EP0062413B1 - Apparat und Verfahren zur Herstellung von Kabelbäumen - Google Patents
Apparat und Verfahren zur Herstellung von Kabelbäumen Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- EP0062413B1 EP0062413B1 EP19820301173 EP82301173A EP0062413B1 EP 0062413 B1 EP0062413 B1 EP 0062413B1 EP 19820301173 EP19820301173 EP 19820301173 EP 82301173 A EP82301173 A EP 82301173A EP 0062413 B1 EP0062413 B1 EP 0062413B1
- Authority
- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- pins
- wire
- layer
- layers
- multiplicity
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 title claims description 12
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 title claims description 9
- 238000000926 separation method Methods 0.000 claims description 11
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 claims description 5
- 239000012858 resilient material Substances 0.000 claims description 2
- 230000008859 change Effects 0.000 description 3
- 239000000523 sample Substances 0.000 description 3
- 229910000831 Steel Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 230000009471 action Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000008901 benefit Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000006872 improvement Effects 0.000 description 2
- 239000010959 steel Substances 0.000 description 2
- 239000004677 Nylon Substances 0.000 description 1
- 239000004793 Polystyrene Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000010276 construction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000008021 deposition Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000013461 design Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000003780 insertion Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000037431 insertion Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012423 maintenance Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 229920001778 nylon Polymers 0.000 description 1
- 229920002223 polystyrene Polymers 0.000 description 1
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000000452 restraining effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 229920002379 silicone rubber Polymers 0.000 description 1
- 239000004945 silicone rubber Substances 0.000 description 1
Images
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01B—CABLES; CONDUCTORS; INSULATORS; SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR THEIR CONDUCTIVE, INSULATING OR DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
- H01B13/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing conductors or cables
- H01B13/012—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing conductors or cables for manufacturing wire harnesses
- H01B13/01236—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing conductors or cables for manufacturing wire harnesses the wires being disposed by machine
- H01B13/01245—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing conductors or cables for manufacturing wire harnesses the wires being disposed by machine using a layout board
Definitions
- This invention relates to the production of wiring harnesses or cable forms and in particular to the production of a multiplicity of similar wiring harnesses in a production run comprising a multiplicity of cycles in each of which a wiring harness is produced.
- the production of a wiring harness requires the provision of a wiring table which can hold a multiplicity of terminal pins or devices adapted to hold the ends of the plurality of wires that make up each harness. It has been proposed to employ an automatic manipulator or robot for the laying of wires.
- the wires in each harness start and terminate at different positions on the wiring table but are laid along paths which for part of their length are adjacent each other. This technique enables the wires to be bundled or taped together in the regions where the paths of the wires are parallel and facilitates the maintenance of the respective ends of the various wires separate.
- United States Patent No. 3842496 discloses an arrangement in which a machine applies identifying indicia to several portions of a continuous wire and marks the termination of each of the wire portions in a predetermined sequence along the continuous wire. After the wire is respooled it is placed in a numerically controlled layer machine which lays down the individual wires in a predetermined sequence along a predetermined path on the loom board. The machine severs the continuous wire to produce individual wires as they are laid on the wiring loom.
- the loom includes means defining gripping apertures for holding the ends of wires; these means are provided by elastomeric slitted sheets which are screwed to the form board.
- the form boards are not readily changeable and it is necessary, particularly for larger harnesses, to prepare different form boards for each harness assembly.
- United States Patent No. 3346020 discloses an arrangement in which pins are screwed to a base board in positions defining the paths of the wires constituting each harness, the pins extending upwardly through two perforated plates. Special devices are provided for holding the ends of the wires; these devices consist of helical springs between the convolutions of which the end of a wire may be inserted. The two plates are moved as one unit upwards relative to the base board to free the harness partly from the pins and thereby to enable the bundling of the wires. Thus the arrangement is effectively a two-layer table.
- a loom table for use in the production of wiring harnesses and for use in combination with a multiplicity of shouldered guide pins, the loom table being capable of receiving and releasably holding a plurality of said guide pins in position such that the pins project on one side of the table and comprising first and second superposed parallel layers, the first layer including at least one sheet of resilient material adapted to be penetrated by the pins so as to releasably hold the pins in place and to inhibit lateral movement of the pins, and the second layer permitting partial passage of the pins and passage of wire through it but preventing by cooperation with the shoulders of the pins complete passage of the pins through it, and actuator means for effecting relative separation of the first layer from the second layer in a direction normal to the layers.
- Such a table is more versatile than earlier proposals because with the aid of an automatic manipulator or robot the pins may be laid out in any desired predetermined pattern, to define the paths along which the wires in a harness are to be laid and, at the end of a sequence of production of harnesses, the two layers can be relatively separated so as to release the pins from the table, the relative separation of the layers being preferably accompanied by an inversion of the table so that the pins fall from the table onto a conveyor whence they may be collected and fed back to a delivery point at which they can be picked up by the automatic manipulator when it is desired to set out a new array of pins.
- the present invention concerns a loom table which is an improvement over the loom table described in our British Specification No. 2025272.
- This improvement consists of providing, instead of a two layer table, a three layer table characterised by a third or uppermost layer comprising a mesh of resiliently flexible material, the third layer allowing the easy passage of the shouldered pins, and actuator means for effecting relative separation of the third layer and the second layer, so that a completed harness is released from the pins and can be lifted away from the table at the completion of the laying of a harness.
- Another aspect of the invention concerns an improved method of producing wiring harnesses including the use of a three layer table as already characterised and including for each wire that is to be laid, the steps of injecting the leading end of the wire into the layers, looping the wire around a start pin, laying the wire along a predetermined path defined by other pins and finally looping the wire around a final pin so that both ends of the wire are temporarily secured until the upper mesh layer is raised to release the wire from the pins.
- This method of temporarily securing the wire to the pin is very convenient and requires no special clips or attachments to the table such as are characteristic of the current state of the art.
- a preferred form of the method includes the use of collars which are supported by the pins and provide spaced platforms for supporting the wire of the harness clear of the upper mesh.
- Figure 1 illustrates schematically in side elevation a loom table and the disposition of pins in the table
- Figure 2 is a plan view of a final pair of pins on the table shown in Figure 1.
- Figure 1 illustrates a worktable 1 in simplified form. In practice the table may be a metre wide and two metres longs. Figure 1 is intended to illustrate in greatly simplified form a completed laying operation for one wire.
- the table 1 comprises a rigid base board 2 which is carried in a frame 3 provided with clamps 4 for holding the base board 2 within the frame.
- the board 2 is overlain by a sheet 5 of readily penetrable material such as a dense natural or synthetic form, for example polystyrene.
- a sheet 6 which is intended to be penetrable by the pins hereinafter described but is capable of restraining lateral and upward movement of the pins.
- a suitable material for the sheet 6 is a silicone rubber.
- Above the sheet 6 is a steel wire mesh 7 which is carried by a frame 8 disposed around and slightly above the frame 3.
- a second steel wire mesh 9 Disposed above and somewhat separated from the mesh 7 is a second steel wire mesh 9 which is supported by a frame 10 extending around and disposed somewhat above the frame 8. Overlying the mesh 9 is a light mesh 11 of a resilient polymeric material such as "nylon" (Registered Trade Mark"). This mesh is supported by a frame 12 which extends around and is disposed slightly above the frame 10.
- the table 1 is intended for use in conjunction with locating pins such as the pins 13.
- These pins in the preferred form shown in the drawings, each comprise a central part 14 of slightly greater diameter than two shanks 15 extending one from each end of the central part 14.
- the step between each shank 15 and the central part 14 constitutes a shoulder of which the purpose will be described later.
- the pin terminates in a respective head 16 separated from the shank 15 by a short narrow neck 17.
- the pins 13 are double ended in order that an automatic manipulator which picks them up from a loading station such as a chute fed by a bowl feeder need not distinguish one end of the pin from the other. In other circumstances, a single ended pin could be used. Nevertheless the pins 13 in the form shown in the drawings have the advantage that they can receive a collar 18 which can be pushed over the upper head and shoulder of a pin. such a collar is useful for pins which are to support a multiplicity of wires extending along the same general path.
- an automatic manipulator will insert pins 13 in the table in a predetermined array. Normally, for each wire in the array there will be a respective start pin (13a) and a respective final pin (13d) and intermediate pins (13b and 13c) of which there may be as many as suitable for the particular length of the wire. Since the wires will over part of their length share a common path, although over short lengths the wires can be supported by the upper shoulders of the pins, it is preferable to dispose collars 18 over intermediate pins.
- pins are inserted in the table in pairs, side- by-side, the path of the wire extending between the pins of each pair.
- the design of the manipulator is not part of the present invention, it is preferable to use a manipulator which can change its heads.
- the automatic manipulator may use a head which is in the form of a tube of annular cross-section, this tube being coupled when in place on the manipulator to a source of vacuum suction so that it can pick up a collar and deposit it over the head of a pin, the head of the pin being received within the recess within the annulus.
- the manipulator would change its head for a suitable wire laying tool, such as preferably that described in our European Patent Application EP-A-0062412.
- the wire mesh 9 in this embodiment of the invention serves to limit the entry of the pins into the worktable and to facilitate their insertion to a constant depth.
- the lower layer serves to restrain the pins against lateral movement.
- Each wire-laying operation preferably proceeds as follows.
- a wire-laying tool to which a metered length of wire 20 has been fed and which is preferably capable of advancing the length of the wire for a short distance from the lower tip of a probe extending forwardly of the tool, is brought adjacent and parallel to the start pin 13a.
- the tip of the probe of the tool is passed through the upper mesh 11 and into contact with the mesh 9; the wire in the tool is advanced. This action drives the wire through the meshes 11, 9 and 7 so that the wire, is temporarily trapped. This trapping of the leading part 19 of the wire affords it a temporary anchorage.
- the tool is then rotated about the start pin 13a so as to produce a turn 21 of wire about the start pin 13a. This turn or loop provides a more secure anchorage for the wire 20.
- the tool of which the probe is normally raised at some suitable time from the position close to the mesh 11 to a somewhat higher position, preferably to a height just above the top shoulders of the pins 13, is then maintained upright but traversed so as to lay the wire between the pairs of intermediate pins and over the collars 18 thereon in the predetermined path according to the programme which controls the automatic manipulator.
- the end of the wire 20 is, by means of a movement similar to that required for producing the loop 21, traversed quickly around one of the final pair of pins 13d and 13e ( Figure 2), so as to produce a final loop 22 of the wire 20 around the pin 13d, and is then passed between these pins, the final part of the wire thereby extending between these pins. This action prevents the unwinding of the final loop and would usually be necessary if the wire is springy.
- the wire-laying operation is repeated for each of the multiplicity of wires in the particular wiring harness.
- the manipulator preferably changes its wire-laying tool for a tool which is preferably as described in our European Patent Application EP-A-0039188 or other tool which can apply securing tape at appropriate locations of the harness so as to bundle together those wires which share a common path.
- the bundling of the wires could be performed by hand but the use of a pneumatic tape-applying tool is preferred.
- the manipulator After the various wires in the harness have been bundled together as desired and in accordance with the programme controlling the manipulator, the manipulator is returned to a position in which it can change its tape applying tool for the collar-placing tool which replaces the collars on the pins ready for the next harness.
- actuators diagrammatically shown as a jack 23 are operated to cause mutual separation of the frames 10 and 12. This separation causes the mesh 11 to be raised relative to the mesh 9, by an amount sufficient to release the ends of the wires 20 from the meshes 11, 9 and 7 but less than the height of the collars 18 above the mesh 11 so that the mesh 11 does not foul the collars 18. Subsequently or simultaneously the table is inverted so that the harness can fall on to a conveyor. Rein- version of the table and the resetting of the jacks so as to restore the original relative positions of the meshes 11 and 9 renders the table ready for the production of the next harness in the batch.
- the wiring of all the harnesses in the batch proceeds by repetition of the wire-laying process which has been described.
- actuators such as jacks 24 (of which only one is shown) are operated to cause separation of the frames 8 and 10 and thereby separation of the meshes 9 and 11 with respect to the lower layer constituted by the sheet 6 and the sheets associated therewith. Because the lower shoulders of the pins cannot pass through the mesh 9, the force of separation is sufficient to withdraw the lower heads of the pins from the sheet 6 and the mesh 7.
- the separation of the intermediate and lower layers in this manner releases the pins from the table.
- the table is inverted before the intermediate and lower sheets are relatively separated, in order that the pins, when they are released, can fall onto the aforementioned conveyor.
- the collars 18 may be removed from the pins 13 after each wire-laying operation by the raising of the mesh 11 relative to the mesh 9 a sufficient amount to free the collars from the pins. If this expedient is adopted, the collars must be collected and fed back to a loading point so that they can by means of the appropriate tool be reinserted on the selected pins before each respective wire-laying operation. Alternatively, the collars may be removed at the end of the last wire-laying operation by a preliminary movement of the mesh 11 relative to the mesh 9.
- Various modifications may, of course, be made to the worktable and it may be used in a manner other than that particularly described above.
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
- Wire Processing (AREA)
- Supply And Installment Of Electrical Components (AREA)
- Looms (AREA)
Claims (4)
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB8109431 | 1981-03-25 | ||
| GB8109431A GB2095135B (en) | 1981-03-25 | 1981-03-25 | Production of wiring harnesses |
Publications (3)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| EP0062413A2 EP0062413A2 (de) | 1982-10-13 |
| EP0062413A3 EP0062413A3 (en) | 1983-03-30 |
| EP0062413B1 true EP0062413B1 (de) | 1985-12-18 |
Family
ID=10520667
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| EP19820301173 Expired EP0062413B1 (de) | 1981-03-25 | 1982-03-08 | Apparat und Verfahren zur Herstellung von Kabelbäumen |
Country Status (4)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| EP (1) | EP0062413B1 (de) |
| JP (1) | JPS57171536A (de) |
| DE (1) | DE3267972D1 (de) |
| GB (1) | GB2095135B (de) |
Families Citing this family (7)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB2121387A (en) * | 1982-06-08 | 1983-12-21 | Lansing Bagnall Ltd | Automatic dispenser for flexible discs |
| GB8304103D0 (en) * | 1983-02-15 | 1983-03-16 | British Aerospace | Filament laying apparatus |
| CH673370A5 (de) * | 1987-07-20 | 1990-02-28 | Komax Ag | |
| JP2765354B2 (ja) * | 1992-03-09 | 1998-06-11 | 住友電装株式会社 | 接続具における電線の敷線方法 |
| AUPQ446699A0 (en) | 1999-12-06 | 2000-01-06 | Kocijan, Franz | Switchable (variable) permanent magnet device |
| JP6526472B2 (ja) * | 2015-04-24 | 2019-06-05 | 矢崎総業株式会社 | ワイヤハーネス製造装置 |
| JP6558936B2 (ja) * | 2015-04-24 | 2019-08-14 | 矢崎総業株式会社 | ワイヤハーネス製造装置及びワイヤハーネス製造方法 |
Family Cites Families (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB1191338A (en) * | 1967-08-01 | 1970-05-13 | Thomas & Betts Corp Formerly T | A Device for Forming Wire Harnesses |
| GB2024052B (en) * | 1978-06-15 | 1982-07-14 | Lansing Bagnall Ltd | Method and apparatus for wiring loom production |
| GB2025272B (en) * | 1978-07-17 | 1982-06-30 | Lansing Bagnall Ltd | Apparatus for use in the production of wiring looms |
-
1981
- 1981-03-25 GB GB8109431A patent/GB2095135B/en not_active Expired
-
1982
- 1982-03-08 DE DE8282301173T patent/DE3267972D1/de not_active Expired
- 1982-03-08 EP EP19820301173 patent/EP0062413B1/de not_active Expired
- 1982-03-24 JP JP57048073A patent/JPS57171536A/ja active Granted
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| JPH0231448B2 (de) | 1990-07-13 |
| EP0062413A2 (de) | 1982-10-13 |
| JPS57171536A (en) | 1982-10-22 |
| GB2095135A (en) | 1982-09-29 |
| GB2095135B (en) | 1984-09-26 |
| EP0062413A3 (en) | 1983-03-30 |
| DE3267972D1 (en) | 1986-01-30 |
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