Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Limited

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Sumitomo Wiring System, Ltd.

Teiji Sakuma

Kazumitsu Fukada

Yutaka Nishide

Kouichi Ueda

Takashi Kobayashi

Michio Fukuda

Toshiyuki Kuramoto

Koji Fujita

Fujio Ogawa

Koichi Ueda

Yoshio Takenami

Shigeru Kato

Masaaki Fujii

Masao Kobayashi

Akira Gotoh

Satoshi Ogawa

Masakazu Kashiwase

Yasutoshi Takemoto

Tutomu Yoshimura

Hideaki Ito

Tomokazu Itoh

A wire supply unit 30 is provided on which terminal connected wires TW can manually be loaded. The wire supply unit 30 includes retainers 20. Each retainer 20 positions the terminal connected wires TW such that the terminal connected wires TW can be transferred to the inserting unit 50. The terminal connected wires TW can be transferred directly to the inserting unit 50 so as to be inserted into connector housing C.

Wiring assembly producing method and a terminal connected wire inserting

To position a wire-connected terminal TW and cope with a multitude of kinds of wire-connected terminals TW, a block 30 is provided for each wire-connected terminal TW. The block 30 includes recesses 34, 37 for detachably accommodating the wire-connected terminal TW. A part of the accommodated wire-connected terminal TW is exposed such that it can be gripped by hands 51, 52. The block 30 also includes a positioning means 38 for positioning the terminal TW accommodated in the recesses 34, 37 with respect to the hands 51, 52. Since the terminal TW is securely positioned in a transferring step of transferring the wire-connected terminal TW to the hands 51, 52, the succeeding step performed by the hands 51, 52 can be securely performed.

Block and retainer for wire-connected terminals and wire connection

The invention relates to a mechanism for inserting wired terminals into connector housings and includes a terminal moving part for detaching the front end part of the wires from a clamping part and moving the terminals adapted to inwardly return to a lay-out board, a housing holding part for holding a connector housing so that the terminal insertion ports in the connector housing confront the terminals returned to the lay-out board, and a terminal inserting part for inserting the terminals into the terminal insertion ports by bringing the connector housing and the terminals, which terminals are opposite to the terminal insertion ports of the connector housing, closer at the terminal insertion movable region.

Mechanism for inserting wired terminals into connector housing

The fabrication of wiring harnesses requires many steps, such as a wire laying out step of laying out electric wires coated with insulative sheaths in a laying out array and cutting with measured length, a stripping step of the insulative sheaths at the ends of the electric wires, a crimping step of pressing terminals together with the bared ends of the electric wires in crimp contact, an inserting step of inserting into connectors the terminals pressed in crimp contact, etc. This system has an apparatus for each step modularized, and a module incorporated in the system can be increased or decreased in number depending upon a type of the desired wiring harness. For example, it is assumed now that a wiring harness fabrication line consists of an automated wire laying out module (1), a stripping module (3), two terminal-crimping modules (5), and a terminal-inserting module (7). When the type of the desired wiring harness is changed, additional automated wire laying out module (1) and terminal-inserting module (7) are provided in this fabrication line, and eventually, there can be incorporated two of the automated wire laying out modules (1) and two of the terminal-inserting modules (7) in this fabrication line. Thus, the automated fabricating system according to the present invention is a system pliably adjustable to the change of a design of the wiring harness.

Wiring harness fabricating system

An automatic wire press-connecting and laying out apparatus for a wire harness has, as its main portion, a wire press-connecting and laying out portion, comprising a wire feed portion having a wire feeding mechanism for individually feeding out wires and a wire severing mechanism for individually severing wires for feeding out wires, separate cassette lay-out boards detachably and horizontally disposed on a frame table in such a manner as to be opposite to each other via a depression and each having a group of connectors detachably arranged at predetermined positions thereon, and a head portion provided in such a manner as to vertically suspend over the cassette lay-out boards and having a transfer means for enabling the head portion to move to a relative position defined by orthogonal X and Y axis dimensions of the cassette lay-out boards, a wire drawing mechanism for individually drawing wires and a wire press-connecting mechanism comprising a plurality of wire press-connecting portions arranged in parallel. These wire drawing and wire press-connecting mechanisms are provided in such a manner as to face downwardly. A wire dimension adjusting mechanism for adjusting the dimension of individual wires is provided either on the wire feeding mechanism or on the wire drawing mechanism, and the head portion clamps wires protruding from the distal end of the wire feed portion and sequentially distributes the clamped wires to the connectors so as to be press-connected thereto. The wires are individually severed after the dimension of the individual wires has been adjusted, and the wires are laid out in a required configuration with the intermediate portions thereof being allowed to suspend into the depression so as to be received therein.

Automatic wire press-connecting and laying out apparatus for wire harness

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Yokkaichi, Japan

Teiji Sakuma