Apparatus for installing wire in grid support structure

Abstract

A robotically controlled wiring apparatus for stripping, cutting and installing clad wire in a waffleline plate supported on an X-Y table comprises a wire feed, stripping and cutting unit, which is displaceable toward and away from the waffleline plate. The wire installation unit includes a clamp foot that is controlled by a cam unit to engage the wire and urge a first end of the wire into a channel of the waffleline plate. After the clamp foot has been retracted away from an inserted end of wire and the installation wheel is positioned against the wire, the X-Y table is translated, causing the wheel to rotate, drawing wire from a supply spool and effectively press-fitting the wire along the channel of the waffleline plate. After a prescribed length of wire has been installed, the wire is stripped and cut. For this purpose, the wire is clamped in the channel and placed in tension. The insulation-stripping and wire-cutting unit is displaced along the tensioned wire to a location where the portion of the wire to be stripped will be impinged by a multipath laser beam. A cladding-stripping laser beam is then directed onto the portion of the cladding to be stripped, so that cladding material is vaporized off the wire. The wire-cutting unit is translated down the wire until the cutting unit surrounds the stripped portion of the wire. The wire is then cut by rotating a shear element across an aperture in a cutting anvil of the cutting unit.