EQUIPMENT FOR WIRING AN ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR

Abstract: The equipment comprises mainly a fixed frame with a connector holder and two opposite mounted insertion units provided with insertion punches and which are able to be displaced along the connector holder by means of a carriage, the extremity of each insertion unit being provided with wire guiding means in which at least one wire guiding means is movable mounted so as to obtain a passage or gap between the guiding means which can be adapted to the size or kind of wire to be inserted in the connector.

Description: Equipment for wiring an electrical connector The present invention relates to an equipment for wiring an electrical connector and which comprises mainly two opposite units for inserting electrical wires in a connector provided with contacts of the kind known as "I.D.C." (Insulation Displacement Contact) in which the electrical connection during wiring is obtained by inserting a wire with or without insulation in two metal slots situated the one on top of the other, which are part of the contact, and which are shaped to cut the insulation of the wire and pinch the metal conductor of the wire within the slot legs. The two opposite insertion heads are part of a carriage capable to move forward and backward with respect to a fixed framework generally bench mounted. As the electric wires, with or without insulation, must be correctly guided during insertion, those guiding means are to be adapted for each different wire diameter. Accordingly it has been provided up to now to change those guiding means for each kind of wire dimension or even to arranqe for different wiring machines for each kind of wire. Moreover the wires without insulation or so called drain wires had to be manually inserted. The purpose of the present invention is to realize an equipment provided with automatically adjustable wire guiding means. In addition, the adjustment may be previously programmed in a control unit taking account of the following settings - connector size (for instance : 2 x 5, 2 x 10, 2 x 32...) - wire size (AWG24 or 1WG30) - wire with or without insulation (drain wire) - selective wire positioning in the connector. In the equipment according to the invention, each insertion head is provided with two wire guiding means, at least one of which is movably mounted so as to obtain a passage or gap between the guiding means which can be adapted to the size or kind of wire to be inserted in the connector. The invention will be explained more in details on the hand of the following description of an embodiment referring to the enclosed drawings in which Figure 1 is Åa schematic top view of the equipment Figures 2 and 3 are detailed views of the wire guiding means. Figures 4A and 5A are fractional top views of the extremity of the insertion head with different wire sizes. Figures 4B and 5B are sectional views following the cut line B-B in the respective figures 4A and 5A. Figure 6 is a schematical representation of the several pilot means. Figure 7 is a bloc diagram of the control unit with connections to the pilot units. The equipment comprises principally a fixed frame 10 provided with two guiding slides 11 along which a U-shaped carriage may be displaced forward and backward, the legs of the U-shaped carriage 20 extending towards the front side of the equipment. The displacement is controlled by a centrally mounted electric stepping motor 12, the rotating spindle 13 of which cooperates with the rear portion 21 of the carriage 20. The front side of the fixed frame 10 is provided with a connector-holder 14 which extends following the medium axis L of the frame 10. The extremity of both legs of the carriage 20 is provided with an inserter or insertion head 30 which are facing each other in a symetric opposite manner and which are able to move along the complete length of the connector holder 14. Each inserter 30 comprises mainly a punch 31 able to move along a spindle 33 of an electric stepping motor 32 in a direction which extends perpendicularly to the medium axis L of the frame 10. The movement of the punch 31 is guided by fixed guiding members 34, 341. These guide members 34 extend as far as the fixed connector holder 14 and are shaped in such a manner that they support the open front side of the carriage 20 while it moves along said connector holder 14. The extremities of the punch guides 34, 341 are provided with a device for guiding the wire to be inserted. According to the present invention, this wire guiding device comprises a fixed part 36 (on the front side) and a movable part 38 (on the rear side). The movable part 38 is integral with a lever 40 which may pivot around a stud 42. The lever 40 is provided with a pin 44 extending downwardly into a sloping worked out slot 46 which controls the swinging of the lever 40 by the displacement of the slot 46. For this purpose said slot is part of a L-shaped bar 48 which is able to move perpendicularly with respect to the medium axis L of the frame 10 and which is controlled by an electric stepping motor 50. Since the extremity 35 of the punch 31 has to move between a fixed part 36 and a movable part 38, these subsequent parts are provided with grooves 37 which operate more or less with one another depending on the size of the wires (see figures 4B and 5B). Between the front punch guide 34 and the fixed part 36, which are connected to one another, each insertion unit is provided with a cut-out 52 situated on each side of the connector holder 14. The wires to be inserted are positioned by pairs alonq said cut-out parts 52 in front of opposite facina insertion punches 31. When the wires are correctly positioned they push against switches 54 which perceive the presence of the wires and actuate via the control unit the motors 32 and 50 to execute the insertion operation. This control unit will preferably be programmed by a computer by which presettings can be arranged to realize each particular connection type between a cable and a connector and to adapt each individual gap between the wire guide parts 36 and 38 corresponding to each size and kind of wire and to each individual terminal position of the connector. The cable end is clamped above the connector holder and each individual wire is positioned by pairs in front of the opposite insertion heads. During insertion, the wires are cut at their appropriate length with a commonly used device which is not further described. To achieve and control a complete programm of the insertion process, it is necessary to attend to a plurality of position sensor switches such as illustrated on figure 6. For this purpose two sensor switches are provided along the main spindle 13 to check the most advanced position forwards 56 or backwards 55 of the carriage 20. Also the displacement of the wire guiding means 38 is controlled by respectively sensor switch 57L for left side motor 50L and sensor switch 57R for right side motor 50R. The position and displacement of the wire insertion punches 31 are followed by respectively sensor switch 58L for left side motor 32L and sensor switch 58R for right side motor 32R. The bloc diagram of figure 7 shows how the different sensor switches 54, 55, 56, 57 and 58 are connected with the input (OPTO IN) of a central processing unit C of the computerised control unit which also can be manually activated through HI. The operations which are to be arried out are transmitted through suitable command signals via the output (OPTO OUT) and the different control units D with power supply PS towards the corresponding motors 12, 32 and 50.

Claims: Claims 1. Equipment for wiring an electric connector comprising mainly a fixed frame with a connector holder and two opposite mounted insertion units provided with insertion punches and which are able to be displaced along the connector holder by means of a carriage, the extremity of each insertion unit being provided with wire guiding means, characterized in that at least one wire guiding means is movably mounted so as to obtain a passage or gap between the guiding means which can be adapted to the size or kind of wire to be inserted in the connector. 2. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one movable wore guiding means (38) is controlled by an electric stepping motor (50). 3. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that the movable wire guiding parts (38) is integral with a lever (40) which may pivote around a stud (42) and which extends substantially perpendicularly according to the medium axis (L) of the frame (10). 4. Equipment according to claims 1 and 3,characterized in that the swinging lever (40) is provided with a pin (44) extending into a slot (46) the longitudinal axis of which makes a small angle in relation with the perpendicular drawn on the medium axis (L) of the fixed frame (10). 5. Equipment according to claim 4, characterized in that the slot (46) is part-of a bar (48) which is able to move perpendicularly with respect to the medium axis (L) of the frame (10) and which is controlled by a stepping motor (50). 6. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that each insertion punch (31) which has to move between the wire guiding means (36, 38) is provided with grooves (37) which cooperate with corresponding grooves in the means (36, 38), said grooves operate more or less with one another depending on the size of the wires to be inserted. 7. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that the carriage (20), which is actuated by an electric stepping motor (12) ; the displacement of the insertion punches (31), driven by electric stepping motors (32) and the displacement of the movable wire guiding means (38) by means of electric stepping motors (50) are controlled by a computerized control-unit through which the passage or gap between the wire guiding means (36 and 38) can be preset individually for each size and kind of wire and for each individual position of the terminal in the connector. 8. Equipment according to claim 7, characterized in that the displacement of the insertion punches (31) by means of the electric stepping motors (32) is also preset by the computerized control-unit so as to obtain the same insertion depth into the connector terminal for each wire size, with or without insulation.

Inventors: DECKERS, WILLY
Applicants: BURNDY ELECTRA N.V.
Application year: 1983
Main classification: H01R43
IPC codes: H01R43