Hitachi Cable, Inc.

Hitachi, Ltd.

Tsukasa Kasahara

Satoshi Mizushima

Osamu Mochizuki

Masaaki Aoyagi

Kiyofumi Tanaka

Satoru Ezaki

Tetsuro Nakagawa

Tetsuya Hirose

A mold is disposed just behind twist ports for forming twisted pair portions of a flat cable. When a plurality of insulated conductors in their portion corresponding to a parallel portion, before fusion, of a flat cable are passed through the twist ports, the rotation of the twist ports is stopped to permit the plurality of insulated conductors to be parallel aligned with an identical pitch. The mold comprises a combination of two molds each having a plurality of grooves for accommodating therein the plurality of insulated conductors delivered from the twist ports. Upon accommodation of the plurality of insulated conductors within the grooves of the mold, fusion between adjacent insulated conductors in their insulative layers is carried out in the mold to form a parallel fused portion. The above constitution can realize a process and an apparatus for producing a flat cable that require neither a large space nor large equipment, can easily vary the spacing between parallel fused portions, and can properly fuse adjacent insulated conductors in their insulative layers to each other to form a parallel fused portion.

Process and apparatus for producing flat cable

In a flat cable including fused portions and twisted pair portions, the length of the twisted pair portions being not constant, the twist pitch of the twisted pair portions being substantially constant independently of the length of the twisted pair portions, some of the twisted pair portions being constituted by S twists with the other twisted pair portions being constituted by Z twists, the next twisted pair portion is twisted in such a manner that, when the number of twists in the S twisted pair portions in the longitudinal direction of the flat cable is added as &ldquo;plus (&plus;)&rdquo; value with the number of twists in the Z twisted pair portions being added as &ldquo;minus (&minus;)&rdquo; value, the twist sense in the next twisted pair portion is Z twist sense if the integrated value of the number of twists is plus (&plus;) while the twist sense in the next twisted pair portion is S twist sense if the integrated value of the number of twists is minus (&minus;). By virtue of the above constitution, a flat cable with the spacing of fused portions being not constant can be produced without requiring any twist back mechanism.

Flat cable and process for producing the same

An apparatus for forming and cutting a flat type multi-core cable is disclosed, in which core conductors of a flat type multi-core cable, whose core conductors are previously exposed by exfoliating a part of a jacket therefor, are divided into a plurality of units; the core conductors are formed and cut separately for every unit; and at the same time the pitch of the core conductors is corrected. Further the number and/or the pitch of the core conductors are calculated by using information obtained by the scanning of the core conductors and cables, for which the number of the core conductors is not in agreement with predetermined one, or cables, for which errors in the pitch of the core conductors exceed a certain limit, are excluded as deficiencies.

Method for forming and cutting a flat type multi-core cable and

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Ibaraki, Japan

Tsukasa Kasahara