an easy and simple manner.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For example, as shown in
FIG. 12
, an electric circuit used in the vehicle such as motorcar comprises a battery
101
, two trunk wires
111
connected to the battery
101
and branch wires
112
connected in parallel between the trunk wires
111
. Each of the branch wires
112
may include a switch
103
, an electric lamp
104
, a motor
105
or the like. A joint
106
may be used to connect between the trunk and branch wires
111
,
112
. Such a joint may include a splice terminal, a joint connector, a welded joint and others.
As can be seen from
FIG. 13
, the splice terminal comprises a terminal
114
clamped over the bundled ends of the naked and exposed conductors
110
a
of the trunk and branch wires
111
,
112
to be joined and a plastic tape or tube
113
covering the terminal
114
and naked conductors
110
a
to provide an insulation. Such a splice terminal has an advantage in that it can provide a compact and simple branch at any position.
However, this operation in which the trunk and branch wires
111
,
112
are naked to expose the conductors
110
a
and then the terminal
114
is clamped over the bundle of the exposed conductors
110
a
is troublesome and difficult to be automated. Furthermore, the covering of the joint section with the plastic tape
113
or the like must manually be performed. This raises a problem in that the insulating property is not made stable.
In place of the splice terminal, therefore, the joint connector or welded joint has been broadly used in the art. As can be seen from
FIG. 14
, the joint connector comprises female terminals
120
attached to the conductors
110
a
of branch wires
112
, a comb-like bus bar
121
fitted into the female terminals
120
and a connector housing
122
covering the female terminals
120
and bus bar
121
. Such a joint connector raises another problem in that it has an increased number of parts and is increased in manufacturing cost.
On the other hand, as shown in
FIG. 15
, the welded joint is formed by welding the exposed conductors
110
a
of wires
110
, turning the welded conductor portions, covering the turned conductor portions with an insulation cap
123
and winding a plastic tape
113
around the turned conductors. The welded portions of the conductors
110
a
must be turned in view of the structural and operational constraints. However, the turned conductor portions form a thicker bundle of wires which cannot optionally be mounted at any desired position.
All of the splice terminal, joint connector and welded joint structures raise a further problem in that they are constrained in number of joinable circuits, in addition to the aforementioned problems.
In order to deal with the increased number of circuits, the provision of a plurality of joint boxes for integrating a plurality of dispersed joints has been considered.
FIG. 16
shows such a joint box which comprises an upper casing
131
, a lower casing
132
mounted on the upper casing
131
to form a space therewith, a multi-layer bus bar
133
located within the space between the upper and lower casings
131
,
132
and an insulation plastic plate
134
located between the layers of the multi-layer bus bar
133
, the bent tips of the bus bar
133
forming male terminals
133
a
which outwardly protrude from between the upper and lower casings
131
,
132
. These male terminals
133
a
are connected to the respective female terminals on the ends of wires in a wire harness (not shown). The bus bar
133
is pressed and stamped from a flat conductive sheet which may be made of copper, copper alloy or the like. In
FIG. 16
, reference numeral
150
denotes a housing on the upper casing; and
151
through-holes formed in the insulation plate to receive the male terminals
133
a.
Recently, in place of such a combination of the bus bar
133
with the insulation plate
134
, a flexible printed board (FPC) may be utilized for the same purpose. FPC is connected to tangs on the tip of a wire harness, but not have the male terminals
133
a.
A further wire harness joint constructed according to the prior art will now be described with reference to FIG.
17
. The wire harness joint comprises wiring circuit assemblies
10
which are formed by wire harnesses and insulation films applied to a plurality of flexible linear and flat cables (FFC's)
11
on one or both sides in the middles or extremities of the wire harnesses
30
. Three transverse wiring circuit assemblies
10
are superposed on the longitudinal wiring circuit assembly
10
. Connection holes
23
are formed through the insulation films at the portions of the superposed FFC's
11
to be connected.
However, such a technique also raises the following problem:
Since the joint box is weight and bulk, a number of such joint boxes cannot be located within the motorcar at any desired positions. It is undesirably usual that the joint boxes are mainly located within the engine room and/or on the back of the firewalls. Such a constraint increases the length of wires in the wire harnesses placed within the engine room or the like.
Since the male terminals
133
a
on the tips of the wire harness must be formed by turning the tips of the bus bar
133
, the operation required thereby is troublesome. Furthermore, the bus bar
133
has its increased thickness, for example, equal to 0.65 mm or 0.8 mm, for the standards of tab thickness in the male terminals
133
a.
Consequently, the prior art bus bar
133
cannot be used to increase the compactness of circuit, resulting in increase of the joint box dimensions. Since an increased number of joint boxes cannot be placed within the engine room to increase the number of electric parts, the prior art cannot meet a need of improving the comfortability in the passenger motorcar.
In the wire harness connecting to the male terminals
133
a
of the joint box, the wires are colored while the tips are arranged in alignment with the pitch in the male terminals
133
a
of the bus bar
133
using the connector housing, the female terminals being then clamped against these tips. Such an operation is troublesome and raises a further problem in that the cost required to machine and work the parts including the female terminals and housing will increase.
Since FFC's
11
are parallel and linear in the wire harness joint structure of the prior art, it can inexpensively be produced in a continuous manner, but the superposing and assembling operations becomes troublesome. Thus, the prior art can only produce such a wire harness joint which the FFC's
11
of the wire harness
30
are parallel and linear with a reduced number of circuits.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wire harness joint which can be reduced in thickness, disposed within a motorcar at any position and yet inexpensively assembled in an easy and simple manner.
In one aspect of the present invention, it provides a wire harness joint comprising a wiring circuit assembly for connecting wire harnesses which a plurality of flexible flat cables are arranged in parallel, and insulation film applied to said wiring circuit assembly on one or both sides, said wiring circuit assembly having a plurality of flexible flat cables with connections for connecting said wire harnesses, said plurality of flexible being arranged separately from one another so that said flexible flat cables will not intersect one another, and said insulation film having windows formed therethrough at positions corresponding to said connections.
In the second aspect of the present invention, it provides a wire harness joint comprising a wiring circuit assembly for connecting wire harnesses which a plurality of flexible flat cables are arranged in p
Ueno Seiichi
Wada Keitaro
Wakabayashi Takuro
Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd.
Griffin & Szipl PC
Nino Adolfo
Reichard Dean A.
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