DE102015117020B4 - Method for producing a line seal of a line harness and method for producing a sealed line connection - Google Patents

Abstract

Method for producing a line seal (1) for a line section (2) consisting of at least three individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) and at least three sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3), the line seal (1) for sealing a connection section (20) of the cable harness (2) is formed with at least the following steps:- in a region (21) of the cable harness (2) adjacent to the connection section (20), a seal between the cable jackets (2m) of the individual cables (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) is positively fitted and/or cohesively created from the cable jacket material of the individual cables (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) and/or an additional material by introducing thermal energy and melting the cable jacket material and/or the additional material, with a separate sealing compound element for each individual cable (2.1, 2.2, 2.3). (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) is used and the sealant elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are designed as small cylindrical tubes nd, - in the area (21) of the cable run (2) adjacent to the connection section (20) around the cable sheath (2m) of the individual cables (2.1, 2.2, 2.3), a sealant element (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) surrounding the respective cable sheath (2m). ) is pushed on as an additional material and- the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are fixed at a defined assembly position next to one another in a respective parallel assembly section of the individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) before- the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are brought into a material-locking connection with one another by means of mechanical and/or thermal energy supply, such that the line seal (1) formed in this way surrounds each line jacket (2m) of the individual lines (2.1, 2.2., 2.3) in a form-fitting manner on all sides.

Description

The invention relates to a method for producing a line seal for a line harness and a method for producing a sealed line connection.

It is known in the art to use electrical wires to transmit electrical power and to transmit electrical signals.

Particularly in applications where moisture, water and liquids come into contact with the cables and cable connections, e.g. B. in motor vehicles, the line connections such. B. to protect spot welds and weld nodes of interconnected lines from environmental influences. It is also known that in the case of lines which are electrically insulated from the outside by a jacket, water or liquid can be transported in the longitudinal direction along the line. If water or liquid is applied to one end of such a line, it can be transported along the line to the other end of the line or to a connection point

Such water transport along an electrical line is undesirable in many technical areas of application. The line connections must be appropriately protected against the ingress of water. The number of lines in a connector is generally different and individual for almost every node, so it is necessary to master a wide range of values.

For this purpose, the prior art provides for two or more exposed, i.e. stripped, cable ends to be connected to one another (e.g. by welding) and for this connection point to be electrically insulated and sealed against environmental influences by a shrink tube pulled onto this connection point and shrunk on.

Known shrink tubing is designed and positioned on the line ends in such a way that it encloses the exposed line ends as well as an insulated line section adjacent to this exposed line end region over a large area and also at the end with an overhang. It is also known that the shrink tubes have so-called hot-melt adhesives in order to achieve improved insulation and sealing of the connection point. Another sealing technique is known in motor vehicles/wiring harnesses, it involves butyl strips that have to be applied manually around each line in a very laborious process.

Two or more electrical conductors can be connected to one another at their exposed connection points using a wide variety of connection types. The term connection is intended to include soldered and welded connections used in particular in the automotive sector, in particular ultrasonic welded connections.

A line harness or cable or line bundle is an arrangement of several individual lines (e.g. stranded lines) with an insulating jacket. In automotive applications, such cable bundles are connected to one another, e.g. by means of ultrasonic welding, and sealed with a heat-shrinkable tube. After the welding point, the lines may run in a disordered and not parallel manner in the longitudinal direction. This prevents the hot melt adhesive from spreading evenly and leads to leaks. Such sealing solutions regularly have problems, so that improved solutions are sought.

the DE 10 2008 026 352 A1 deals with the optimized sealing of such a connection point. However, this publication addresses the problem that at these connection points protruding individual conductor strands or protruding wires often damage the shrink tubing covering these connection points through perforations or notch effects and thus make them leaky and proposes a protective element for a connection point and a method for applying this protective element as a solution connection point.

Another problem that is insufficiently solved in the prior art is that the shrink tube surrounds the individual lines arranged next to one another like a jacket from the outside. However, it happens again and again that moisture enters along the insulation between the individual lines and along the insulating jacket to the connection point. A sufficiently reliable seal between the lines is not known from the prior art.

Other methods for producing a line seal of a line harness and sealing elements for producing line seals are, for example, from the documents US 2002/0 066 518 A1 , U.S. 6,107,573 A , DE 696 21 448 T2 , DE 87 08 736 U1 , DE103 57 000 A1 , U.S. 5,021,611A and DE 296 12 467 U1 known.

The invention is therefore based on the object of overcoming the aforementioned disadvantages and providing a sealing solution with which a line connection or a connection of two line bundles made up of a plurality of individual lines can be sealed reliably and cost-effectively.

This object is achieved by a method having the features of claim 1, a method having the features of claim 10.

The basic idea of the invention is that in an area of the line bundle adjacent to the connection section or connection section of the lines of a line bundle, a seal between the line jacket of the individual lines is formed with a form fit and/or material connection from the line jacket material of the individual lines and/or an additional material by introducing thermal energy and Melting of the cable jacket material and / or the filler material is created.

The second alternative mentioned above is, for example, the introduction of a special sealing element as an additional material around the individual lines (in particular before the application of a shrink tube), which is adapted to the line geometry in each case and the sealing elements are brought into a sealing shape, preferably with one another and with the individual lines, by means of energy input - and/or material-locking line sealing are brought.

1. a) in einem zum Anschlussabschnitt (Verbindungsabschnitt) benachbarten Montagebereich des Leitungsstranges werden um den Leitungsmantel der Einzelleitungen herum, ein den jeweiligen Adermantel der Einzelleitung umschließendes Dichtstoffelement aufgebracht;
2. b) die Dichtstoffelemente werden dann mittels einer mechanischen und/oder thermischen Energiezufuhr miteinander in eine materialschlüssige Verbindung gebracht, derart, dass die so erzeugte Leitungsdichtung jeden Leitungsmantel der Einzelleitungen allseitig formschlüssig umgibt.

According to the invention, a method for producing a line seal for a line harness according to claim 1 is therefore advantageously proposed. Such a cable harness consists of at least three (preferably also several) individual cables, with the cable seal for sealing a connection section of the cable harness being formed with the following steps:

1. a) in an assembly area of the cable harness adjacent to the connection section (connection section), a sealant element enclosing the respective wire sheath of the individual cable is applied around the cable sheath of the individual cable;
2. b) the sealing material elements are then brought into a material-locking connection with one another by means of mechanical and/or thermal energy supply, such that the line seal thus produced surrounds each line jacket of the individual lines in a form-fitting manner on all sides.

It is provided that a separate sealing material element is used for each individual line, which is mounted on the individual line.

The sealing elements are designed as cylindrical tubes.

Further, the cylindrical tubes may be formed of a heat-meltable adhesive (e.g., a hot-melt adhesive). In this case, in step b), in addition to the thermal energy for heating the sealant tubes, mechanical pressure can also be used in order to bring the sealant tubes in the melting phase into material contact with one another particularly efficiently by "baking" or hot-pressing them together.

It is particularly advantageous if the sealant elements or sealant tubes stick together as a result of melting on the jacket of the individual lines and thus form a circumferential seal around each individual line. The gap between adjacent individual lines is filled and sealed in particular by pressing the melted sealant tube.

If the process parameters in terms of material, temperature and/or pressure are set appropriately, a material connection between the sealant tubes can be formed so that the original interfaces between adjacent sealant tubes have partially or completely disappeared or are "baked" together with a material bond.

Provision is also advantageously made for the sealing material elements to be fitted to the individual lines, preferably in an automated manner, before the connection section is connected or welded.

According to the invention, it is provided that the sealing material elements are fixed in a defined assembly position next to one another in a parallel section of the individual lines before the above-mentioned step b). For this purpose it can be provided that an anti-loss element or a clamping element is provided.

The sealing elements can be fixed by means of a mechanical clamping element molded or formed on the respective inner casing, preferably an elastically acting clamping element, or by gluing or melting and material-locking connection of at least part of the inner casing of the sealing element to the outer casing of the respective cable casing of the individual lines concerned. This fixation is important for a defined position and enables the pre-assembly process as is usual in the cable industry.

According to the invention, it was also recognized that the attachment of insertion bevels to the sealant tube or shrink tube improves the ease of assembly.

The process for preparing and assembling the sealant tubes can be performed as follows: cutting, stripping the wires, attaching the tubes, fixing them in their intended assembly position and melting the sealant tubes.

The tubes can advantageously be cut from a hose to the desired length according to the diameter of the line. To attach it to the line, the inner diameter of the sealant tube can first be expanded using an expansion device. The tight fit on the line results from a clamping element as described above, which according to the invention can also be provided by a defined undersize of the inner diameter of the sealant tube compared to the outer diameter of the line.

Alternatively, the sealant tubes can also be produced with a conical shape and the "smaller" diameter in the conical area can be selected in such a way that the sealant tube clamps on the corresponding assembly section of the line as intended.

The entire process is preferably automated and designed to be monitored by control technology. Thus, the feeding of the sealant tubes to the assembly device, which have previously been cut to a desired length at a cutting station, can advantageously take place by means of a vibrating conveyor.

A further aspect of the present invention relates to an apparatus for heating the melting area of the sealant tubes. Thus, in step b), thermal energy can be supplied to the sealing material elements via a heatable pliers tool, the pliers of which provide heating elements which grip the sealing material elements for heating and the molten section is then preferably pressed using the pliers.

According to the invention, a method is also provided for producing a sealed line connection between a first connection section of a first line run and a second connection section of a second line run, both of which were preferably formed with a line seal using the method described above, with the connection sections preferably being welded after the connection Shrink tubing are at least partially shrunk, preferably completely covering the line seals.

As an alternative, it can also be provided that the heating for melting the sealing material tubes and the heat-shrinkable tube is carried out in one operation. For all applications, a heat-shrink tubing without inner adhesive is preferred for the sealed connectors. Alternatively, a shrink tube with inner adhesive can also be used.

Other advantageous developments of the invention are characterized in the dependent claims or are presented in more detail below together with the description of the preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the figures.

• 1 eine schematische Ansicht einer Verbindungsanordnung in einem Herstellungszwischenschritt;
• 2 eine schematische Ansicht einer alternativen Verbindungsanordnung bei dem die Dichtung durch ein „Verkleben“ bzw. „Verbacken“ der Einzelleitungen hergestellt wird;
• 3 eine schematische Schnittansicht durch einen Leitungsstrang aus drei Litzenleitern in zwei unterschiedlichen Herstellungszwischenschritten;
• 4 eine schematische Darstellung eines erhitzbaren Zangenwerkzeuges zum Aufschmelzen der Dichtstoffröhrchen und
• 5 eine schematische Ansicht einer Verbindungsanordnung in einer weiter alternativen Ausführungsform zu 2.

Show it:

• 1 a schematic view of a connection arrangement in an intermediate production step;
• 2 a schematic view of an alternative connection arrangement in which the seal is produced by “gluing” or “baking” the individual lines;
• 3 a schematic sectional view through a cable harness made of three stranded conductors in two different intermediate production steps;
• 4 a schematic representation of a heatable pliers tool for melting the sealant tubes and
• 5 a schematic view of a connection arrangement in a further alternative embodiment 2 .

In the following the invention is based on exemplary embodiments with reference to the 1 until 5 explained in more detail, with the same reference numbers indicating the same structural and/or functional features.

In the 1 A schematic view of a connector assembly 100 is shown.

the 1 is a purely schematic representation of a connection arrangement 40 in an intermediate stage of the method according to the invention, in which the two individual lines 2.1', 2.2' of a first line section 2' with their connection sections 20' are connected to the three individual lines 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 of a second line section 2 with whose connection sections 20 to a line connection 50 together by a weld connected according to an application-specific wiring scheme.

On both strands of wire, in a region 21, 21' adjacent to the respective connection section 20, 20', around the respective cable jacket 2m or 2m' of the individual cables 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 or 2.1', 2.2', there is a sealing material element 10.1 surrounding the respective cable jacket 2m , 10.2, 10.3 or 10.1', 10.2' applied, but not yet melted out according to the method described above. A shrink tube 40 is indicated schematically around the arrangement.

According to the invention, the connection arrangement 100 in the areas 21, 21 'by means of heat input in the 2 schematically indicated state brought. For this purpose, a heatable pliers tool 30 with pliers 30.1, 30.2 according to the invention, as in FIG 4 (also shown only schematically) can be used to melt the sealant tubes 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 or 10.1′, 10.2′ and, if necessary, to press them around the cable jacket 2m in a form-fitting and material-locking manner by means of additional pressure.

In the 2 another sealing principle is shown, namely a schematic view of an alternative connection arrangement in which the seal is achieved by gluing the insulation. In this way, the insulation material of all lines in a bundle can be glued together by applying heat and pressure, and then forms a solid and tight bond. In the case of thermoplastics such as PVC, this is achieved in a particularly advantageous manner. The thermal energy can be supplied by means of heating elements or by means of ultrasound.

The connection can be achieved, for example, using a pliers-shaped, heatable tool. This embodiment does not require any additional material, which is an advantage in terms of production and costs. With larger cable cross-sections, however, it may be necessary to add an additional material.

The entire process is preferably automated, with the processes being monitored. It can be integrated, for example, in pre-assembly and assembly lines.

The principle of action explained above is based on the 3 clarified again. There is a schematic sectional view through a cable strand 2 made of three stranded conductors 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 (also in two different intermediate production steps), which are each surrounded by a cable jacket 2m. In the left figure the 3 moisture or liquid can pass through the opening in the space 3 between the individual lines 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.

If the sealant tubes 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 are fused according to the method according to the invention or baked together under pressure, then a shape as shown in the right-hand illustration of FIG 4 line seal shown schematically 1. The space 3 is now completely filled with sealant of the sealant tubes 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 or sealed by baking. A combination of the active principles would also be conceivable in which, after the sealing material tubes have been melted, the melted phase is baked by pressure.

The line seal 1' is produced in the same way. At the same time or afterwards, the heat-shrinkable tubing 40 can be shrunk on, so that an as in 2 schematically illustrated sealed connection assembly 100 is obtained.

In the 5 1 is a schematic view of a connector assembly 100 in an alternative embodiment. A mechanical clip 4, 4' is arranged around the area 21 or 21' of the line strands 2 or 2', which represents an additional mechanical connection and prevents the seal from coming apart or leaving an unintended passage open.

However, the implementation of the invention is not limited to the preferred exemplary embodiments specified above. Rather, a number of further variants are conceivable, which make use of the solution shown even in the case of fundamentally different designs.

Claims (11)

Method for producing a line seal (1) for a line section (2) consisting of at least three individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) and at least three sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3), the line seal (1) for sealing a connection section (20) of the cable harness (2) is formed with at least the following steps: - in a region (21) of the cable harness (2) adjacent to the connection section (20), a seal is formed between the cable jackets (2m) of the individual cables (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) with a positive fit and/or created cohesively from the cable jacket material of the individual cables (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) and/or an additional material by introducing thermal energy and melting the cable jacket material and/or the additional material, a separate sealing material element (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) being used for each individual line (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) and wherein the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are designed as small cylindrical tubes, - in the area adjacent to the connection section (20). (21) of the cable harness (2) around the cable sheath (2m) of the individual cables (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) a sealant element (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) enclosing the respective cable sheath (2m) is pushed on as additional material and - the sealant elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) at a defined assembly position next to each other in a respective parallel assembly section of the individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) before - the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are connected to one another by means of a mechanical and/or thermal energy supply in a material-locking manner Be connected in such a way that the cable seal (1) formed in this way covers every cable jacket (2m) of the individual cables (2.1, 2.2., 2.3). tig form-fitting surrounds. procedure after claim 1 , characterized in that the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are mounted on the individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) on the defined mounting section before the connecting section (20) is connected or welded. procedure after claim 1 or 2 , characterized in that the fixing of the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) takes place by means of a mechanical clamping element which is integrally formed on the respective inner casing of the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) or is formed there. Method according to the preceding claim, wherein the clamping element acts elastically. procedure after claim 1 , characterized in that the sealing is effected exclusively by means of gluing and/or melting and material-locking connection of at least part of the cable jacket material of the respective cable jacket (2m) of the affected individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3). Method according to any of the preceding Claims 1 until 4 , characterized in that the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are formed predominantly or completely from a heat-meltable adhesive. Method according to any of the preceding Claims 1 or 2 , characterized in that the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) are expanded in the inner diameter by means of an expansion device before being pushed onto the individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3). Method according to any of the preceding Claims 1 until 7 , characterized in that the thermal energy is supplied via a heatable tong tool (30), the tongs (30.1, 30.2) of which grip the sealing material elements (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) and/or the individual lines (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) directly or indirectly when heated . Method according to the preceding claim, the melted section then being pressed. Method for producing a sealed line connection (50) between a first connection section (20) of a first line section (2) and a second connection section (20') of a second line section (2'), with at least one of the line sections (2, 2') having one after one of the preceding Claims 1 until 9 carried out methods were formed with a line seal (1), wherein after the connection of the connection sections (20, 20 ') a shrink tube (40) at least partially or completely covering the line seals (1) is shrunk on. Method according to the preceding claim, wherein both strands of wire (2, 2 ') with one according to one of the preceding Claims 1 until 9 carried out procedures were formed with a line seal (1).

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