Panduit Corporation

Richard M Purpura

Donald C Wiencek

Peter Kirsinas, Jr

John J Brouwer

Apparatus for applying wire joints, of the type having a crimpable metallic ferrule, to the ends of wires. The apparatus includes a feeder for holding a supply of the joints, a tool for applying the joints to be crimped, and a conveyor interconnecting the feeder and the tool for conveying the joints in series. The tool has a crimping station and first and second crimping members which are movable between an open position and a crimping position for applying a joint held at the crimping station. The tool also includes a wire joint advance mechanism responsive to the crimping members moving toward their open position to advance the next upstream wire joint to the crimping station thereby ejecting the wire joint applied to the wires. As a method, the present invention includes the steps of moving a wire joint from a loading station to the crimping station as the crimping members move to their open position. A wire joint is moved from a stack retaining station toward an intermediate station as the crimping members move to their open position. The method also includes the step of moving a wire joint from the intermediate station to the loading station as the crimping members move toward their crimping position so that another wire joint is fed to the crimping station during each cycle of operation of the crimping members.

Growing community of inventors

Park Forest, IL, United States of America

Richard M Purpura