JPS60100771A - Inspecting device for array order of electric wire group of wire harness - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automate inspection by enlarging and projecting an image of an electrode group in a wire harness which differ in coating color, moving the image or a color tone sensor arranged at distance from an image surface, and comparing sensor information with previously registered condition. CONSTITUTION:Electric wires WA-WE in the wire harness 4 which have different coating colors A-E constitute the electric wire group W, which is clamped with plural electric wire gripper 3 of an intermittent circulation type chain conveyor 1; and one gripper 3 is arranged at an inspection station 5 in the middle of conveyance of the conveyor 1 of every intermittent stop of the conveyor 1. Further, a color television 9 corresponding to a television camera 7 provided over the station 5 is incorporated in a horizontal X-Y table 8, the color tone sensor 13 is provided movably on the image surface 9a in an X and an Y direction; and the whole is controlled by a control means 20 wherein the color arrangement order of the group W is registered previously and the inspection result is displayed on conforming and nonconforming pilot lamps 17a and 17b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a so-called wire harness in which predetermined terminals are attached to the ends of a large number of electric wires each having a different coating color, and the terminal portions of each electric wire are inserted in a housing in parallel. The present invention relates to an apparatus for optically inspecting the order of arrangement of wire groups in such a wire harness.

Currently, most of the above-mentioned wire harness processing is done manually, and it often happens that the wires are arranged in the wrong order. Conventionally, although continuity tests have been automated to test wire harnesses, the wire arrangement order has been tested by a worker who picks up one wire harness and visually confirms that the color arrangement is in accordance with a predetermined order. but,
The number of wires used in one wire harness is often as many as ten or more, and the coating colors can be used in around ten different colors, so if the number of wires to be processed is on the order of several thousand, the mental state of the workers will be affected. The physical and mental fatigue reaches its limit, and manual visual inspection becomes virtually impossible (in reality, visual inspection of this arrangement order is overlooked).

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present invention includes an inspection station in which a wire harness in which a plurality of electric wires of different +qt colors are inserted in a housing in parallel, and a wire harness arranged above the inspection station to photograph the wire harness. A television camera, a television that is connected to the television camera and magnifies the electric wire 11' of the wire harness, a color tone sensor disposed at an appropriate distance from the image plane of the television, and a color tone sensor that receives input from the color tone sensor. and a control means that compares color arrangement order information and pre-registered color arrangement order conditions to determine whether the arrangement order of the electric wire group is good or bad, and the color tone sensor detects the image electric wire group by moving the color tone sensor or moving the image. An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for inspecting the arrangement order of wire groups in a wire harness, which is characterized by performing a cross-scanning operation, and is intended to automatically inspect the arrangement order of the wires.

Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given based on the embodiments shown in the drawings.

Reference numeral 1 denotes an intermittent circulation type chain conveyor, in which a plurality of wire gripping tools 3 are attached at equal intervals to an endless chain 72 that circulates in one direction. 4 is a wire harness consisting of five wires WA-WB-W, each with a different coating color A-B-C-D-E.
A terminal crimping machine (
(not shown), the operator takes these wires in one hand and inserts each terminal part into the housing 4a in the predetermined color arrangement order (-1 parallel These wire harnesses 4 form a group of wires W. These wire harnesses 4 are loaded onto each wire gripper 8 by a loading means (not shown) at the transfer start end of the chain conveyor 1. In this case, the wire harnesses 8 are A portion of the wire group W slightly in front of the housing 4a-ka is held from above and below by a pair of upper and lower gripping plates 8a so that the wires WA to WE do not intersect, are separated from each other, and are parallel to each other on the same plane. It is.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an inspection station set during the transfer of the chain conveyor 1, and the floor surface has a background color Z different from the colors A-E. 5.

Reference numerals 6 and 7 denote a lighting device installed above the inspection station 5 and a television camera with a built-in CCD color image pickup device. Of these, the lighting device 6 is located diagonally from the housing 4a of the wire harness 4 that stops the white light at the inspection station 5. The entire vicinity is illuminated, and the television camera 7 constantly photographs the wire group W between the housing 4a and the wire gripper 3 from directly above.

8 is a horizontal X-Y table, 9 is the X-Y table 8
This color television is built into a rectangular opening cut in the center of the screen so that the image plane 9a is almost flush with the image plane. 9a shows an enlarged color image. 1 (l a and 10b are tracks laid in parallel to the left and right, spaced apart in front and behind the image plane 9a on the upper surface of the X-Y table 8, 11 are the front and rear legs 11. A gate-shaped X-axis moving body 12 is fitted into the upper horizontal portion 11C extending in the front-rear direction of the X-axis moving body 11 and is movable in the front-rear direction. Y-axis moving body 1)
A color tone sensor 13 is attached downward to the right side of 2.
Each drive mechanism for the X-axis and Y-axis moving bodies 11 and 12 (
(not shown) allows these moving bodies 11 and 12 to be moved independently or by
t simultaneously moves the color tone sensor 18 to the image plane 9a.
The color tone sensor 13 detects the light emitting state of the light emitting element (not shown) on the image plane 9a corresponding to the three primary colors of light, red, blue, and green. It is as if each voltage value is transmitted.

14 is an operation panel provided on the right side of the X-Y table 8, and a power switch 15. X-axis/Y-axis manual switches 16a/1 for manually moving the X-axis and Y-axis moving bodies 11/12
6b, "Pass"/"Fail" indicator lamp 1 that displays the test results
7a and 17b, an alarm 18 that operates in conjunction with the above-mentioned 1-fail indication lamp 17b, a return button 19 for continuing automatic operation after taking necessary measures when automatic operation is interrupted, etc. There is.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a control means with a built-in microcomputer that comprehensively controls the entire inspection apparatus of the present invention.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a memory, in which the color E→B-+A- is set based on the arrangement order of the wire group W determined for the wire harness 4 in the color arrangement order.
+C-+D color tone change information is registered in advance. Reference numeral 22 denotes an information input analysis circuit, which outputs color tone changes based on the color q++, 1 information (i.e. (7, voltage value ratio of the three primary colors) sequentially input from the previous 1000 color tone sensors 1B).2
B is a judgment circuit which compares the memory information from the memory 21 and the input (:'j information) from the information input analysis circuit 22 to judge whether the color arrangement order is good or bad, and outputs the judgment whether it is good or bad. is input to the test result output circuit 24.

Hereinafter, the overall operation of the inspection apparatus having the above-mentioned configuration will be explained.

First, the X-Y table 8 is manually operated to a position P slightly to the right and in front of the wire gripping tool 3 imaged on the image plane 9a.
. The center position of the color tone sensor 13 is determined at the position P.
. is registered in the control means 20 as a scanning start position, and further, only the Y-axis moving body 12 is moved backward to position the center position at a position Pe behind the image plane 9a, and the center position is set at the position P.

is registered in the control means 20 as the scanning end position. Then, the X-Y table 8 is in its initial state and the center position is set to position P. Waiting for a match.

It is now assumed that each wire harness 4 is sequentially held by the wire gripper 3 at the transfer start end of the chain conveyor 1 and is intermittently transferred to the inspection station 5. Then, when the L wire grippers 3 stop at the inspection station 5,
The wire group W near the housing 4a enters the photographing area of the television camera 7, and the wire group W photographed by the camera 7 is enlarged and imaged in color on the image plane 9a.

The X-Y table 8 moves only the Y-axis moving body 12 in conjunction with the intermittent stops of the chain conveyor 1, and the color tone sensor 1
3 as the scanning start position P. The color tone sensor 18 is moved and scanned across the image wire group W from
input the color tone information as shown in Fig. 2 sequentially to the analysis circuit 22.
Send to. The color tone sensor 13 is at the scan end position P. When reaching the scanning start position P, the transmission of information is stopped and the Y-axis moving body 12 returns to the scanning start position P. Move back to .

On the other hand, in the control means 20, the information input analysis circuit 22
Color tone change information E based on the color tone information obtained in the above scanning →
B-+A→C-+D (color Z after t is ignored) is sent to the pass/fail determining circuit 23. The quality determining circuit 23 is
It is determined whether the color tone change information from the information input analysis circuit 22 matches the color tone change condition 1) from the memory 21, and if it matches, a "good" signal is output. If not, the test result output circuit 24 outputs a [-fail] signal.
Output to.

When the test result output circuit 24 receives the "good" signal, it outputs an operation command to the "good" indicator lamp 17a and a one-pitch drive command to the chain conveyor 1. In addition, the l:S "good" indicator lamp 17a is temporarily turned on, the chain conveyor 1 starts driving one pitch, and a series of inspection steps for the next wire harness 4 begins.

Further, when the test result output circuit 24 inputs a "fail" signal, the "fail" indicator lamp 17b and the alarm 1
An operation command is output to the conveyor 8, and a drive interruption command is output to the conveyor 1. As a result, the "no" indicator lamp 17b lights up and the hill alarm 18 sounds. Therefore, the operator manually opens the gripping plate 3a of the wire gripping tool 3 and removes the defective wire harness 4.If the operator operates the return button 19 at "2", the "1-Fail" indicator lamp 17b and the display lamp 17b are displayed. Vessel 1
8 is released, and the chain conveyor 1
Start pitch drive. Alternatively, the "no" indicator lamp 17b and the alarm 18 are operated only for a very short time,
The chain conveyor 1 immediately starts driving the next pitch to transfer the defective wire harness 4 as it is, and when the defective wire harness 4 reaches the end of the transfer, the defective wire harness 4 is stored in a special processing container. It's okay.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, each wire harness 4 is transferred and arranged to the inspection station 5 by the chain conveyor 1, but this operation may be performed manually. That is, the operator places the wire harness 4 at a predetermined position on the inspection station for one piece.

In this case, for example, a recess may be cut in the table, two people may place the wire harness 4's 43 portion in the recess, and the wire group W may be pushed onto the finger table.

Further, in the case of inspecting a large wire harness having several tens of wires, the magnification may be set small so that the entire horizontal direction 1j of the wire group is contained in the image plane 9a. Alternatively, the color tone sensor 13 may be kept stationary at a predetermined position with respect to the image plane 9a, and the television camera 7 may be moved sequentially from one end of the wire group to the other to take pictures, or the inspection station 5 may be set just as the chain conveyor 1 is being transferred. 19 images may be moved when the chain conveyor 1 is transferred.

As described in detail above, the device of the present invention allows a TV camera to cast a 17+i image of the wires in the wiring harness, and to enlarge the image in color on the screen of the television, and by moving the enlarged image or the color tone sensor. Since the color tone sensor scans the image wire group in a manner to cut it into ('') to obtain information on the color arrangement order of the wire group, it is compared with the regular arrangement 11i'j that has been memorized and registered in advance. It is now possible to inspect the wire group arrangement order, which is difficult to do, automatically and at high speed, which is highly effective in terms of quality control of wire harnesses.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings all show embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing color tone changes. In the figure, 1 is a chain conveyor, 8 is a wire gripper, 4 is a wire harness, 4a is a housing, 5 is an inspection station, 6 is a television camera, 8 is an X-Y table, 9 is a television, 9a is a video screen, 18 is a color tone sensor, 20 is a control means, 21 is a memory, 22 is an information input analysis circuit, 23 is a pass/fail determining circuit, 24 is an inspection result output circuit, and W is a group of electric wires. Applicant ShinMaywa Industries Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) An inspection station that arranges a wire harness in which a plurality of electric wires each having a different coating color are inserted in a housing in parallel, and an inspection station that is arranged above the inspection station and photographs the wire harness. a television camera; a television connected to the television camera for magnifying a group of electric wires of the wire harness; a color sensor disposed at an appropriate distance from the image plane of the television; and a color arrangement input from the color sensor. and a control means that compares the information with pre-registered color arrangement order conditions to determine whether the arrangement order of the wire group is good or bad, and the color tone sensor crosses the image wire group by moving the color sensor or moving the image. A wire harness wire group arrangement order inspection device characterized by scanning. (2) The apparatus for inspecting the arrangement order of wire groups in a wire harness according to claim 1, wherein the television camera has a built-in CCD color image sensor. (8) The television is installed in an X-Y table so that the image plane is substantially flush with the image plane, and the X-Y table has a pair of tracks laid in parallel on both sides of the image plane, and a pair of tracks laid in parallel on both sides of the image plane. a gate-shaped X-axis moving body that is fitted with both leg ends thereof and is movable in the X-axis direction across the image plane; and the color tone sensor that is fitted onto the X-axis moving body and is movable in the Y-axis direction. and a Y-axis movable body mounted so as to face the image plane, the apparatus for inspecting the arrangement order of wire groups in a wire harness according to claim 1. (4) The apparatus for inspecting the arrangement order of wire groups in a wire harness according to claim 1, wherein the moving operation of the image is performed by moving the television camera in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the wire group. (5) The apparatus for inspecting the arrangement order of wire groups in a wire harness according to claim 1, wherein the operation of moving the image is performed by moving the wires in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the wire group. .