JPH0346926B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A. Field of Industrial Application The present invention uses a connector feeding device in which a plurality of crimp type connectors are loaded in a magazine to automatically feed an electrical harness to which crimp type connectors are connected. Relating to a method of manufacturing.

B. Prior Art A typical conventional method for manufacturing electrical harnesses connected to crimp-type connectors is that in the department that manufactures harnesses, covered wires are cut to a predetermined length, and insulation coatings are removed from both ends of the wires. After stripping off a predetermined amount to expose the core wire, crimp connectors separately supplied from the connector manufacturing department are crimped to both ends of the wire to obtain a single wire for the harness. Currently, the series of steps to measure the length of the wire, cut it, strip the insulation from both ends of the wire, and simultaneously crimp the ends of the wire to the core crimping part and the insulation crimping part of the crimp connector are predetermined. The wire crimping process is carried out using an automated wire crimping device according to a program.
A large number of the same type of electric wires having crimp connectors crimped at both ends manufactured by such an automated wire crimping processing apparatus are manufactured and stored. Harnesses typically consist of groups of wires of varying lengths (and sometimes thicknesses) that are bundled together into a cable, with the wires within each group being connected to the cavity of the connector housing. The connectors are color-coded according to the order in which they are inserted and fixed into the child storage chambers. Then, at the stage of assembling the crimp connector into the electrical harness connected to it, the color of the sheathing of the wires belonging to each group is selected according to the predetermined design specifications, and the crimp connector is crimped to the end of the wire. Push the connectors into the cavity of the insulating housing in a predetermined order (according to the color of the sheathing),
One crimp-type connector is assembled by locking and fixing with the lance of the connector, and the same operation is repeated for each crimp-type connector to complete one electrical harness. A series of operations for inserting and fixing the crimp connector into the cavity of the insulating housing are performed manually. Replacing such manual work with automatic machines to manufacture electrical harnesses requires complex equipment and high capital investment, although it is not impossible.

C. Problems to be Solved by the Invention As mentioned above, the method of manufacturing electrical harnesses including crimp-type connectors that relies on manual labor has been difficult to achieve due to the recent miniaturization and high density of connectors. There are problems with incorrect wiring caused by incorrectly inserting the connector into the cavity of the housing, and problems with terminals coming off due to damage to the lance due to incorrect insertion of the connector.In addition, the above-mentioned manual work requires skill and is difficult to perform. There is a limit to the improvement in performance and work efficiency, and furthermore, the management of connector parts requires considerable labor and cost.

An object of the present invention is to manufacture electrical harnesses in which crimp type connectors are connected, in contrast to the conventional method of sequentially inserting crimp connectors into a cavity. , and corresponding electric wires are collectively crimped, and then the crimped connectors are simultaneously press-fitted into a cavity, thereby providing a method for manufacturing an electrical harness.

D Means for Solving the Problems The present invention includes a plurality of connectors in which a crimp connector having an adhesive part, a lance, a core wire crimping part, and a covering crimping part is combined with an insulator housing is loaded into a hollow magazine. After forming the connector supply device, the above-mentioned connector supply device is attached to the wire crimping processing device, and then, the connectors are taken out one by one from the connector supply device, and a plurality of covered wires are collectively attached to the crimp connector. After crimping, these crimp connectors are press-fitted all at once into a cavity of an insulator housing, and the above-mentioned lance is locked to the housing, thereby producing an electrical harness.

E Effect The present invention provides a connector as a means for improving the process and workability by simultaneously inserting and fixing the connectors into a housing after crimping a plurality of covered wires to a plurality of crimp connectors at the same time. It is characterized by the use of a feeding device. That is, in the present invention, only the contact part of the crimp connector is inserted into the cavity of the insulating housing of the connector, and the crimp part is exposed to the outside of the insulating housing (third embodiment).
After assembling the connector (see figure), such a connector assembly is inserted into a magazine to temporarily hold the connector and the insulating housing together, and multiple such connector assemblies are connected in series. By loading the connector into a magazine to form a connector supply device, the crimping part of the connector and the insulated wire are simultaneously crimped, and the process of press-fitting and fixing multiple connectors into the housing at once is possible. is possible.

F Example The method for manufacturing an electrical harness of the present invention relates to manufacturing an electrical harness to which a crimp-type connector is connected. need to be explained. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a typical crimp connector used in the crimp type connector used in the present invention, and reference numeral 11 indicates a covered crimp portion for mechanically fixing the covered wire and the crimp connector. , 12 is a core wire crimping part for crimping the core wire of the covered electric wire, 1
3 is a contact portion for contacting another male connector. It is well known that there are various types of contact portions 13, so no further explanation is necessary. The lance 14 has the function of locking and fixing the connector in the cavity of the insulating housing of the crimp type connector by its elastic force. The connector is stamped out of a sheet metal material using a high speed press and is manufactured in a continuous state connected to the carrier 15 as shown. In the conventional harness manufacturing method described above, after a series of crimp connectors are crimped with corresponding wires by an automatic wire crimping processing device, the crimp connectors are attached to a carrier 15.
be separated from However, in the present invention, prior to the crimping process with the electric wire, the process is moved to a process of assembling the crimp connector and the insulating housing to form a connector assembly, which will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a conventional example of an insulating housing for assembling one crimp type connector by inserting and fixing the crimp connector shown in FIG. The insulating housing 21 is integrally molded from a plastic material and is generally a rectangular parallelepiped and an insulating block. The opening 22 provided on the front surface of the housing is a guide hole for guiding a male pin (not shown) inserted into the contact portion 13. Here, to avoid redundant explanations, the size of the housing in the direction in which the guide holes on the front are lined up is the width of the housing, and the vertical size of the housing when viewed from the width direction is the height of the housing.
The horizontal size of the housing when viewed from the width direction is defined as the depth of the housing. A cavity (connector housing chamber) 31 (FIG. 3) that opens on the back side of the housing fits with the outer shape of the contact portion to form a cavity that allows the connector to be smoothly inserted from the back side of the housing 21. ing. Press the connector into the cavity 31 against the elastic force of the lance 14 of the connector,
When the lance 14 engages the opening 23 in the bottom of the cavity 31, the connector is fixed relative to the housing 21. Although the connector is provided with a lance in the description, it is obvious that the connector can be fixed by providing a lance in the housing.

In order to carry out the manufacturing method of the present invention, it is necessary to assemble the connector and the housing before crimping the electric wire to the connector, and an embodiment of the assembly of the connector according to the present invention is shown in FIG. There is. Referring to FIG. 3, since the lance 14 is in contact with the entrance of the cavity, only the contact part 13 of the connector is inserted into the cavity 31 of the housing, and the core wire crimping part 12 and the covering crimping part 11 are inserted into the housing cavity 31. It can be seen that the connector is assembled into a connector protruding from the rear wall 32. The connector assembly in the state shown in FIG.
(Figure).

The housing 21 in FIGS. 2 and 3 is for a 5-pole crimp-type connector into which 5 connectors are inserted, but for example, a housing 21 for a 10-pole connector has 10 guide resistors. The housing has a connector housing chamber, and its width is approximately twice that of the one shown in FIG. 3 (the pitch is the same). Although the width of the housing according to the present invention changes depending on the number of connector pins, it is preferable that the height and depth of the housing are substantially constant. The reason for this will become clear later, but it is because the form of the connector supply device described later can be the same regardless of the number of pins of the connector, and the manufacturing system can be simplified.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, the magazine 51 of the connector supply device used in the method of manufacturing an electrical harness of the present invention and the connector assembly loaded in the magazine 51 will be described below.

The magazine 51 shown in FIG. 5 is a generally elongated hollow body, preferably made in one piece from a transparent plastic material. The interior wall of magazine 51 is shaped to retain the connector assembly of FIG. 3, as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. That is, the magazine 51 includes a pair of inner walls 41, 41' and 42, 4 surrounding the housing 21 of the connector assembly.
It has a hollow part in which the housing storage chamber formed by 2' and the connector storage chamber surrounding the core wire crimping part 12 and the covering crimping part 11 of the connector communicate with each other,
The connector storage chamber has an inner wall 43 surrounding the crimped portion of the connector to prevent the connector from slipping out of the housing 21;
44 and 45 are provided. The hollow part of the magazine 51 may have various other shapes, but the important thing is that as shown in FIG. The shape of the magazine is such that it can be moved in the axial direction of the magazine within the cavity of the magazine.

The connector assemblies shown in FIG. 3 are sequentially loaded from the opening at the other end of the magazine 51 with one end closed to form a connector supply device. The other end opening of the connector feeder in which a plurality of connector assemblies are loaded in the magazine 51 is covered with a suitable lid,
Or, after being covered with adhesive tape, it is attached to a wire crimping processing device.

Next, the steps of one embodiment of the method for manufacturing an electrical harness of the present invention will be described in detail below. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, a method for manufacturing an electrical harness 64 having a 6-pole crimp-type connector 61 connected to one end and 4-pole and 2-pole crimp-type connectors 62 and 63 connected to the other end is described. This will be explained with reference to the block diagram in FIG.

The mounting part 71 of the connector supply device provided in the wire crimping processing apparatus shown in FIG. 7 includes a group of connector supply devices 72 of a six-pole connector assembly,
Connector supply device 73 for a 4-pole connector assembly and connector supply device 74 for a 2-pole connector assembly
groups are installed, and the leftmost connector feeding device of each group is selectively discharged into passageway 75 according to a predetermined program. The connector assembly can be taken out from the connector supply device by pushing it out with a push rod inserted from one end of the magazine, or by pushing it out using air pressure. When all the connector assemblies in the connector supply device are used up, the empty connector will be removed. The feeder is removed and the right connector feeder moves to continue ejecting the connector assembly. The connector assembly discharged from the connector supply device into the groove-shaped passage 75 is sent to the crimping station 76 while maintaining the state shown in FIG. 3, and is arranged with the U-shaped crimping part of the connector facing upward. be done. Next, the six covered wires whose tips are stripped off to expose the core wires and arranged at the same pitch as the connector are sent out from the wire supply processing section 77 to the crimping station 76, where the six wires are The tip of the wire is 6
After being placed on the crimping parts of the individual connectors, they are crimped all at the same time. In the next step, all six connectors are press-fitted into the cavity of the housing at the same time (for example, by pressing the adjacent wires of the sheathed crimping part of the connector and pushing the housing in the axial direction of the wires), and the lance is engaged with the housing. Fix the connectors to complete the 6-pole crimp type connector.

In the next step, this 6-pole crimp-type connector and the connected covered wire are connected to a buffer cable away from the passage 75.
Move to station 78. In parallel with this process, according to a predetermined program, the wire supply processing unit 77 cuts the six wires to a predetermined length, strips off the end coating, and cuts the wires at a predetermined pitch. Perform processing such as arranging. Next, the 4-pole connector assembly is discharged from the connector supply device 73 into the passage 75, and after a short delay, the 2-pole connector assembly is discharged from the connector supply device 74 into the passage 75, and the two connector assemblies are They are arranged side by side on a crimping station 76. In this case, the connector supply devices 73 and 74 are connected to the connector supply device 72.
Since the 6-pole connector assembly is arranged in the opposite direction, the crimping part of the 6-pole connector assembly is arranged on the crimping station 76 in a manner that protrudes to the left side of the housing, whereas the 2-pole and 4-pole connector assemblies are arranged in the opposite direction. It should be noted that the crimping portion of the housing is placed on the crimping station 76 in such a manner that it projects to the right side of the housing.

Then, by exactly the same process as described for the 6-pole connector assembly, the 6 pins are placed in parallel.
The other ends of the coated wires are placed on the crimping parts of a total of six connectors in the two connector assemblies, and the crimping process is performed simultaneously.In the next process, these connectors are inserted into the housing. Two crimp-type connectors are simultaneously completed by press-fitting at the same time, and as a result, the entire harness is manufactured. In this example, 4-pole and 2-pole connectors were lined up and processed at the same time, but it is obvious that they may be performed sequentially, and multiple crimping stations may be provided to perform crimping in parallel. Other devices designed to increase efficiency will be obvious to experts in this field and need no further explanation.

Note that the example in FIG. 7 shows an embodiment in which the electrical harness in FIG. 6 is manufactured using a plurality of groups of connector supply devices, but as another embodiment for manufacturing the electrical harness in FIG. 6, A 6-pole connector assembly is loaded into one magazine, then a 4-pole connector assembly, and then a 2-pole connector assembly, and the order is repeated to create a connector feeding device. It is also possible to consider a method in which the data are extracted sequentially in the same order. Unlike the method shown in FIG. 7, this method can simplify the mechanism by making the passage of the connector assembly into a single passage, but since the connector assembly can be oriented in both forward and reverse directions, As shown in FIG. 8, the magazine of the connector supply device must include a pair of connector storage chambers 82 and 82' for one housing storage chamber 81.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, but the term "core wire crimping section" used in the explanation of the embodiments should be interpreted only as a connection to the core wire of a covered electric wire by crimping. It is obvious to experts in this field that it also includes types that connect core wires by fusion such as soldering and spot welding, and the technical scope of the present invention is Terminology "Crimp connector"
It is not intended to be limited by interpreting only the meaning of crimping with a punch and die.

F. Effects of the Invention The present invention simplifies the manufacturing process of electrical harnesses connected to crimp-type connectors by adding a process of using an inexpensive connector supply device to the harness manufacturing process. In addition to solving the problems of incorrect wiring and terminal disconnections caused by manual work, it also improves work efficiency and shortens manufacturing time. The burden can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for explaining a typical conventional crimp connector, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an insulating housing used in the connector shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view for explaining a typical conventional crimp connector. Perspective view of connector assembly, fourth
5 is a perspective view of a magazine of the connector supply device, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an electric harness for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a harness manufacturing apparatus for explaining an example. FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing another example of a magazine used in the connector supply apparatus. 11... Insulation coating crimping part, 12... Core wire crimping part, 13... Contact part, 14... Lance, 21...
Insulating housing, 31... Cavity, 51...
Magazine, 61, 62, 63... Crimp type connector, 64... Harness, 71... Mounting part of connector supply device, 72, 73, 74... Connector supply device, 75... Passage of connector assembly, 77... …
Electric wire supply processing section, 78...batshua station.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing an electrical harness to which a plurality of crimp connectors are connected, comprising: connecting the contact portions of the plurality of crimp connectors, each consisting of a contact portion, a lance, a core wire crimp portion, and a cover crimp portion, to an insulating housing. a step of loading a plurality of connector assemblies inserted into the cavity of the connector into a magazine to form a connector supply device; a step of attaching the connector supply device to a wire crimping processing device; and a step of loading the connector assembly from the connector supply device to the connector assembly. a step of taking out the three-dimensional objects one by one and fixing the connector assembly to the wire crimping station of the wire crimping processing device; and crimping the core wires of the plurality of crimp connectors of the connector assembly fixed to the crimping station. a step of placing the core wire and sheath of the insulated electric wire corresponding to the part and the insulating crimping part, respectively, and crimping the core wire crimping part and the insulating crimping part simultaneously; and a plurality of crimp connectors crimped to the insulated electric wire. A method for manufacturing an electrical harness, comprising the steps of simultaneously press-fitting the insulating housing into the cavity and engaging the insulating housing.