WO1992008263A1

WO1992008263A1 - Terminating apparatus for terminating electrical wires

Info

Publication number: WO1992008263A1
Application number: PCT/US1991/008141
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Gerst; Manfred Liedloff
Original assignee: Amp Incorporated
Priority date: 1990-11-02
Filing date: 1991-10-30
Publication date: 1992-05-14
Also published as: DE4034950B4; DE4034950A1

Abstract

A terminating apparatus for terminating electrical wires (25) to electrical contacts (17) in contact cavities (15) of a connector housing of an electrical connector (11); comprising a connector support for holding the connector (11) in a terminating position, and at least one terminating tool (73) adapted to reciprocate between an open position, in which said terminating tool (73) is spaced from the connector (11), and a terminating position in which the terminating tool (73) terminates the respective wire (25) to the respectively associated contact (17), said contact cavities (15) being open on the side facing the terminating tool (73) for allowing access of said terminating tool (73) and of the associated wire (25) to the respectively associated contact (17). A wire holder (4) is provided, that is adapted to be loaded with the wires (25) to be terminated and holds said wires for the terminating operation in the vicinity of the lateral opening of the respectively associated contact (17) and in alignment with said contact. The wire holder (49) is adapted to be removed from the terminating apparatus for being loaded with the wires (25). A tautening means (87) is provided tautening the wires (25) for the terminating operation.

Description

TERMINATING APPARATUS FOR TERMINATING ELECTRICAL WIRES The invention relates to a terminating apparatus for terminating electrical wires to electrical contacts in contact cavities of a connector housing of an electrical connector, comprising a connector support for holding the connector in a terminating position, and at least one terminating tool adapted to reciprocate between an open position, in which said terminating tool is spaced from the connector, so as to enable positioning of wires between said terminating tool and the respectively associated contact, and a terminating position in which the terminating tool terminates the respective wire to the respectively associated contact, said contact cavities being open on the side facing said terminating tool for allowing access of said terminating tool and of the associated wire to the respectively associated contact.

In a known apparatus of this kind, the operator first inserts a connector into the connector support. An electrical cable with a multiplicity of insulated wires and an insulating jacket surrounding the latter is then clamped above the connector support, after the end of the cable has been freed from the insulating jacket across a predetermined length. On its longitudinal sides, the connector has one row of contact cavities each, in which contacts are accommodated. The contacts are provided with piercing and clamping slots. The individual wires are connected to the respectively associated contacts with the aid of a terminating tool having a stuffer for urging the wires into the piercing and clamping slots. For doing so, the two terminating tools perform reciprocating movements in opposite directions. Each terminating tool is designed for terminating one wire each to the associated contact in each pass. For connecting the wires of the cable to the contacts of the connector, the connector support is transported past the terminating tools in intermittent or stepwise manner with the aid of a stepping motor. In the inoperative periods therebetween, the operator must hold two wires each of the cable between the terminating tools in their open positions and the respectively opposite contacts. These wires are then terminated to their respective opposed contacts by a terminating movement of the terminating tool. This is followed by the next feeding step for the connector and the termination of the next wire pair to the associated contact pair.

Such terminating apparatus are programme-controlled nowadays so as to render them easily adaptable to the respective terminating conditions. Such terminating apparatus are expensive correspondingly. Due to the fact that not only mechanical skill but also quite a lot of time is required for terminating the frequently large number of wires to the correspondingly large number of contacts of a connector, this known terminating apparatus can achieve a relatively low production throughput only. In addition, there is the risk that the operator holds the wires in differently tight manner at the individual terminating operations. This may have the result that, after termination of the wires to the connector,tensile stresses of different degrees are exerted on the individual wires. In particular when only few wires of the cable are held in relatively taut manner by the operator during the terminating operation, while all other wires are held in comparatively loose manner, the few wires terminated while being held tautly must take up the entire tensile stresses that may arise later on between the assembled connector and the cable. It is the object of the invention to make available a terminating apparatus of the type indicated at the beginning which permits a larger number of wires to be terminated per unit of time and in which all wires are terminated to the associated contacts substantially with the same tautness. This object can be met with a terminating apparatus of the type indicated at the beginning, which is characterized in that a wire holder is provided that is adapted to be loaded with the wires to be terminated and holds said wires for the terminating operation in the vicinity of the lateral opening of the respectively associated contact and in alignment with said contact, that the wire holder is adapted to be removed from the terminating apparatus for being loaded with the wires, and in that a tautening means is provided tautening the wires for the terminating operation.

By means of such a terminating apparatus, a method can be carried out according to the invention in which the wire holder is at first loaded with wires to be terminated while the wire holder is removed from the terminating apparatus. When loading with the wires is completed, the wire holder is applied to the terminating apparatus and the connector to be connected to the wires is placed in the connector support. The operation of terminating the individual wires to the associated contacts of the connector can then take place in fully automatic manner. Preferably, several wire holders are provided for each terminating apparatus, and loading of a wire holder removed from the terminating apparatus can be carried out while the wires held by another wire holder applied at that time to the terminating apparatus are terminated to the contacts of a connector.

The terminating apparatus according to the invention thus can be utilized to capacity much better, so that the costs of such a terminating apparatus are distributed to the terminating operations of a considerably larger number of wires, so that the terminating costs per wire are reduced.

Due to the fact that a tautening means is provided, the terminating apparatus according to the invention can operate in fully automatic manner and with a high terminating quality. All wires are terminated to the associated contacts with the same prestress. This provided a uniform tensile stress distribution on all wires in case tensile stresses should arise later on between connector and cable.

When the wires are to be terminated to a connector having two longitudinal rows of contacts, it is preferred to arrange one wire holder and one tautening means each on both sides of the connector. As in the known case, the connector can be moved through the terminating apparatus in stepwise manner, with a pair of wires being terminated in each step to a pair of contacts belonging to different contact rows each. However, the terminating apparatus may also be provided with a terminating tool terminating all wires to all contacts in one single pass. This does not make a difference for the wire holder. However, differences arise as regards the tautening means. When termination of the wires is carried out in stepwise manner, one after the other, it is sufficient to have a tautening means which becomes effective only in the region of the terminating tool and in each case tautens only the wire to be terminated at the particular moment, possibly together with adjacent wires. In the event that all wires are terminated in a single pass, the tautening means extends across the entire length of the connector, so that all wires can be held in taut manner simultaneously.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention a comb is employed as wire holder, which provides compartments for the individual wires, which are aligned with the contacts in the individual contact cavities.

In the event that termination of the wires takes place stepwise in succession, and when such a comb is used as wire holder, a tautening means is preferred which is in the form of a spring-biased frustonconical wheel and cooperates with an inclined ramp portion of the comb such that a wire extending across the ramp portion is tautened by the inclined surface of the frustonconical wheel due to the spring bias.

Further developments of the invention are indicated in dependent claims.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 shows an example of an electrical connector and of an electrical cable the wires of which are to be terminated to contacts of the connector; FIGURE 2 shows the connector and the cable of Figure 1 after termination of the wires to the contacts of the connector;

FIGURE 3 shows a cross-sectional view of a terminating apparatus according to the invention with the terminating tools in the open position; FIGURE 4 shows the terminating apparatus of Figure 3 with the terminating tools in the terminating position;

FIGURE 5 shows an enlarged section of the illustration of Figure 4; FIGURE 6 shows a comb, partly in section, as used in the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figures 3 to 5;

FIGURE 7 shows the comb illustrated in Figure 6 along with the wires held thereby, together with an electrical connector and a terminating tool in the open position; FIGURE 8 shows an example of an insertion tool for the contact type gatherable from Figures 1 and 2; and

FIGURE 9 shows the comb with the wires held thereby, together with one of the pressing rollers depicted in Figures 3 to 5.

Figure 1 shows an example of an electrical connector 11 comprising a connector housing 13 of insulating material having two parallel rows of contact cavities 15 in which one electrical contact 17 is inserted each. The electrical contacts 17 each have a terminating portion 19 designed for piercing and clamping technique, and a crimping portion 21. This means that the terminating portions are provided with piercing and clamping slots 23 of which Figure 1 reveals only the respective right-hand confines thereof.

Termination of such insulated wires 25 of a cable 27 is effected in that the wires are laterally urged into the piercing and clamping slots 23 with the aid of a stuffer means, with the slot walls piercing the insulation to thereby establish electrical contact between the electrical conductor of the wire 25 and the contact 17. For strain relief, a crimping lug 29 disposed in the crimping portion 21 is crimped about the insulating jacket of the wire 25. For rendering possible urging of the wires 25 laterally into the contacts 10, the contact cavities 15 receiving the contacts 17 have lateral openings 33.

Figure 2 shows the same connector as Figure 1, but after termination of the individual wires 25 to the respectively associated contacts 17. Wire ends 35 projecting in Figure 1 downwardly beyond the contact cavities 31 are cut off in Figure 2.

Using the initially described known terminating apparatus, the operator of the terminating apparatus would hold the wire ends 35 in Figure 1 successively in pairs into the associated contact cavity pair so that a pair of terminating tools arranged on both sides of the longitudinal sides of the connector can urge the particular pair of wires 25 into the associated pair of contacts 17. With a terminating apparatus according to the invention, as shown in a sectional view in Figure 3, this takes place without the cooperation of an operator.

The terminating apparatus according to the invention comprises a base plate 37 having a sliding groove 39 in which a carriage 41 is arranged so as to be slidable perpendicular to the plane of Figure 3 with the aid of ball bearings 43. A carrier block 45 is disposed on carriage 41 and has a supporting member 47. On both sides of the supporting member 47, one comb 49 each is removably mounted, with the construction of this comb being visible better in the perspective view of Figure 6.

The comb 49 has a body portion 51 having a fir- tree-like side contour. Wire separating plates 53 in the shape of an inverted L extend from the top side of the body portion 51. The wire separating plates 53 have a pattern distance corresponding to the pattern distance of the contact cavities 15 of the connector housing 13. Wire separating ribs 57 laterally project from the lower end of the body portion 51, on the side thereof facing away from the supporting member 47 when the comb 49 is applied to the terminating apparatus. The wire separating ribs 57 are aligned with the wire separating plates 53. Between the lower end of the wire separating plates 53 and the upper end of the wire separating ribs 57, the comb has a ramp portion 59 extending parallel to the direction of lining-up of the wire separating ribs 53 and the wire separating ribs 57, and projecting from the body portion 51 to the same side as the wire separating ribs 57. On the side opposite to the wire separating ribs 57, the body portion 51 has a mounting recess 61 for applying the comb 49 to the supporting member 47. On the same side, the body portion 51 is provided with a guiding recess 63 located approximately at the height of the lower ends of the wire separating ribs 53.

In the embodiment of a terminating apparatus according to the invention, illustrated in Figure 3, which is provided for terminating two rows of wires 25 to two rows of contacts 17, one comb 49 each is applied to each longitudinal side of the supporting member 47. Prior to application to the terminating apparatus, i.e. in their condition removed from the terminating apparatus, the two combs 49 have been loaded with wires each, as shown in Figure 7. For this purpose, an operator has placed the free ends of the wires 25 of the cable 27 into the predetermined interstices 55 of each comb 49 in such a manner that they do not only extend between the wire separating plates 53 but also between the wire separating ribs 57. The combs, in the interstices 55 between the wire separating plates 53 and in the interstices 65 between the wire separating ribs 57, preferably have constrictions (not shown in the drawings) by means of which the wires 25 are releasably retained in the interstices 55 and 65, respectively. For terminating the wires 25 to the contacts 17 of the connector 11, the two combs 47 are applied to the supporting member 47 on both sides thereof, such that the mutually facing walls of the wire separating walls 53 of the two combs 49 abut on opposed longitudinal sidewalls 67 of the connector 11.

The terminating apparatus, on both sides of the applied combs 49, comprises one guide member 69 each, having a guiding recess 71 for a plate-shaped terminating tool 73 each. The two terminating tools 73 are guided with the aid of the two guide members 69 so as be reciprocable towards and away from the inserted connector 11. The two terminating tools 73 are shown in Figure 3 in their open position in which the connector 11 and the two combs 49 loaded with wires 25 can be inserted into the terminating apparatus. Upon insertion of the connector 11 and the combs 49 into the terminating apparatus, the terminating tools 73 are moved towards each other and thus towards connector 11, as shown in Figure 4, which illustrates the two terminating tools in the terminating position, by way of arrows 75. As shown in Figure 4 and visible even better from the enlarged view of Figure 5, each terminating tool 73 comprises several tool zones located above each other in the longitudinal direction of the wires. These zones will now be considered in more detail with additional reference to Figure 8.

Each terminating tool 73, on its left-hand terminating end as shown in Figure 8, comprises, from top to bottom, a crimping zone 77, a stuffer zone 79 and a cutting zone 81. The crimping zone 77 is used for crimping the crimping lug 29 of the respective contact 17 to be connected to a wire 25 into its crimped position visible in Figure 2. The stuffer zone 79 during termination urges the wire 25 into the piercing and clamping slot 23 of the associated contact 17. The cutting zone 81 during the terminating operation is passed past a cutting surface 83 at the upper end of the body portion 51 of the associated comb 49, so that a wire 25 located in the corresponding interstice 55 of this comb 49 is sheared off between a cutting edge 85, which constitutes the bottom side of the cutting zone 81, and the cutting surface 83 of the associated comb 49, as shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Underneath the guide members 69 and opposite to the ramp portions 59 of the two combs 49 applied to the terminating apparatus, there is provided one tautening means each, which is in the form of a pressing roller 87. This pressing roller has a frustoconical portion whose frustonical circumferential surface has an inclination with respect to the axis of rotation of the pressing roller 87, said inclination having approximately the same direction as the inclination of the ramp portion 59 of the opposite comb 49. Each pressing roller 87 is biased by means of a helical spring 91 in a downward direction with reference to Figures 3 to 5. To this end, the helical spring 91 is supported between a cover plate 93 of the pressing roller 87 and a disc 95. Disc 95 abuts on the bottom of a recess 97 of pressing roller 87. The pressing roller 87 is rotatable about a rotational shaft 99 bolted to the respectively associated guide member 69. One of the combs 59 loaded with wires 25 is shown in Figure 9 in an enlarged, perspective view together with the associated pressing roller 87. It can be seen therefrom that, as the connector 11 advances in stepwise manner through the terminating apparatus, the circumferential surface of the frustonconical portion 89 engages and tautens only one single wire at a time. This form of tautening means is suitable for the case in which the connector 11 is advanced in stepwise manner and, after each advancing step, a pair of opposing wires 25 is terminated to an associated pair of contacts 17. With this stepwise advance of the connector 19, the frustonconical portion 89 of the pressing roller 87 performs a rolling motion on the ramp portion 59 of the associated comb 49 and in doing so engages the wire to be terminated next. Due to the rotation of the pressing roller 87 and its bias by means of the helical spring 91, the wire engaged between ramp portion 59 and pressing roller 87 is pulled downwardly and thereby tautened. When employing a terminating apparatus in which all wires 25 are terminated to the respectively associated contact 17 simultaneously, for which a comb-like terminating tool is required which is adapted to engage all contact cavities of the connector simultaneously, another tautening means is required. This can be constituted by an elongate tautener which has a longitudinal side facing the comb 49 and formed with an inclined surface which is substantially complementary to the inclined surface of the ramp portion 59. Such a tautener, too, could be biased in the direction towards the free ends of the wires 25, so that the wires engaged between the ramp portion 59 and the inlined surface of such a tautener can be pulled downwardly and tautened thereb .

When the comb 49, in the interstices 65 between the wire separating ribs 57, is provided with constricted portions through which the inserted wires 25 can be retained preliminarily, the wire ends cut off during the terminating operation remain clamped in the interstices between the wire separating ribs 57 and thus can be removed from the terminating apparatus together with the comb 49. They are then stripped off manually. The advantage hereof is that the cut off wire ends do not fall into the wire terminating apparatus where they could cause operational disturbances and can be removed again with difficulties only.

The terminating apparatus can be utilized in particularly advantageous and economic manner when more combs 49 are used than the number that can be applied to a terminating apparatus. While two combs 49 are inserted in the terminating apparatus on both sides of a connector 11 and the wires 25 held by said combs are successively introduced into the associated contacts 17, an operator can load other combs 49, removed from the terminating apparatus, with wires 25.

Claims

1. A terminating apparatus for terminating electrical wires (25) to electrical contacts (17) in contact cavities (15) of a connector housing (13) of an electrical connector (11) , comprising: a connector support for holding the connector (11) in a terminating position, and at least one terminating tool (73) adapted to reciprocate between an open position, in which said terminating tool (73) is spaced from the connector (11), so as to enable positioning of wires (25) between said terminating tool (73) and the respectively associated contact (17) , and a terminating position in which the terminating tool (73) terminates the respective wire (25) to the respectively associated contact (17) , said contact cavities (15) being open on the side facing said terminating tool (73) for allowing access of said terminating tool (73) and of the associated wire (25) to the respectively associated contact (17) , characterized in that a wire holder (49) is provided that is adapted to be loaded with the wires (25) to be terminated and holds said wires for the terminating operation in the vicinity of the lateral opening of the contact cavities (15) of the respectively associated contact (17) and in alignment with the associated contact (17) , that said wire holder (49) is adapted to be removed from the terminating apparatus for being loaded with the wires (25) , and in that a tautening means (87) is provided tautening the wires (25) for the terminating operation.

2. A terminating apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said wire holder is constituted by a comb (49) having a number of wire separating plates (53) depending on the number of the contact cavities (15) , the pattern of the wire separating plates (53) corresponding to the pattern of the contact cavities (15) and the spaces (55) between adjacent wire separating plates (53) permitting receipt of one wire (25) each and permitting the passage of the terminating tool (73) to said contacts (17) .

3. A terminating apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that each contact (17) comprises a terminating portion (19) designed for terminating a wire (25) in piercing and clamping technique, and a crimping portion (21) adapted to be crimped to the insulating jacket of the respective wire (25) , and in that said terminating tool (73) comprises a stuffer means (79) for urging the wire (25) into the terminating portion (19) , a crimping means (77) for crimping the crimping portion (21) to the insulating jacket, and a cutting means (81) for cutting off the wire (25) beyond said terminating portion (19) .

4. A terminating apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that sid terminating tool (73) is designed for successively terminating only one wire (25) at a time and is of plate-shaped configuration having a thickness corresponding to the space (55) between adjacent wire separating plates (53) .

5. A terminating apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said terminating tool is designed for simultaneously terminating a plurality of wires (25) and to this end comprises terminating plates arranged in comb-like manner which move between the wire separating plates (53) during the terminating operation so as to engage said contacts (17).

6. A terminating apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that said comb (49) has a body portion (51) having projecting, from the one end thereof, as seen in the longitudinal direction of the wire, said wire separating plates (53) and, from the other end thereof, wire separating ribs (57) aligned with said wire separating plates (53) , and being provided, in the region between said wire separating plates (53) and said wire separating ribs (57) , with a ramp portion (59) extending transversely of the longitudinal direction of the wire and being located below the terminating tool (73) as seen in the longitudinal direction of the wire, and in that said tautening means (87) comprises a tautener having a tautening side surface (89) located opposite said ramp portion (59) , said tautener being biased towards the wire separating ribs (57) in such a manner that it pulls a wire (25) located between ramp portion (25) and tautening surface (89) in the direction towards said wire separating ribs (57) .

7. A terminating apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that said tautener is biased by means of a spring (91) .

8. A terminating apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, in which the wires (25) are successively terminated to the associated contacts, characterized in that said tautener is constituted by a pressing roller (87) having a frustoconical portion (89) , with the frustonconical inclined surface thereof and the ramp portion (59) having approximately the same inclination.

9. A terminating apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 8, characterized in that the spaces (55) between the wire separating plates (53) and/or the spaces (65) between the wire separating ribs (57) are provided with clamping locations constituted by constrictions, for temporarily clamping the wires (25) to the comb (49) .

10. A terminating apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the comb (49) is provided with the connector support.

11. A terminating apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, for a connector (11) having on both longitudinal sides thereof a row of contact cavities (15) and contacts (17) disposed therein each, characterized in that on both sides of said connector (11) there are provided a wire holder (49) , a terminating tool (73) and a tautening means (87) each.

12. A method of terminating electrical wires (25) to electrical contacts (17) of an electrical connector (11) using a terminating apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that at first the wire holder (49) , in its condition removed from the terminating apparatus, is loaded with wires (25) to be terminated, that the wire holder (49) loaded with wires (25) is then applied to said terminating apparatus, and that the individual wires are then terminated to the contacts (17) of the connector (11) held by the terminating apparatus.

13. A method according to claim 12, characterized in that several wire holders (49) are used for each terminating operation and that each time a wire holder

(49) removed from the terminating apparatus is loaded with wires (25) while another wire holder (49) previously loaded with wires (25) is applied to the terminating apparatus in order to terminate the wires

(25) held by the latter holder to the contacts (17) of the respective connector (11) held by the connector support.