JP2002519831A - Method and apparatus for manufacturing flat cable bundle - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a flat cable of an electric conductor. The cable described herein consists of flat strips of conductive material, which are separated from each other and confined between two layers of non-conductive material. The method described herein also includes the steps of: cutting the sheet of conductive material into a plurality of strips; placing the cut strip between two sheets of non-conductive material; The flat cable collecting surface (10) is finished by combining a thin plate of material and a conductor strip. The invention further relates to a corresponding device and a method and a device for manufacturing a cable bundle using such a flat cable collecting surface.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a flat cable assembly surface of electric conductors and a method and apparatus for manufacturing a bundle of cables made from these cables. The invention also relates to the flat cable itself. In particular, these flat cable collecting surfaces are for mounting on motor vehicles.

The production of flat cable collecting surfaces is already well known. Such a collective surface is particularly often used in an information processing apparatus. These collective surfaces are short (several centimeters) long and consist of a group of flat copper strips, with strips of non-conductive material filling the gaps between the strips. These collective surfaces are made by laminating a single sheet of copper on a rather flexible thin film of synthetic material. Normal engraving techniques (for printed wiring)
The strip-shaped copper portion is pulled out so that the strip-shaped nonconductor (the place where the copper is drawn out) and the conductor (the place where the copper remains as it is) are alternated.

[0003] To date, flat cable assembly surfaces are only very short. However, in the field of automobiles, the required cable length can reach as much as 10 meters (or more).

[0004] Current flat cable manufacturing machines cannot make such lengths of cable at competitive prices. That is, the current manufacturing technology for flat cable assembly surfaces is very expensive. For the copper split is made by stripping the strip of copper. As a result, large amounts of material (copper) are wasted and costly. This loss is a reasonable amount for the production of very short flat cable assemblies, but not for longer cables.

The object of the present invention is to specify an economical method for producing long flat cable collecting surfaces and an apparatus for carrying out this method.

To this end, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a flat cable collecting surface of an electric conductor.
Note that the cables described herein consist of strips of conductive material, which are confined between two layers of non-conductive material to separate the strips. The method described here is characterized by the following steps.

[0007] A sheet of flat conductive material is cut into a plurality of strips.

[0008] Place the cut strip between two sheets of non-conductive material.

[0009] Combining non-conductive sheets and conductor strips to create a flat cable collecting surface.

[0010] The invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the method.

That is, according to the present invention, any part of the conductive metal is not wasted when manufacturing the flat cable. That is, a required number of strips of a predetermined width are cut from a thin sheet of conductive metal (a long sheet is conventionally delivered in the form of a roll). next,
These several strips are confined between two sheets of non-conducting material, integrating them together. As a result, the group of conductive strips is separated from each other by the non-conductive material. No part of the metal is wasted.

As described above, the production of the flat cable collecting surface is performed by directly cutting the metal roll as it comes out of the rolling mill.

[0013] This manufacturing method requires less metal than when the cable bundle is made from round cables, and therefore lowers the cost of the cable bundle because less metal is needed to achieve the same result. Can be.

The present invention also has the object of specifying a method and an apparatus for making a cable bundle from these flat cables.

Of course, it is already known to make flat cable bundles from cables having a round cross section. To do so, a plurality of round cables are juxtaposed and then they are rolled between two nonconductive sheets. The female operator slowly advances each cable by hand, securing the appropriate connectors at both ends of the cable. Rolling round wire is a costly long operation and this technique is too costly for the automotive market. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of manufacturing the cable bundle and some of the steps being performed by hand, cable bundle assembly errors often occur.

It is an object of the present invention to specify a cable bundle manufacturing method and an automatic apparatus for preventing assembly errors and for streamlining the production of such cable bundles.

To this end, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a flat cable bundle characterized by the following. One common connector is fitted into one flat cable assembly surface;-this assembly surface is cut to the desired length;-a plurality of strip groups are cut and separated; Make a single fold on each of the following:-fit a suitable connector on one end of each conductor strip;-fold each strip along the fold so that the intended flat cable bundle is automatically finished.

Advantageously, the device capable of producing the cable assembly surface can use the relative hardness of the assembly surface to cut, crimp, fit, etc. the conductor strip,
Thus, at the end of the integrated manufacturing process, a flat cable bundle with ready-to-use connectors is automatically obtained with already fitted connectors. This is an advantage over round cables which must be manually assembled (in any case, the fitting of connectors is a major obstacle to manual manufacturing).

The present invention also relates to a long flat cable. Advantageously, the metal used to make the conductor strip can be of any type, such as copper or aluminum.

Further, other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be made clear by the following description based on the accompanying drawings as an example. The case is not limited to this. The contents of the drawings are as follows.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a cross section of the collective surface 10 of the flat cable.

FIG. 2 is a top view showing a process of cutting the thin metal plate 14a and arranging the cut strips of metal.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an apparatus for manufacturing a flat cable assembly surface.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are schematic views of the flat cable bundle, showing the general view and the detailed view D of FIG. 4, respectively.

FIG. 6A is a schematic view showing an apparatus for manufacturing a flat cable bundle.

FIG. 6 b is a schematic view showing a device for cutting a group of strips of a cable bundle.

FIG. 6c is a schematic view showing a marking device for a strip group of a cable bundle.

According to the product configuration shown in FIG. 1, the collective surface 10 of the flat cable 11 is constituted by a plurality of flat cables 11 sandwiched between two layers of nonconductive material (for example, polyester) 12. Is done.

For example, each cable or strip is 1.6 mm wide, and the distance between adjacent cables is 0.94 mm. Then the distance between the cables is about 1.6
+ 0.94 = 2.54 mm. This pitch is the orthodox pitch of currently used connectors.

The conductor material used to make the conductor strip (flat cable) is preferably a metal. Usually copper is used for this, but aluminum can also be used. That is, aluminum has a specific gravity of about 1/3 of copper. Conductivity is about 60% that of copper, and the price per kilogram is the same. As a result, if you use aluminum instead of copper,
The same conductivity saves weight and saves about 50% in cost.

The collecting surface 10 thus becomes a flexible sheath of plastic covering (comprising two sheets of nonconductive material) containing a plurality of flat cables (typically 25). The collecting surface thus produced is long (several tens of meters) and very thin.
This collecting surface is stored in a state of an appropriate roll 13 (FIG. 3).

In order to explain the production of the flat cable collecting surface, it is necessary to refer to FIGS. 2 and 3 described later.

First, the conductive material (eg, copper or aluminum) used is a metal sheet 14.
a in the form of a roll 14 consisting of This is a metal roll as it comes out of the rolling mill.

According to the invention, this roll 14 (FIG. 3) is mounted on a suitable cradle (not shown) and is rotated so that the sheet metal constituting the roll spreads. The metal sheet 14a is pulled to the right (FIG. 3) and spread on the cutting table 15.

The cutting table has a cutting tool 16 composed of a plurality of blades 17 (FIG. 2). Each of the blades is mounted such that the entire thickness of the sheet is cut while the sheet moves to the right. The tool is combined with a cover (not shown) so that cutting can be performed completely and cleanly.

The cutting tool 16 comprises a platform that can move parallel to the cable collecting surface, and includes a plurality of blades 17 that can move along an axis (Z) perpendicular to the collecting surface. Blade 17
Are spaced the same as the spacing of the conductor metal strips on the flat cable assembly surface.

When the metal sheet 14a comes out of the cutting tool, it is cut into a plurality of strips 11 having a fixed width and juxtaposed.

In general, each band is the same width. However, the width of these strips can be varied if special needs arise.

The plurality of cut strips continue running to the right while being supported by the base plate of the cutting table 15 (
(Fig. 3).

Next, these bands are kept at a constant width from each other by the arrangement device 18 comprising positioning markers (FIG. 2).

These regularly spaced metal strips are then inserted into an assembly device consisting of two rolls 19. These rolls take up the cut sheet metal in a “sandwich” while unrolling a sheet 12 of non-conductive material (eg polyester) from above and below.

Thus, the resulting gathering surface 10 comprises a plurality of evenly spaced flat conductor strips 11 embedded between two flexible polyester sheets 12.
Consists of This collecting surface is stored in a state of a collecting surface storage roll 13. The assembled surface thus formed is thin and long.

The present invention is also directed to a method and apparatus for making a flat cable bundle from such a flat cable assembly surface 10.

As FIG. 4 shows, the cable bundle 23 is made by the association of a group of cables.
Both ends of these cables are provided with mating connectors 24 or 25. That is, a part of these cables follows the common trunk line (p), a specific small cable group (s) is separated on both sides of the trunk line, and a connector 24 is attached to the end. This connector is for connecting to a specific device. In the field of automobiles, the stranded cable sub-group (s) is used, for example, for operation of blinking lamps, tail lamps, window regulators, and the like.

The production of such cable bundles using cables of round cross section is already known. This production is performed manually by female operators. Because of the complexity of the actual cable path, this approach causes many assembly errors. That is, such a strand would be 10 meters long for a completely standard car,
As many as 80 can be combined and weigh 6 kg.

According to the present invention, flat cables (ie, conductor strips) are used to reduce the weight of the cable bundle. In other words, a flat cable has a smaller cross-section, and therefore a lighter weight, than a round cable to carry the same strength of current.

It is an object of the present invention to use flat cable assembly surfaces made according to the method specified above when manufacturing flat cable bundles.

A method and an apparatus for manufacturing such a flat cable bundle will be described later with reference to FIGS.

As an example, the flat cable bundle to be made is shown in detail in FIG. This is 7
It consists of one conductor strip but is divided into one group of three strips and two groups of two strips. Each group of conductor strips is connected to a suitable connector 24 and allocated in a specific direction. The common connector 25 is attached to one end of the collecting surface 10.

The production of such a cable bundle is described with reference to FIG. 6a.

The storage roll 13 on the flat cable collecting surface is a suitable cradle (not shown)
And is moved by rotation along the indicated direction to form the folding table 26.
The flat cable collecting surface 10 spreads on the top.

As a first step, the fitting device 27 that can move in the left-right direction joins and fixes the common connector 25. This connector is pulled to the left by the same length as the cable bundle to be made. After moving by the determined length, the cutting device 28 cuts the flat cable collecting surface.

The length spread on the bending table is measured by the measuring roll device 34.

A separating device 29 (in FIG. 6 b, which is easier to understand) separates the groups of strips that are to be put together together and makes a branch (s) of the cable bundle used for a particular purpose. Thus, the separating device cuts the cable bundle 23 (shown in FIG. 5) as indicated by the dotted line in FIG. 6c.

To this end, the device 29 comprises a plurality of blades which can be moved up and down. Only the blades necessary to execute the cutting move upward to cut the flat cable collecting surface 21. Other blades remain low. This cutting device is fully automated,
The movement of each blade is programmable.

When the strips (s) are cut as specified, the marking device marks the folds 31 on the strips (s) to be branched, where the strips (s) are located. It is about to be separated from the cable bundle (p) serving as a trunk line.

The marking of the fold is performed using a suitable marking head 32. This head is provided in the marking device 33. The device thus has a number of heads 32, each head adapted to score one, two, three,... N strips. These heads can move in the Y-axis direction and the Z-axis direction, and the entire marking device 33 can move along the X-axis direction.

Thus, the cable bundle 23 is cut and creased, and one end is fixedly joined.

Then, the other end of the strip is joined and fixed to the connector 24 common to one strip group. This is done for each group of strips using the fitting device 34.

When all of the connectors 25 and 24 have been attached, each of the strips is folded along the marked fold 31. This bending process
Each strip group (s) is oriented in a suitable direction. Thus the cable bundle is completely finished. It was ready to be built into cars.

Since the entire production of the cable bundle is thus automated (including fitting), a cable bundle with no error in cable connection is finished. Moreover, this cable bundle is neither heavier nor very thin than the same cable bundle made of round cables. Therefore, for example, even if this is laid in a car, an unnecessary bump does not occur.

The present invention therefore makes it possible to produce lighter, less bulky, less expensive and more economically flat cable bundles in a fully automatic manner.

The present invention is also directed to a long flat cable assembly surface made of a conductive metal (copper, aluminum, or the like) regardless of the method of manufacturing the assembly surface.

It goes without saying that the invention is not limited to the production schemes described above, but encompasses all variations which are within the purview of a specialist. For example, the width and pitch of the strip can vary the values shown in the above description. Furthermore, this width and pitch
Variations can be made within the same flat cable assembly plane. Similarly, the material making up each strip can be different for each strip (copper, aluminum, etc.) even on the same collective surface. Furthermore, it should be noted that the flat cable assembly according to the present invention has a
Smaller size strips can be used when using round cables. By the way, since the transition to 42V is currently being considered in the field of automobiles, the present invention enables the transition to 42V cabling without increasing the weight and cost of the cable.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a cross section of a collective surface 10 of a flat cable.

FIG. 2 is a top view showing a process of cutting a thin metal plate and arranging the cut strips of metal.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing an apparatus for manufacturing a flat cable assembly surface.

FIG. 4 is a schematic overall view of a flat cable bundle.

FIG. 5 is a detailed view showing D of the flat cable bundle of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view a showing a manufacturing apparatus of a flat cable bundle, a schematic view b showing a cutting device of a strip group of a cable bundle, and a schematic view c showing a marking device of a strip group of a cable bundle.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 flat cable assembly plane, 11 conductor strip or cable, 1
2 Roll of non-conductive material, 13 Roll of flat cable assembly surface, 14 Roll of conductive material, 14a Metal thin plate, 15 Cutting table, 16 Cutting device, 17
Blade, 18 alignment device (positioning marker), 19 roll of non-conductive material, 23 cable bundle, 24 specific connector, 25 main connector, 26 bending work table, 27 fitting device, 28 cutting device, 29
Separation device, 30 cutting line, 31 marked crease, 32 marking head, 33 marking device, 34 measuring roll, p cable bundle main line, s specific branch of cable bundle, details of D cable bundle

[Procedural Amendment] Submission of translation of Article 34 Amendment of the Patent Cooperation Treaty

[Submission date] September 18, 2000 (2000.9.18)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims]

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Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing a flat cable bundle, comprising: fitting a common connector (25) to a flat cable collecting surface; cutting (28) the collecting surface (10) to a desired length; A plurality of strips (s) are separated by cutting (29);-folds (31) at the separation points of the strips (s);-one end of each strip or conductor strip (s) is fitted. A method of manufacturing a flat cable bundle, comprising: fitting a connector (24); and bending each strip group (s) along a fold to automatically produce a predetermined flat cable bundle. 2. A device for manufacturing a flat cable bundle, comprising: a fitting device (27) for a common connector (25); Production of a flat cable bundle, characterized in that it comprises: a separating device (29) for the strips (s); a fold marking device (33); and at least one fitting device (34). apparatus.