METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR INSTALLING A WIRE HARNESS

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for installing a wire harness of an automobile which facilitates installation of a wire harness onto a car body. First of all the wire harness (8) and electrical equipment are fixed on a carrier panel (l9). In fixing them, the connectors of the wire harness are positioned for connection to the articles of electrical equipment. Some connectors of the wire harness fixed on the carrier panel are adapted to be connected to the connectors of the wire harness on the car body. The thus prepared assembly of carrier panel (l9), the wire harness (8) and the electrical equipment is bodily attached to the car body.

Description: This invention relates to improvements in a process of and apparatus for installing a wiring used for an automobile electric circuit onto the body of the automobile. Wire harnesses used for automobile electric circuits commonly have a structure in which a large number of branch lines extend from a main line composed of a large number of electric wires bound together or bundled by a wrapping tape. Such a wire harness is installed onto a car body such that the main line thereof is contained in a space within an automobile and secured at several portions thereof by fastening means and the branch lines are then connected by means of connectors provided at ends of the branch lines to electrical equipment including several loads such as a motor and a solenoid, switches, and electric connection boxes such as a junction box and a fuse box. An example of wire harness installation will be described below with reference to the drawings. Referring to Figure 5, an instrument panel 31 molded from a synthetic resin material and a reinforcement member 32 made of a metal material are shown. The reinforcement member 32 is secured to a car body either by means of bolts or by welding, and the panel 31 is mounted on the reinforcement member 32. A wire harness 33 has a main line portion 34 and a plurality of branch lines 35 extending from the main portion 34. The branch portions 35 may be varied in length and extend irregularly in various directions from the main portion 34. Several fastening members 36 such as clips are provided on the main portion 34. The wire harness 33 is secured to the panel 3l or the reinforcement member 32 by means of the fastening members 36 or wire bands. The main portion 34 extends at an end thereof through a through-hole 38 in a car body fire wall 37 to an engine room 39 as shown in Figure 6. A grommet 40 is fitted in the through-hole 38 of the fire wall 37 for protecting and securing the wire harness 33. Connection of the wire harness 33 to articles of electrical equipment 4l (only one is shown in Figures 5 and 6) may be established by means of connectors 42 provided at ends of the main portion 34 and/or the branch portions 35. In such a wire harness of a bundle form as described above and a process of installing the same, coupling of connectors to various articles of electrical equipment is all accomplished by manual operation because the connectors are provided at ends of branch portions which extend like freely movable branches from the main portion of the wire harness, and hence hands of operators to accomplish such manual operation and spaces in which a hand can operate are required. Besides, where connectors are concentrated such as connectors 42′ (Figure 5) to be coupled to various instruments at the instrument panel, a handle column or several switches, the wire harness is larger in diameter, which makes arrangement of the wire harness and practical use of spacings further difficult. Further, in order to thread the wire harness through a through-hole of the car body, protection and fixation thereof by means of a grommet is required, and hence a hand of an operator is essentially required for installation of the wire harness. In addition, connection of the wire harness 33 with another wire harness can be done only after assembly of the panel and the reinforcement member to the car body and also requires a hand of an operator. Thus, according to the prior art, connecting operations of a wire harness to various articles of electrical equipment depend mostly upon manual operations and it is difficult to reduce the number of man-hours for installation of the wire harness and automate such installation using a machine, which makes a serious obstruction to speed-up in automobile production lines. Besides, since manual operations are involved mainly, spacings for allowing such installing operations are required, which makes it difficult to make the system compact. EP-A-108522 discloses a wiring arrangement in which an instrument panel having instruments and the like is preassembled and a wiring harness is provided on the engine compartment side of the panel. With such an arrangement difficulties arise, as described above when installing the panel in the automobile body. It is an object of the present invention to provide a process of and apparatus for installing a wire harness or like articles of electrical equipment of an automobile or the like which can save hands of operations as much as possible and facilitate automation using a machine such as a robot. It is another object of the invention to provide a process of and apparatus for installing a wire harness or the like articles of electrical equipment of an automobile or the like which can allow speed-up of production lines by automation and reduction of the number of man-hours. It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus for installing a wire harness which can be made compact to allow effective utilization of a spacing within an automobile. In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided a method of installing wiring in an automobile, comprising the steps of providing a carrier for attachment to an automobile body and having an engine compartment side and a passenger compartment side, mounting articles of electrical equipment on said carrier and connecting these to a first wire harness, said first wire harness having a first connector for connection to a second wire harness in the engine compartment of the automobile and a second connector for connection to at least one of said articles of equipment, characterised in that said first wire harness and said articles are mounted on the passenger side of the carrier and in that the carrier is formed with a window means through which said first connector connects said first wire harness to said second wire harness. Subsequent to wiring and securing of the wire harness, selected members of connectors connected to ends of the main portion and of the branch portions are secured by positioning means to face selected members of the articles of electrical equipment. Securing of each connector may be achieved by fitting or reveting the connector to a fitting member which is provided in advance at a position corresponding to another connector provided for each article of electrical equipment. Finally, some articles of electrical equipment corresponding to the positioning means are fitted and secured in position whereupon the connectors of the wire harness are connected to the connectors for the articles of electrical equipment, thereby completing installation of the wire harness, connectors and various articles of electrical equipment on the carrier panel. Installation of the wire harness and the attached connectors of the wire harness on the carrier panel is done by manual operation, but this can be accomplished easily because they are already positioned there. Besides, connection of the attached connectors of the wire harness to the electric components can be done easily because only fitting and securing of the articles of electrical equipment along the respective positioning means will automatically couple the attached connectors of the wire harness to the connectors of the electrical equipment. Accordingly, the necessity of such an operation for connecting an attached connector of a wire harness to an electric component as needed in the prior art can be eliminated, and installation of electrical equipment can be automated using a machine such as a robot. According to another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for installing wiring in an automobile comprising a carrier on which there are mounted articles of electrical equipment, and a first wiring harness having connectors connected to said articles and a further connector for connection to a second wire harness in the engine compartment of the automobile, said panel having a passenger compartment side and an engine compartment side; characterised in that said first wire harness and said articles are mounted on the passenger compartment side of said carrier and in that the carrier is formed with window means through which said further connector can connect the first wire harness to said second wire harness. For the carrier panel in the present invention, not only a member having a solid structure such as an instrument panel or a reinforcement member as described above but also a member in the form of a plate such as a car body fire wall as described above or a door panel which has a configuration to allow securing by a suitable means such as welding or fastening with a bolt are used depending upon desired spacings of the automobile. The carrier panel has provided in advance on a wall thereof a fixing means along a wiring pattern of the wire harness and where necessary installing means having a configuration corresponding to an article of electrical equipment. The fixing means may be a groove or grooves formed continuously or intermittently in an inner wall of the panel for receiving and securing the wire harness therein or a plurality of clamps projectingly provided in a spaced relationship by a suitable distance from each other for holding the wire harness therein or else a combination of such groove or grooves and clamps. The grooves or clamps may be provided corresponding to the main portion and the branch portions of the wire harness and may be formed widely or narrowly so as to accommodate or hold thick or thin portions of the wire harness therein. Normally, the installing means for electrical equipment are each provided either in the form of a frame element or a fitting window having a locking means for electrical equipment. Since the electrical equipment may be any of various devices such as load devices including a lamp, a motor, a solenoid, a relay or a radio, controlling devices such as a switch, a sensor and a control unit for controlling such load devices, indicating devices such as an instrument and electric connection boxes such as a fuse box and a relay box, the positioning guides are formed in conformity with configurations of the devices. Further, means for positioning an attached connector of the wire harness is provided at a position in each of the installing means which is opposed to a connector provided for electrical equipment when an article of electrical equipment is fitted and secured in the installing means. The positioning means may be either a fitting rail which is formed in integral relationship on the carrier panel for fitting the attached connector vertically or horizontally thereon or any other known means such as a fastening screw. According to the apparatus of the invention, the harness is put in from the front or a side of the carrier panel and is wired and secured along the fixing members whereafter the connectors proviced at ends of the main and branch portions of the wire harness can be put in utilizing spacings of the installing means formed to open for the electrical equipment. Accordingly, operations therefor are easy. Further, since coupling of the attached connector to a connector of electrical equipment is established automatically by fitting of the electrical equipment in position as described above, there is no need of forming an additional operation space for connection of connectors as in the prior art. In this manner, since a wire harness, connectors attached to the wire harness and electrical equipment are installed in a compact configuration using the carrier panel, a limited small space within an automobile can be utilized effectively. In addition, according to the apparatus of the invention, since various articles of electrical equipment necessitated by an automobile can be installed or formed integrally on the carrier panel, operations for mounting the electrical equipment and for installing the wire harness which have been conventionally conducted in production lines of an automobile maker can be transferred to a wire harness maker, which will allow speed-up of production lines. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. l is an exploded perspective view illustrating a preferred embodiment of apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the apparatus of Fig. l in a somewhat assembled form; Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing means for positioning an attached connector of a wire harness of the apparatus of Fig. l; Fig. 4 is a wiring diagram of the wire harness where an apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a portion of an automobile near an instrument panel; Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing a prior art apparatus; and Fig. 6 is a wiring diagram of a wireharness near an instrument panel of an automobile according to the prior art. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Now, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring first to Fig. l, a blower motor 2 is located on a duct (blast pipe) l. A carrier panel 3 is produced either by molding a plastics material or by stamping a metal plate or else by resin treatment on a metal plate. The carrier panel 3 has formed in an inner well thereof a groove 4 for fixing therein a wire harness 8 which has a main portion 9 and a plurality of branch portions l0. A fixing bracket 5 to securely receive therein a connector ll provided at an end of each branch portion l0 as shown in Fig. 3 is secured at an end of the groove 4 by means of fastening screws. The carrier panel 3 further has therein installing means for securing various articles of electrical equipment as hereinafter described. The installing means may be each formed either as a frame element such as indicated at 6 or as a fitting hole or window such as indicated at 7. Another fixing bracket 5 may be provided to face said frame element 6. Guide grooves 6′ are provided in the inner walls of said frame elements 6 to recieve engagement means of said electrical equipment. The electrical equipment secured to the carrier panel 3 may include a junction block l2, an option unit l3 which may be mounted on the junction block l2 depending upon a grade of the automobile, a microcomputer unit (CPU) l4 for controlling an engine, various electronic units l5 such as an air conditioner and a car stereo set, metering instruments l6, cluster switches l7 and so on. Of these articles electrical equipment, the electronic units l5 are installed on the carrier panel 3 to be connected to the wire harness 8 by way of respective connectors ll. On the other hand, the instruments l6 and the cluster switches l7 are directly connected to the junction block l2. A panel cover l8 is mounted for covering the members l to l7 described above. According to the apparatus of the present embodiment, connection of the wire harness 8 to the various articles of the electrical equipment l2 to l7 can be established very simply by forcing the wire harness 8 into the groove 4 from forwardly in the carrier panel 3 to secure the same thereto, fitting the attached connectors ll of the wire harness 8 into the individual fixing brackets 5 from forwardly or through openings of the carrier panel 3, and then fitting various articles of electrical equipment indicated by reference numerals l2 to l7 onto or into the individually designated frame elements 6 or fitting holes (windows) 7. After then, an assembly l9 having the panel cover l8 securely mounted thereon is assembled to a car body 20 as shown in Fig. 2. The assembly l9, that is, the carrier panel 3, has a pair of fitting windows 7₁ and 7₂ opened in an interior wall thereof as shown in Fig. l, and the junction box l2 and the CPU l4 are secured in the fitting windows 7₁ and 7₂, respectively. The junction box l2 and the CPU l4 have connectors 2l provided thereon and extending through and from the fitting windows 7₁ and 7₂, respectively, while counterpart connectors 23 are provided in through-holes 22 of the car body 20. Accordingly, the wire harness 8 can be connected by way of a connector coupling to a main wire harness 27 led from a battery 25 and a fuse box 26 in an engine room 24 as shown in Fig. 4 while the CPU l4 can be connected by way of a connector coupling to an engine controlling wire harness 28 extending to the engine room 24. Furthermore, the wire harness 8 on the carrier panel 3 can be connected directly to a wire harness 29 installed in the car body for supplying power to the rear portion electrical equipment or doors. Consequently, complicated operations such as threading of a wire harness of a large diameter through a through-hole in a car body and fitting of a grommet as in the case of Fig. 6 which shows an example of prior art arrangement can be eliminated. Besides, since there is no operation for threading a wire harness, wiring of a wire harness in a car can be accomplished independently for an engine room, an instrument panel and a seat, resulting in improvements in operability. In this manner, by provision in a carrier panel of at least one electric connection box such as the junction box l2 which has a coupling means including a connector for connection with another wire harness, steps of installing a wire harness can be reduced and automation thereof can be facilitated.

Claims: A method of installing wiring in an automobile, comprising the steps of providing a carrier (3) for attachment to an automobile body (20) and having an engine compartment side and a passenger compartment side, mounting articles of electrical equipment (12-17) on said carrier (3) and connecting these to a first wire harness (8), said first wire harness (8) having a first connector (21) for connection to a second wire harness (27, 28) in the engine compartment (24) of the automobile and a second connector (11) for connection to at least one (15) of said articles of equipment (12-17), characterised in that said first wire harness (8) and said articles (12-17) are mounted on the passenger side of the carrier (3) and in that the carrier (3) is formed with window means (7) through which said first connector (21) connects said first wire harness (8) to said second wire harness (27,28). A method as claimed in Claim 1 including the further step of assembling an instrument panel (18) on the passenger side of the carrier (3). Apparatus for installing wiring in an automobile comprising a carrier (3) on which there are mounted articles of electrical equipment (12-17), and a first wiring harness (8) having connectors (11) connected to said articles (12-17) and a further connector (21) for connection to a second wire harness (27,28) in the engine compartment (24) of the automobile, said panel (3) having a passenger compartment side and an engine compartment side; characterised in that said first wire harness (8) and said articles (12-17) are mounted on the passenger compartment side of said carrier (3) and in that the carrier (3) is formed with window means (7) through which said further connector (21) can connect the first wire harness (8) to said second wire harness (27, 28). Apparatus as claimed in Claim 3 further characterised by fixing means (4) provided on the passenger compartment side of the carrier (3) locating the first harness (8) thereon. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 5 in which said fixing means comprises grooves (4) for receiving the first harness (8) in a predetermined pattern. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 4 in which said fixing means comprises a plurality of clips (5) or clamps on the carrier (3).

Inventors: KANEKO, KAZUHIKO, MATSUMOTO, ETSUJI, WATANABE, MITSUGU
Applicants: YAZAKI CORPORATION
Application year: 1987
Main classification: B60R16
IPC codes: B60R16