Terminal crimping apparatus

The present invention is directed to a terminal crimping apparatus comprising a pressure receiving member having a pressure receiving surface receiving a crimped terminal loaded in a connector housing, a caulking member having a crimping surface, for caulking the crimped terminal in the connector housing between the caulking member and the pressure receiving member, a surrounding member integrally extending from the caulking member and adapted to pass through the connector housing toward the pressure receiving member, for surrounding the pressure receiving member with little clearance, and a regulating member for preventing the surrounding member from being deformed at the time of caulking the crimped terminal.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
This application claims priority benefits under 35 USC .sctn. 119 of 
Japanese Patent Application Ser. No. 4-233934, filed Sep. 1, 1992, the 
disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates generally to a terminal crimping apparatus 
for caulking, in a connector housing, a so-called crimped terminal loaded 
in the connector housing to crimp the crimped terminal against an end of 
an electric wire. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
As a terminal for electrically connecting electric wires to each other, a 
so-called press-connecting terminal and a crimped terminal have been 
generally known. The press-connecting terminal is of such a type as to 
pinch a conductor of an electric wire between a pair of blade parts 
integrally extend from the terminal so as to electrically connect the 
terminal with the conductor by the pinching force. Press-connecting 
terminal is mainly used for a weak current. On the other hand, the crimped 
terminal is such a type as to previously strip a conductor in an end of an 
electric wire and crimp a pair of wire barrels so provided as to 
integrally extend from the terminal in a predetermined configuration to 
electrically connect the stripped conductor and the terminal to each 
other. Crimped terminal is mainly used for a strong current. 
The crimped terminal has higher tensile strength and is more reliably 
rendered conductive as compared with the press-connecting terminal, so the 
crimped terminal is widely employed in the field in which reliability is 
required. 
The present invention is suitable for a crimping connector of such a type 
as to electrically connect the above described crimped terminal and the 
electric wire to each other inside a connector housing. Such a crimping 
connector has been already widely provided (see, for example, Japanese 
Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 1-232680 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open 
Gazette No. 3-165478). 
This crimping connector is provided with openings 101 and 102 formed in 
opposite sides of a connector housing 100. Openings 101 and 102 are so 
covered with covers 103 and 104 that they can be opened and closed, as 
shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B. A plurality of crimped terminal inserting 
portions 105 are provided side by side inside the connector housing 100. 
In this crimping connector, a wire barrel A1 is caulked into a 
predetermined configuration as shown in FIG. 3A or 3B by a terminal 
crimping apparatus as described later. In an caulking operation of the 
terminal crimping apparatus, a crimped terminal A is loaded in each of the 
crimped terminal inserting portions 105 and a conductor W1 of an electric 
wire W is stripped to be joined to the crimped terminal A, thereby to make 
it possible to crimp the wire barrel A1 against the conductor W1 in an end 
of the electric wire W. An insulation barrel A2 of the crimped terminal A 
is also pressed by the apparatus at a time in a state where the barrel A2 
is received by the bottom of the connector housing 100, thereby to make it 
possible to crimp the insulation barrel A2 against a coated end W2 of the 
electric wire W. 
Such a crimping connector has the advantage that crimping work of the 
electric wire W and the crimped terminal A can be easily and quickly 
performed, and is significantly suitable particularly in automating the 
fabrication of a wiring harness. 
The above described terminal crimping apparatus comprises an anvil 107 and 
a crimper 108 disposed in close proximity to each other and are so opposed 
to each other as to interpose a connector housing 100 therebetween, as 
shown in FIG. 4. The tip of the anvil 107 is introduced into a crimped 
terminal inserting portion 105 of the connector housing 100 and the 
crimper 108 is lowered by pressing means from above state, thereby to make 
it possible to interpose and caulk a wire barrel A1 of a crimped terminal 
A between the crimper 108 and the anvil 107. 
In a wiring harness for, for example, an automobile which is repeatedly 
subjected to violent vibration, a wire barrel A1 of a crimped terminal A 
must be very firmly crimped against a conductor W1 of an electric wire W 
so as to reliably maintain conduction between the conductor W1 of the 
electric wire W and the crimped terminal A for a long time period. In the 
terminal crimping apparatus of the above described construction, however, 
a clearance S is formed between the crimper 108 and the anvil 107, thereby 
making it impossible to obtain the desired connecting intensity because 
the crimped terminal A escapes to the clearance S even if pressure applied 
to the crimper 108 is increased. 
Meanwhile, in general crimping of a terminal against an electric wire for a 
large current, a terminal crimping apparatus is used for crimping a 
terminal without forming the above described clearance S (see, for 
example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 98278/1991). 
As shown in FIG. 5, such a terminal crimping apparatus is provided at a 
lower part of a crimper 108 with a substantially U-shaped surrounding 
portion 108a which receives an anvil 107 with no clearance in order to 
surround the crimped terminal A with no clearance, and so adapted that the 
crimper 108 is pressed by applying high pressure for ensuring the desired 
connecting intensity to decrease the contact resistance in a crimped 
portion. This type of terminal crimping apparatus cannot be applied to a 
crimping connector for crimping a terminal in a housing as described above 
due to the following problem. Specifically, in a crimping connector used 
for a wiring harness, the width of the crimped terminal inserting portion 
105 is narrow, as shown in FIG. 3. Consequently, an attempt to use the 
terminal crimping apparatus shown in FIG. 5 is interrupted by the 
surrounding portion 108a having a large wall thickness t. If this 
surrounding portion 108a were thin, the intensity of the surrounding 
portion 108a would be insufficient: the surrounding portion 108a would be 
spaced farther apart in caulking the crimped terminal A, so that a 
clearance would be formed between the crimper 108 and the anvil 107. 
Consequently, it is difficult to actually apply the terminal crimping 
apparatus to crimping of a terminal in a crimping connector. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention has been made in view of the above described problems 
and has for its object to provide a terminal crimping apparatus capable of 
crimping a terminal in a crimping connector reliably and firmly. 
The present invention is directed to a terminal crimping apparatus which 
attains the above described object. Specifically, the present invention 
includes a member for caulking a crimped terminal inside a connector 
housing. With a new structure according to the present invention, the 
member carries out a caulking process with no place to which the crimped 
terminal being caulked escapes. In the present invention, therefore, even 
when the above described crimped terminal and an electric wire are 
electrically connected to each other inside the connector housing, it is 
possible to sufficiently ensure connecting intensity of the crimped 
terminal and therefore, to make it possible to maintain conduction between 
the electric wire and the crimped terminal reliably for a long time 
period. 
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the 
present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed 
description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the 
accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIG. 1 is a front view showing main parts of a terminal crimping apparatus 
according to the present invention, and 
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of FIG. 1. 
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a terminal crimping apparatus according to the 
present invention comprises pressure receiving means having a pressure 
receiving surface receiving a crimped terminal A loaded in a connector 
housing C1, caulking means having a caulking surface and so opposed to the 
pressure receiving means as to interpose the connector housing C1 
therebetween, for caulking the crimped terminal A in the connector housing 
C1 together with the pressure receiving means, surrounding means 11 
integrally extending from the caulking means and adapted to pass through 
the connector housing C1 toward the pressure receiving means for 
surrounding the pressure receiving means with little clearance, and 
regulating means 3 for preventing the surrounding means 11 from being 
spaced farther apart at the time of caulking the crimped terminal A. 
In the present embodiment, the caulking means and the surrounding means 11 
are in the form of a crimper 1 which is driven back and forth in a 
direction in which the crimper 1 is opposed to an anvil 2. Furthermore, in 
the present embodiment, the pressure receiving means is in the form of the 
anvil 2. 
More specifically, the above described crimper 1 is so provided that it can 
be raised and lowered above the connector housing C1 and is pressed 
downward by a known pressing means 4, thereby to press a wire barrel A1 of 
the crimped terminal A. The crimper 1 is adapted to pass through a 
plurality of crimped terminal inserting portions C2 which are provided 
side by side in the connector housing C1. Formed at a lower side of the 
crimper 1 is the surrounding means or a substantially U-shaped forked 
portion 11 into which the above described pressure receiving means can be 
introduced with little clearance. The thickness t of a pair of prong parts 
11a constituting the forked portion 11, which depends on the width of the 
crimped terminal inserting portion C2, is generally set to approximately 
0.3 to approximately 1.0 mm. In addition, a crimping surface 12 formed 
into a semicircular shape is formed on a crotch portion of the forked 
portion 11, thereby to make it possible to caulk the wire barrel A1 in 
cooperation with the pressure receiving means in a state where both ends 
of the wire barrel A1 of the crimped terminal A are overlapped with each 
other. As the crimped configuration of the wire barrel A1, a so-called 
B-type crimp in a substantially B shape in cross section (see FIG. 5) as 
shown in FIG. 3A or a lap-type crimp in which an end of one of prong parts 
covers the other prong part as shown in FIG. 3B may be used. 
Furthermore, a tapered guide portion 11b is formed on a lower end of each 
of the above described prong parts 11a, thereby to make it possible to 
introduce the pressure receiving means into the forked portion 11 easily 
and reliably by the guide portion 11b. It is preferable that a clearance 
between the forked portion 11 and the pressure receiving means is zero. 
However, there may be provided a very small clearance to which the crimped 
terminal A does not escape at the time of caulking. 
The above described anvil 2 is fixed to a base beneath the connector 
housing C1. A tip 21 of the anvil 2 is projected by a predetermined height 
from a position 4 where the connector housing C1 is set. Consequently, the 
tip 21 of the anvil 2 is introduced into the crimped terminal inserting 
portion C2 of the connector housing C1 in a state where the connector 
housing C1 is set in the above described set position 4. In addition, the 
tip 21 of the anvil 2 has a pressure receiving surface 22 formed into a 
substantially semicircular shape so as to smoothly connect with the 
crimping surface 12 of the crimper 1. 
Meanwhile, the above described crimper 1 and the above described anvil 2 
are respectively composed of dice steel or the like hardened. 
The above described regulating means 3 is for clamping the forked portion 
11 of the crimper 1 in caulking the crimped terminal A to prevent the 
forked portion 11 from being deformed or being spaced farther apart, and 
comprises a pair of clamping members 31 for clamping the forked portion 
11, a holding member 32 for holding the clamping members 31 so as to be 
slidable up and down, and spacers 33 for respectively adjusting the 
heights of the clamping members 31. 
The above described clamping member 31 has a clamping surface 31a which is 
brought into contact with the forked portion 11. Formed on the opposite 
side of the holding surface 31a is a sliding surface 31b having an upper 
part gradually inclined toward the forked portion 11. In addition, each of 
the clamping members 31 is provided with a through hole 31c through which 
a screw N for fixing the clamping member 31 to the holding member 32 is 
inserted. This through hole 31c is formed into an elongated hole so as to 
allow the clamping member 31 to be adjusted upwardly or downwardly. 
Furthermore, the holding member 32 comprises a groove 32a into which the 
above described clamping member 31 can be introduced, and a side surface 
32b of the groove 32a is along the sliding surface 31b of the clamping 
member 31. 
The spacer 33 is interposed between the base 5 for fixing the above 
described holding member 32 and the bottom surface of the clamping member 
31. Contacting surfaces of the clamping member 31 and spacer 33 are, 
respectively, formed into sliding surfaces. In addition, the spacer 33 is 
movable in the horizontal direction along the above described base 5 so 
that the clamping member 31 can be adjusted upwardly or downwardly by 
adjusting the amount of movement of the spacer 33 in the horizontal 
direction. Furthermore, if the clamping member 31 is moved upwardly or 
downwardly, the clamping member 31 is also adjusted rightward or leftward 
due to the function between the side wall 32b of the holding member 32 and 
the sliding surface of the clamping member 31. The above described 
clamping member 31 is thus adjusted upwardly and downwardly, thereby to 
make it possible to make a clearance between the forked portion 11 and the 
clamping member 31 approximately zero. 
In the above described terminal crimping apparatus, there is provided with 
a punch (not shown) integrally movable with the crimper 1 and interposing 
a coated end of the electric wire W between the punch and the bottom of 
the connector housing C1 to caulk the insulation barrel A2 of the crimped 
terminal A (see FIG. 3). 
The above described connector housing C1 is the same as that shown in FIG. 
3, which is automatically conveyed by a known conveying device 6. In the 
present embodiment, the crimped terminal inserting portions C2 provided 
for the connector housing C1 can be sequentially moved to a space between 
the crimper 1 and the anvil 2 by the above described conveying device 6. 
Consequently, the clamped terminals A in the respective crimped terminal 
inserting portions C1 can be sequentially crimped. 
More specifically, in crimping the electric wire W, the electric wire W is 
subjected to a measuring and cutting process for cutting the electric wire 
W to predetermined lengths and a stripping process for stripping the cut 
electric wire W to expose a conductor in an end of the electric wire W, 
which are not shown. An electric wire guiding device for embodying the 
respective processes is disclosed in detail in Japanese Patent Application 
Serial No. 4-165666. 
In the above described construction, the crimper 1 is lowered in a state 
where the connector housing C1 is set by the conveying device 6, thereby 
to make it possible for the crimper 1 to pass through the crimped terminal 
inserting portion C2 of the connector housing C1, and the wire barrel A1 
of the crimped terminal A loaded in the crimped terminal inserting portion 
C2 is interposed and caulked between the crimping surface of the crimper 1 
and the pressure receiving surface 22 of the anvil 2, thereby to make it 
possible to crimp the wire barrel A1 against the conductor of the electric 
wire W. In the case of the above described crimping, the forked portion 11 
of the crimper 1 which passes through the crimped terminal inserting 
portion C2 is interposed by the regulating means 3, thereby the regulating 
means 3 makes it possible to prevent the forked portion 11 from being 
spaced farther apart. Accordingly, the wire barrel A of the crimped 
terminal A can be surrounded with little clearance between the above 
described crimping surface 12 and the above described pressure receiving 
surface. Therefore, the wire barrel A1 can be caulked at significantly 
high pressure, thereby to make it possible to achieve a compression rate 
of 70 to 90% as the compression rate of the electric wire W. Consequently, 
it is possible to crimp the wire barrel A1 of the crimped terminal A 
reliably and firmly against the conductor of the electric wire W. 
The terminal crimping apparatus according to the present invention is not 
limited to the above described embodiment. For example, the above 
described regulating means 3 may be formed integrally with the anvil 2. 
Although the present invention has been described and illustrated in 
detail, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration 
and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, the spirit 
and scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms of the 
appended claims.