JP2000164315A - Automatic crimping method and its device for manufacturing wire harness - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make a stable crimp action regardless of the number of chucked electric wires. SOLUTION: A pallet P with connector housing C is moved on a rail L, and terminal insertion A into the connector housings C, crimp connection B of electric wires (a), inspection E of the crimped state and the assembling of the connector housing C are conducted. A required number of electric wires (a) are delivered from an electric wire sizing/supply machine 40, and they are chucked 53 at one end and sent to a crimping machine 30 for crimp connection. At the time of crimp connection, the gripping force of the chucked electric wires (a) is set to the best value for crimp connection. The pallet P is moved to the right and left, and the electric wires (a) are crimped to the required connector housings C and required terminals. The other ends of the electric wires (a) are likewise crimped by a crimping machine 20, and the electric wires (a) are cut. A wire harness with both ends of the required number of electric wires (a) crimped to the connector housings C is obtained by repeating these actions.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wire harness for automobiles and the like, that is, a wire harness in which a plurality of wires are arranged in parallel and both ends of each wire are pressed against a connector. The present invention relates to an automatic press-contact method and an automatic press-applying device for simultaneously pressing each wire end to a connector by selectively holding a press-contact blade corresponding to each wire end through a chuck thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, as shown in FIG. 14, a wire harness W for an automobile includes a plurality of connectors C ₁ , C ₂ , C
₃ (general symbol C) to which an electric wire a is connected. In recent years, the connection of the electric wire a to the connector C has been frequently used from the viewpoint of workability.

[0003] For this reason, the present applicant has disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-9 / 1998.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-106374 (Patent No. 2), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-106374 (Patent No. 2) discloses a wire and a press-connecting blade guide for reliably press-fitting an electric wire a into a connector slot (press-connecting terminal). Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-154423 discloses a technique capable of arbitrarily operating a plurality of press-connecting blades so as to press-connect an electric wire to a required press-connecting terminal of a required connector.
JP-A-10-241 and JP-A-10-212068 (Publication 4) disclose a technique of arbitrarily sending out an electric wire to be pressed (routed) from a plurality of electric wires.
In Japanese Patent No. 473 (Publication 5), a connector is placed on a movable pallet, the pallet is moved, and a required connector and a required terminal are associated with a press machine.
Techniques capable of performing pressure welding in a wiring mode such as shown in FIG. 14 have been proposed.

[0004]

In the technical development in the manufacture of the above-mentioned wire harness, for example, as in the embodiments described later, a plurality of wire ends are simultaneously gripped by a chuck, and the wires are moved to a pressure contact position or the like with the chuck. There is a case where it is shifted while pulling out. At this time, it is necessary to hold the electric wires held at the time of the transition so as not to be detached from the chuck and to position the electric wires in the chuck at the time of press-contacting, so that each electric wire needs to be held (held) with a certain force. On the other hand, when each wire gripped with a certain force is pressed by the pressure welding blade, regardless of the number of chucking wires, if the gripping force is constant, the gripping force of each wire fluctuates and its pressing action Is not smooth, and defective products are likely to appear.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a stable press-contact operation regardless of the number of chucked electric wires.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is arranged such that, regardless of the number of chucked wires, the gripping force of each wire to be pressed at the time of pressing is constant. It is. If the fixed gripping force is set to a value at which the optimum pressing action is performed by experiments or the like, each wire is pressed in the best condition.

As a specific configuration of this solution, when manufacturing a wire harness in which a plurality of electric wires are arranged in parallel and both ends of each of the electric wires are pressed against a connector, the ends of each of the electric wires are simultaneously gripped by a chuck. In an automatic pressure welding apparatus for selectively inserting a press-contact blade corresponding to each wire end into a chuck and pressing each wire end to a connector, the chuck includes upper and lower slits opened on upper and lower surfaces and front and rear orthogonal to the upper and lower slits. A guide having a horizontal slit opened on the surface, and a slide plate having a slit corresponding to the horizontal slit, a press-contact blade of a pressing machine is inserted into the upper and lower slits, and the electric wire passes through the slit of the horizontal slit and the slide plate. The wire is gripped and chucked by adjusting the degree of correspondence between the side slit of the guide and the slit of the slide plate. The gripping force of the slide plate is adjusted according to the number of electrical wire gripping force of the wire to be pressed can be adopted a structure that was set to be constant.

In this configuration, since each wire end can be selectively pressed to a required pressure contact terminal of a required connector, the wire a is pressed against a plurality of connectors C shown in FIG. 14 in a cross state. Various aspects of the wire harness W can be easily and smoothly obtained.

The adjustment of the gripping force can be performed by applying the gripping force of the slide plate by an air cylinder and adjusting the air pressure to the air cylinder in accordance with the number of chucked electric wires.

[0010] In order to improve the productivity of the automatic pressure welding machine, a pallet on which the connector is arranged is movably provided on a rail on a gantry, and a pair of pressure welding machines are provided along the rail. The pallet can be moved between the two crimping machines so that the connector faces the crimping portion, and a wire measuring feeder and a wire cutting machine are attached to one of the crimping machines, and a wire chuck is provided at the tip. Arm provided to reciprocate the chuck between the two pressure welding machines,
The wire measuring and sending machine is for simultaneously sending out a plurality of wires each of a required length, and the two pressure welding machines are capable of selectively pressing a plurality of each wire to a required pressure contact terminal of a required connector. A certain configuration is adopted.

In this configuration, the cut end of the electric wire before feeding is chucked by the chuck, and while the electric wire is sent out by the electric wire measuring and feeding machine, the chuck is guided to the other press-contacting machine, and the press-contacting machine uses the chuck. When the cut end of the electric wire is pressed against the connector and sent out for a required length, the electric wire is cut by the above-mentioned wire cutter, and the cut end is pressed against the connector by the one press-connecting machine.

The pressing blade of the pressing machine comprises a blade which enters the slit of the chuck to press the electric wire and a pressing blade which comes into contact with the electric wire derived from the chuck, and the pressing blade presses down the electric wire simultaneously with the pressing. If this is the case, the wire portion (the contact portion of the holding blade) close to the press-contact portion of the wire is pressed down and follows the press-contact portion as the press-contact is performed, so that the wire press-contact portion is smoothly pressed into the press-contact terminal.

In the automatic pressure welding apparatus, a terminal mounting machine along the rail is provided at a stage preceding the one pressure welding machine, and an inspection / assembly machine along the rail is provided at a stage subsequent to the other pressure welding machine. Is capable of inserting a pressure contact terminal into an arbitrary cavity of the connector housing, and the inspection / assembly machine inspects the pressure contact state of the wire end,
It is possible to adopt a configuration in which only good connectors are assembled.

[0014] By doing so, the manufacture of the wire harness becomes smoother and the number of defective products is reduced as much as possible. In addition, if the terminal mounting machine is capable of inserting a press-contact terminal into an arbitrary cavity, it is possible to shift to the next step of press-contact without inserting a terminal into a cavity into which an electric wire is not press-fitted, thereby reducing component costs. . This arbitrary insertion may be performed by controlling the operation of the inserter according to the terminal aspect of the connector. By the way, if a connector in which a required terminal such as an empty cavity is inserted is separately prepared and sent to the pressure welding step, the number of parts increases, and there is a risk of management and mixing of wrong parts. Inspection of the press-fitted state of the wire end includes the presence or absence of a press-fitted wire to the press-fitted terminal, the leading edge, the degree of crimping (state) of the barrel portion, and the like.

[0015]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of one embodiment,
A rail L is provided on a gantry H, and a terminal mounting machine A, a wire pressure welding device B, an inspection / assembly machine E, and a setting portion D of a connector C are provided along the rail L. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 13, after the electric wire a is pressed against the respective housings C ₂₁ and C ₂₂ of the connector C _{2 including} the upper connector housing C ₂₁ and the lower connector housing C ₂₂ as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 13, the wire harness W shown in FIG. 14 is formed by fitting the two housings C ₂₁ and C ₂₂ together. The wire harness W
In the connectors C ₁ , C ₂ , and C ₃ , C ₂ and C ₃ are as shown in FIG. 13, and C ₁ has _{one more} terminal (the number of cavities). The required number of terminals t are inserted into the cavity s of the housing. Upper lid of the upper connector housing C _11, C _21, C ₃₁ cleaves connecting n, 13
By inverting as shown by the arrow in FIG.
(Refer to Japanese Patent Application No. 9-1453 for details)
No. 28).

Each connector (housing) C is manually set in a setting section D from a stocker Q.
Fitted (arranged) in the recess of the pallet P shown in FIG.
As shown by arrows in FIG. 1, the lifter and the conveyor pass through the gantry H to reach the terminal mounting machine A by a lifter and a conveyor (not shown). The pallet P reaching the terminal mounting machine A is moved by a respective ball screw type transfer machine (not shown) provided along the rail L corresponding to the terminal mounting machine A, the wire pressure welding apparatus B, and the inspection / assembly machine E. The required amount is sent and passed to the next stage. In the pressing and inspection process, the pallet P is reciprocated.

The terminal mounting machine A is composed of a terminal reel 10 and a terminal cutting / inserting unit 11, and a terminal band in which terminals t are connected in parallel in a band shape is sent from the reel 10 to the unit 11, and in the unit 11, It is cut into each terminal t and inserted into a required cavity s of the housing C on the pallet P. The cavity s to be inserted is set in advance and is determined by the movement of the pallet P. When the terminal insertion is completed, the pallet P is transferred to the wire pressing apparatus B in the next step.

The wire pressure welding apparatus B includes two pressure welding machines 20, 3
0, and an electric wire measuring and sending machine 40 and an electric wire transfer and swivel unit 50 attached to one of the press welding machines 20. The wire measuring feeder 40 includes a wire brake unit 41, a wire feed amount encoder unit 42, and a wire feed unit 43, and a required number of wires a of a required color are delivered to the press-connecting machine 20 having a required length (one). For details of this wire measuring and sending machine, refer to the above publications 3 and 4.

The details of one press contacting machine 20 are shown in FIGS.
Is moved up and down to press the electric wire a against the terminal t in the housing C. For the structure and operation of the press welding machine 20, refer to the above-mentioned publication 2. An electric wire guide 23 is provided below the plurality of press-contact blades 22 so as to be able to move up and down. The guide 23 opens in front and rear surfaces perpendicular to the vertical slit 24 through which the press-contact blade 22 is inserted and the slit 24. A required number of electric wires a are fed from the electric wire measuring and sending machine 40 in a state where the electric wire a has the horizontal slit 25 and is raised. An electric wire aligning tool 26 that can be moved up and down is provided on the front surface of the guide 23, and the electric wire a inserted into the guide 23 is aligned by descending. The guide 23 and the aligning tool 26 are simultaneously pressed (the pressing blade 22
At the same time as the falling). The guide 23 has substantially the same configuration as that of the chuck 53 described later, and see FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, two other pressure welding machines 30 are provided, and both have the same construction and operation as the above-described one pressure welding machine 20. That is, an arbitrary press contact blade 32 is moved up and down by the servo motor 31 to perform press contact. The reason why the two units are provided is to make it easier to cope with the connectors C having different terminal shapes and arrangements. For example, the shape of the press contact blade 32 is different. The two pressure welding machines 30, 30
Is made to correspond to the pressure contact position of the pallet P (housing C) by sliding as shown by the arrow in FIG. Each of the crimping machines 20 and 30 has a crimping bottom dead center stroke sensor 27,
37 is provided so as to have a required press-contact depth.

The electric wire transfer turning unit 50 includes a motor 51
, A chuck 53 is provided at the tip of an arm 52 that reciprocates 180 degrees. As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the chuck 53 has a guide 56 having a slit 54 in the vertical direction, a slit 55 orthogonal to the slit 54 and opening on the front and rear surfaces, and a slide plate having a slit 57 fitted in the guide 56. 58. The slide plate 58 moves forward and backward as indicated by the arrow in FIG.
As shown in (b), the electric wire a is gripped by the guide 56 and chucked.

As shown in FIG. 10A, an electric / pneumatic regulator 61 is connected to the air cylinder 59 via a switching valve 60, and a constant pressure compressed air source 62 is connected to the regulator 61. I have. The regulator 61 adjusts the secondary air pressure fed to the switching valve 60 according to the applied voltage, as shown in FIG. 2B. For example, when the compressed air source 62 is 8 kg / cm ² , The secondary air pressure proportional to the applied voltage as shown in FIG.
Send to For this reason, according to the number of the electric wires a chucked to the chuck 53, the gripping force of each electric wire a is best for the pressure welding so that the gripping force of each electric wire a becomes constant, for example, one or three. The regulator 63 is controlled by the controller 63 so that the constant value of. As shown in FIG. 11, the control of each applied pressure to the air cylinder 59 is performed by reducing the pressure of the pressure reducing valves 64 ₁ , 64 ₂ , 6 to obtain a gripping force corresponding to the number of electric wires.
4 ₃ ... Are connected to the compressed air source 62, and each of the valves 64 ₁ .
The opening and closing valves 65 ₁ , 65 ₂ ... Can be opened and closed.

As shown in FIG. 8, the pressing blades 22 and 32
The blades 22a and 32a for pressing the electric wire a and the pressing blade 22 for contacting the electric wire a protruding from the chuck 53 (guide 23).
b, 32b. For this reason, along with the pressing action,
As shown in the dashed line in FIG.
24, and presses and presses the wire a therein, and at the same time, the presser blades 22b and 32b also push down the protruding wire a following the press-contact and bend to the wire a. A smooth press-contacting action is performed so as not to occur.

Now, when the pallet P is sent from the terminal mounting machine A to the wire pressure welding device B, the arm 52 pivots toward one pressure welding machine 20 as shown in FIG. 23, the required wire a is fed into the required number guide 23 and the chucks 53 (slits 25 and 55) from the wire measuring feeder 40 in that state, and the chuck 53 described later is connected to another pressing machine by another pressing machine. When the length corresponds to 30, the feed amount is determined so that the required press-contact length is obtained. After the sent electric wire a is aligned by the aligning tool 26 (FIG. 3), the air cylinder 59 operates to be clamped by the slide plate 58.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, the arm 52 pivots toward the other press machine 30, and the pallet P also moves toward the other press machine 30. The pallet P may have been shifted in advance. At this time, the wire measuring and sending machine 40
Sends out each electric wire a after measuring the required length. As shown in FIG. 6, when the chuck 53 moves along with another press-contacting machine 30, the press-contacting machine 30 operates, and at this time, the pallet P moves left and right,
The end A of the electric wire a is pressed into contact with a required housing C and a required terminal t. At the time of this pressure contact, the suction force of the air cylinder 59 is controlled according to the number of electric wires to be chucked, and pressure contact is always performed under an optimal gripping force. When the crimping of the A ends of all the chucked electric wires a is completed, the pallet P moves to one crimping machine 20 side.

When the pallet P corresponds to the press-contacting machine 20, the press-contact blade 22 descends together with the guide 23, and the pallet P moves left and right, so that the B end of the electric wire a is pressed against the required housing C and the required terminal t. You. At this time, the electric wire a is cut by the pressing blade 22 together with the pressing operation. For this reason, in this embodiment, the pressure welding machine 20 also serves as an electric wire cutting machine. This cutting machine may be provided separately. See Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2 for cutting the electric wire by the press contact blade 22.

When the press-contact at the B-ends of all the electric wires a sent from the guide 23 is completed, as shown in FIG. 2, the arm 53 pivots toward one press-contacting machine 20 again, and thereafter the same operation is performed. The electric wire a is pressed against the housing C repeatedly. The pallet P after the wire pressure welding is transferred to the next inspection / combining machine E. In addition, the pallet P is connected to the pressure welding machines 20, 3
See Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H11-133873 for the action of moving the wire a in a cross shape or the like by moving the wire a relative to zero.

When the pallet P of the housing C in which the pressure welding of the wire a is completed is sent to the inspection / assembly machine E, the height of the terminal t with respect to the housing C, the pressure welding height of the wire a, etc. Are inspected, and the image processing inspection device 70 inspects the press-contact state, for example, the wire allowance (long and short), the barrel crimping state, and the like. If there is bad, report such information, if good products, by the action shown in FIG. 13 with a not shown operation, pairs housing C ₁₁
And C ₁₂ , C ₂₁ and C ₂₂ , and C ₃₁ and C ₃₂ are fitted to obtain a wire harness W shown in FIG. At this time, the stroke sensor 71 determines the lower fitting point of the upper connector housings C ₁₁ , C ₂₁ , and C ₃₁ .

The pallet P which has become the wire harness W shown in FIG. 14 moves to the setting portion D, where the wire harness W is removed from the pallet P by a person, and a new housing C is placed on the pallet P. Is sent to the terminal mounter A. By repeating the above operation, FIG.
Are continuously produced.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the press-contact operation is always performed under a constant electric wire gripping force, a stable press-contact operation can be performed.

At this time, if the press-contact blade with the holding blade and the electric wire guide are provided, the smoothness of the press-contact operation is increased. In addition, if a terminal mounting machine and inspection / assembly machine are added,
Assembly can also be performed by continuous movement, and the manufacturing cost of the wire harness can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic overall perspective view of one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of an operation of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view in which the electric wire aligning tool of FIG. 3 is removed.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of another crimping machine part of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a chuck portion.

FIG. 9A is an exploded perspective view of the chuck, and FIG. 9B is a cut-away plan view for explaining an electric wire chucking operation.

10A is a control circuit diagram of an air cylinder, and FIG.
Is the function diagram of the electro-pneumatic regulator

FIG. 11 is a control circuit diagram of another air cylinder.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a pallet unit.

13A and 13B are perspective views for explaining a fitting operation of the connector housing, wherein FIG. 13A is before fitting and FIG. 13B is after fitting;

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of an example of a wire harness.

[Explanation of symbols]

A terminal mounting machine B wire pressing device _{C, C 1, C 2,} C 3, C 11, C 12, C 21, C 22,
C ₃₁ , C ₃₂ Connector housing (connector) D Connector setting part E Inspection / assembly machine H Frame L Rail P Pallet W Wire harness a Wire 11 Terminal cutting / insertion unit 20, 30 Pressure welding machine 21, 31 Servo motor 22, 32 Pressure welding Blades 22a, 32a Wire press-contact blades 22b, 32b Holding blades 23 Guides 24 Vertical slits of guides 25 Horizontal slits of guides 26 Wire alignment tool 40 Wire measuring and feeding machine 50 Wire transfer / swivel unit 52 Arm 53 Chuck 54 Vertical direction of chuck Slit 55 Lateral slit of chuck 56 Guide 57 Slide plate slit 58 Slide plate 59 Air cylinder 60 Switching valve 61 Electric / pneumatic regulator 62 Compressed air source 63 Controller 64 ₁ , 64 ₂ ... Pressure reducing valve 65 ₁ , 65 ₂ ... On-off valve

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Toshiaki Suzuki 1-7-10 Kikuzumi, Minami-ku, Nagoya-shi Harness Research Institute, Inc. (72) Inventor Kenji Hashimoto 1-114, Nishisuehiro-cho, Yokkaichi Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd. F-term (reference) 5E051 JA01 JA07 JB03 5E063 HA01 HB12

Claims (6)

[Claims] When manufacturing a wire harness W in which a plurality of electric wires a are arranged in parallel and both ends of each electric wire a are pressed against a connector C, the ends of the electric wires are simultaneously gripped by a chuck 53, and the chuck 53 This is an automatic crimping method in which the crimping blades 32 corresponding to the respective wire ends are selectively inserted and the respective wire ends are pressed against the connector C. The gripping force of each wire a to be pressed at the time of the above-described crimping is constant. An automatic pressure welding method in the manufacture of a wire harness, characterized in that: 2. When manufacturing a wire harness W in which a plurality of electric wires a are arranged in parallel and both ends of each electric wire a are pressed against a connector C, the ends of the electric wires are simultaneously gripped by a chuck 53, An automatic pressure welding device for selectively inserting a pressure contact blade 32 corresponding to each wire end to press each wire end against a connector C, wherein the chuck 53 has upper and lower slits 5 opened on upper and lower surfaces.
4 and a guide 56 having a horizontal slit 55 orthogonal to the upper and lower slits 54 and opening on the front and rear surfaces;
And a slide plate 58 having a slit 57 corresponding to the pressing blade 3 of the pressing machine 30.
2 are inserted, the above-mentioned electric wires are inserted through the horizontal slit 55 and the slit 57 of the slide plate 58, and the electric wire a is gripped and adjusted by adjusting the degree of correspondence between the horizontal slit 55 of the chuck 53 and the slit 57 of the slide plate 58. Wherein the gripping force of the slide plate 58 is adjusted in accordance with the number of the electric wires a so that the gripping force of each wire a to be pressed is constant. Pressure welding device. 3. The gripping force of the slide plate 58 is applied by an air cylinder 59, and the air force applied to the air cylinder 59 is adjusted in accordance with the number of chucked electric wires a. 3. The automatic pressure welding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a gripping force of the electric wire a is made constant. 4. The pressing blade 32 of the pressing machine 30 includes a blade 32a which enters the slit 55 of the chuck 53 and presses the electric wire a, and a pressing blade 32b which comes into contact with the electric wire a derived from the chuck 53. The automatic pressure welding apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the presser blade (32b) presses down the electric wire (a) simultaneously with the pressure welding. 5. A pallet P on which the connector C is arranged is movably provided on a rail L on a gantry H, and a pair of press-contacting machines 20, 30 are provided along the rail L so that the pallet P can be placed on both sides. The connector C is movable between the pressure welding machines 20 and 30 so that the connector C faces the pressure welding portion.
0 and an electric wire cutting machine.
3 at its tip and its chuck 53
An arm 52 for reciprocating between 0 is provided on the gantry H. The cut end of the wire before feeding is chucked by the chuck 53, and the wire a is sent out by the wire measuring and sending machine 40, and the chuck is moved by the arm 52. 53
To the other press-connecting machine 30, press the wire cut end to the connector C by the press-connecting machine 30, and send out the required length. Then, the wire a is cut by the wire cut machine, and the cut end is cut. The connector C is operated by the one pressure welding machine 20.
The automatic pressure welding apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the automatic pressure welding apparatus is pressed against the wire harness. 6. A terminal mounting machine A along the rail L is provided at a stage preceding the one pressure welding machine 20, and the other pressure welding machine 3 is provided.
0, an inspection / assembly machine E is also provided along the rail L, and the terminal mounter A is capable of inserting a press-contact terminal t into an arbitrary cavity s of the connector housing C. The automatic press-connecting device according to claim 5, wherein E performs assembly of the connector C after inspecting the press-contact state of the wire end.