JPS60174962A - Method and apparatus for inspecting wire end treated - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the inspection of a wire end with a simple construction by performing an inspection of the end of the wire with the covering peeled off before the pressing of a terminal thereon. CONSTITUTION:When a wire W1 which conductors are twisted with a twister after the covering thereof is peeled off with a wire stripper moves to the position I with a conveyor 2, a light source 8 emits light with a controller C to be received with a TV camera 9. Then, a still image data binary-coded with a binary coding circuit 10 is brought into a RAM11. A CPU12 reads the image data out of the RAM11 to determine the length to the position of peeling off the covering from the reference position as the terminal compression point of the covered wire W1. The length thus obtained is compared with the allowable range stored in a ROM13. A decision signal on acceptance or rejection is provided to a selection sensor 6 through the controller C and the wire W1 is accepted or rejected by selection when reaching the position II.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Application) This invention relates to improvements in a method and device for determining the quality of terminal crimping at the end of a wire, which is formed by peeling off the covering from the end of a covered wire and crimping the terminal. be.

(Prior art) When a terminal is crimped to the end of a covered wire, the covering of the end of the covered wire is cut to a certain length, and the coating is peeled off by a certain length.
A terminal of a certain shape and size is crimped onto the end of the wire. For example, as shown in FIG. The second gripping portion Tb
It is necessary to firmly grip the conductor part wb all around the circumference and crimp it. However, if the first gripping part Ta grips the conductor part wb or the second gripping part Tb grips the covering part Wa.
In some cases, the first gripping portion Ta may not securely grip the covering portion Wa and may be crimped. Judging the quality of terminal crimping by visual inspection is cumbersome and inaccurate, and requires a lot of manpower to keep up with the speed of automated terminal punching machines. Automation is underway. Also, from the pending applications of the same applicant as this invention, JP-A-57-60249 and JP-A-5
7-61903, JP-A-57-144474, JP-A-57-175942, JP-A-58-95911 and JP-A-58-135440. However, these methods directly measure the length of the coating that is left ungrasped by the gripping part directly from the wire end where the terminal is crimped, so the optical method projects light onto the inspected surface of the wire end. The reflected light was received by a television camera or line sensor. Therefore, color identification was required, and the amount of reflected light varied greatly even with slight changes in the position or posture of the wire being inspected, making reliable inspection impossible and requiring a condensing lens. The configuration was complicated and expensive. Therefore, when conducting an inspection, it is necessary for the wire end to be stationary, so the wire end does not stand still on the path that is supplied to or sent out to the terminal crimping section, as is the case with automatic terminal punching machines. The device could not perform the test.

By the way, when examining defects in the terminal crimping state, there are almost no cases where the gripping position during crimping is defective even though the length from the reference position of the electric wire to the coating peeling position is appropriate. That is, it is no exaggeration to say that the failure of terminal crimping is due to the failure of the length of the electric wire from the reference position to the position where the coating is peeled off. If the length of the wire from the original position to the position where the coating is peeled off is to be inspected, it can be done before the terminal is crimped, and this is much easier than inspecting the crimped state.

(Objective of the Invention) This invention was made based on the knowledge of the problems of the prior art and the actual situation of poor terminal crimping as described above, and provides a method that enables reliable inspection, has a simple structure, and is inexpensive. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for electric wire terminals that can be inspected.

(Structure of the Invention) The structure of the present invention is as follows: (1) Before crimping a terminal to the wire end from which the coating has been peeled off, the condition of the wire end is inspected.

(2) The above-mentioned inspection is to identify the covered portion and the peeled portion, measure the length of the wire from the reference position to the peeled-off position, and determine whether the length is within an allowable range.

It is characterized by

(Embodiment) As a preferred embodiment, a system wire processor uses a strobe light source (light emitting means) and a television camera (light receiving means) to capture image data of an electric wire terminal, and measures the peeled length by image recognition. An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.0 A system wire processor that is effective by implementing the present invention1
A conveyor means 2 is installed above in the left-right direction, and the electric wire W1 to be processed is intermittently moved to the left in the figure every pitch S. The conveyor means 2 is provided with clamping claws 2a that open and close left and right at every pitch S, and clamp the electric wire W1 to be processed in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the conveyor means 2. A wire stripper 3 is attached to the conveyor means 2 and is configured to cut the coated wire wound around the reel 3a into a predetermined size and strip the coating from both ends thereof. As shown in the figure, the processed electric wire W1 has a terminal punching machine 5 attached downstream of U4, and a continuous crimp terminal wound on a reel 5a is transferred. The wires are configured to be automatically crimped one by one to the end portions of the electric wires Wi. Furthermore, a sorting means 6 is attached downstream of the terminal punching machine 5,
The electric wire W1 is held between the two sets of holding claws 6a, and is configured to be selectively rotated clockwise to either 90 degrees or 180 degrees by power (not shown). All of the above are known configurations.

Next, downstream of the wire stripper 4 and the terminal punching machine 5
A light projecting means and a light receiving means of the wire terminal inspection device 7 according to the present invention are attached upstream of the electric wire terminal inspection device 7. A control means C is provided for controlling the operation and timing of each component so that each of these components operates during the stop time between the intermittent movements of the conveyor means 2.

Next, the terminal crimping state inspection device 7 will be explained. It is attached to the conveyor means 2 downstream of the third machine 4 so as to sandwich the terminal of the electric wire W1, and the output of a television camera 9 is connected to a binarization circuit 10. The output of this binarization circuit 10 is connected to RAMII. The CPU 12 reads the image data from the RAM II and uses a known image recognition means in the RAM II to determine the length of the electric wire W1 from the reference position to the coating peeling position.
Configure with I. Further, the CPU 12 also constitutes a comparison means for comparing the length data obtained by the image recognition means and the allowable range data read from the ROMI 8. The ROM 18 stores programs for performing these image recognition and comparisons, and also stores data on the allowable length range from the reference position to the coating peeling position. R
AMII, CPU12. The ROM 13 and the control means C are connected by a system bus 14. When the control means C comes to the position facing the electric wire W1, it emits light and strobe light, causes the RAM to capture the still image data, and provides a capture completion notification signal to the CPU 12. Also, the type of terminal used,
You can select the program that corresponds to the size, type of wire, and size. The CPU 12 provides the control means C with a signal indicating whether the length t of the electric wire W1 from the reference position to the coating peeling position is good or bad.

Assume that a terminal as shown in FIG. 1 is crimped onto the electric wire W1 by the system wire processor 1, and one end of the electric wire W1, whose conductor portion wb is burned together with a wire machine, has the shape shown in FIG. 4(a). It moves to position 1 in Figure 3.

R in FIG. 4 is a reference position, for example, the conveyor means 2
This is the wire clamping position. When the camera reaches the r position, the control means C causes the light source 8 to emit light, and the television camera 9 receives the light. Then, the still image data binarized by the binarization circuit 10 is loaded into the RAM II. This image data is the fourth
It looks like the one shown in figure (b). Upon receiving the import completion notification from the control means C, the CPU 12 stores this image data in the RAM 1.
2 and calculate t using known image recognition. When t is found, the program reads data t min and L max indicating the allowable range from ROMI 3,
Compare with t, and if tmin < L < Amax, it is good.
.

If it is other than this, it is determined to be defective. This good/bad judgment signal is given to the control means C, and in the control means C,
It is used to determine whether the rotation angle of the sorting means 6 is 90 degrees or 180 degrees.

However, the command to rotate the first sorting means 6 by 90 degrees or 180 degrees is activated by a known delay means when the inspected wire W1 comes to the sorting means 6, that is, to the position (3). Ru. The wires with terminals crimped thereon are then sorted into good and defective wires. Note that the above-mentioned steps are sequentially performed in parallel with a delay of l terminals.

As described above, according to the present invention, the length of the end of the covered wire wl to which the terminal is crimped is measured from the reference position to the coating peeling position before the terminal is crimped. It is easy to use, and it is possible to process silhouette images using transmitted illumination.
Since a sufficient light reception level can be obtained regardless of the color of the covering portion Wa, the quality of the terminal can be reliably inspected. Therefore, there is no need to provide a condensing lens for light projection, and the configuration becomes simple.

(Other Embodiments) The television camera in the above-mentioned embodiments may be a camera tube or a COD camera.

Although a color television camera may be used, a monochrome television camera is more advantageous in extracting binary image data from silhouettes. In these cases, if the electric wire terminal remains stationary at the inspection position for a long time, it is not necessarily necessary to use a strobe light source, and normal flashing lights can be used. Alternatively, a sensor may be provided to detect when the wire terminal has come to the inspection position, and the output of the sensor may be used to emit strobe light to capture still image data.

By using a line sensor other than a television camera and a known image processing device compatible with the line sensor, it is possible to inspect even wire terminals that do not remain stationary at the inspection position.

In addition, on the route that supplies the wire to the terminal punching machine, a photo sensor array (1 in Figure 6) is arranged parallel to the longitudinal direction of the wire.
5) Inspection can also be carried out by installing rectangular light sources parallel to the longitudinal direction of this photosensor array 15 facing each other, and processing the sensing output of each photosensor with a known logic circuit while passing through the end of the wire from which the coating has been peeled off. can be done.

For example, in this case, the positional relationship between the wire terminal and the photo sensor array 15 changes as shown in FIGS. 6(a), (b), and (C), and the sensing output of each photo sensor is: ■1 = r
th presence, ■l −i th absence, i +1−,! 'th is present, ■1-nth is not present, n+1 to rth are present, and so on. In this case, the light source is not a strobe.
The identification means is not limited to an optical type, but can also be an array of electromagnetic or capacitance type sensors, and if the wire terminal has sufficient rest time at the inspection position, these sensors can be used on the wire. It can also be inspected by scanning along its length.

In the above, a non-contact type was used as an identification means, but it is also possible to use a contact type, but it is disadvantageous than a non-contact type in that there is a risk of fraying of the conductor or bending of the wire. be.

In addition, since the allowable range data differs depending on the type and size of electric wires and terminals, various cases can be programmed and the appropriate program can be executed depending on the selection in control means C. Wire terminals can be inspected for cases.

The effects of these other embodiments are also similar to those of the first embodiment.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the present invention has the remarkable effect of being able to reliably and inexpensively inspect the quality of the terminal of a covered wire to which a terminal is crimped with a simple configuration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the overall configuration, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram, FIG. 5 is a flow diagram, and FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram. In FIG. 3, 8 and 9 are identification means, and in FIG. 5, step S2. S8 is a measuring means, steps S4 and S5
, S6 is a comparison means. Applicant ShinMaywa Industries Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

Scope of Claims: (1) Before crimping the terminal to the end of the electric wire from which the sheathing has been peeled off, identify the sheathing part and the peeled off part of the electric wire end, and move the terminal from the reference position of the electric wire to the A wire terminal inspection method that measures the length up to the position where the coating is peeled off and determines whether this length is within an allowable range. (2) After the sheath is peeled off in order to crimp the terminal, an identification means for identifying the sheathed part and the peeled off part of the electrical wire terminal is placed opposite the wire from which the sheath has been peeled off on the path that supplies the wire to the terminal punching machine. The output of this identification means is inputted to a measuring means for measuring the length from the reference position of the electric wire to the said coating peeling position, the output of this measuring means is inputted to a comparing means, and the output of this comparing means is Other inputs include wire terminal inspection device 0 (3
) The identification means is a television camera and a light source that are placed opposite each other to sandwich the wire from which the terminal has been peeled off on the path for supplying the wire to the terminal punching machine, and the measuring means is an image processing device. An electric wire terminal inspection device according to claim 2. (4) The identification means is a line sensor and a light source that are placed opposite to each other on the path for supplying the wire to the terminal punching machine so as to sandwich the wire from which the terminal has been peeled, and the measurement means is an image processing device. An electric wire terminal inspection device according to claim 2. (5) The identification means identifies a photo sensor array arranged parallel to the longitudinal direction of the electric wire and a rectangular light source parallel to the longitudinal direction of the photo sensor array on the path for supplying the electric wire to the terminal punching machine. The electric wire terminal inspection device according to claim 2, wherein the electric wire terminals are opposed to each other so as to sandwich the electric wire from which the terminal has been peeled.