EP0105045B1

EP0105045B1 - Equipment for wiring an electrical connector

Info

Publication number: EP0105045B1
Application number: EP83870093A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Willy Deckers
Original assignee: Burndy Electra NV
Current assignee: Burndy Electra NV
Priority date: 1982-09-20
Filing date: 1983-09-19
Publication date: 1987-03-04
Also published as: NO833371L; NO159758B; NO159758C; DE3370103D1; EP0105045A1

Description

The present invention relates to an equipment for wiring an electrical connector and which comprises mainly two opposite units for laterally inserting electrical wires in a connector provided with contacts of the kind known as "LD.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 of moving forward and backward with respect to a fixed framework generally bench mounted.

Prior art

As the electric wires, with or without insulation, must be correctly positioned during insertion, the positioning means are to be adapted for each different wire diameter. Existing apparatus such as disclosed in US 4.014.087 and EP 28 074 are only adapted to insert one kind or size of wire and no adjustable wire positioning means are provided.
Accordingly it is usual up to now to change the wire positioning means for each kind of wire dimension or even to arrange for different wiring machines for each kind of wire. Moreover the wire without insulation or so called grounding or drain wires are to be manually inserted.
The purpose of the present invention is to realise equipment provided with wire positioning means which are automatically adjustable prior to the lateral insertion of the wires into the connector. Preferably the adjustment is previously programmed in a control unit taking account of the following settings:

- connector length with a number of double row contacts such as for instance: 2x5, 2x10, 2x32 ...
- wire size from diameter 0,57 mm for wire type AWG 30 with drain wire of diameter 0,25 mm up to diameter 1,04 mm for wire type AWG 24 with drain wire of diameter 0,5 mm
- wire with or without insulation (drain wire)
- selective wire positioning in the connector.

The purpose of the present invention is achieved by means of an equipment as defined in the characterizing part of claim 1.
Other characterizing features are disclosed in the subsequent claims.
The invention will be explained more in details by means of the following description of an embodiment referring to the enclosed drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic top view of the equipment showing the left insertion head without cover;
Figures 2 and 3 are detailed views of the wire positioning means;
Figures 4A and 5A are fractional top views of the extremity of one insertion head showing the positioning means respectively 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 actuating parts with their respective motion control switches;
Figure 7 is a block diagram of the central processing unit with connections to the actuating parts and control switches.

The equipment comprises mainly a fixed frame 10 provided with two guiding slides 11 along which a U-shaped carriage 20 may be displaced forward and backward, the legs of the U-shaped carriage 20 extending towards the front side of the equipment.
The displacement of the carriage 20 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 each of both legs of the carriage 20 is provided with an inserter or insertion head 30 which are facing each other in a symmetric opposite manner and which are able to move along the complete length of the connector holder 14.
Each inserter 30 comprises 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 rest on said fixed connector holder 14 in order to support the open front side of the carriage 20 while it moves along said connector holder 14.
The extremities of the punch guides 34, 34' are provided with wire positioning means to maintain the wire correctly into position during the insertion operation.
According to the present embodiment of the invention, these wire positioning means comprise 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 is pivotally mounted around a stud 42. The lever 40 is provided with a pin 44 extending downwardly into a sloping groove 46 which controls the swinging ofthe lever 40 by the displacement of the groove 46.
For this purpose said groove is part of a L-shaped bar 48 which is able to move perpendicularly with respect to the medium axis L ofthe frame 10 and which movement is actuated by an electric stepping motor 50.
Since the extremity 35 of the punch 31 has to move between the fixed part 36 and the movable part 38, these parts are respectively provided with grooves 37 which cooperate with corresponding ridges 39 from the extremity 35 of the punch 31 and penetrate more or less into one another depending on the size of the wires (see Figures 4B and 5B).
As shown in Figure 4A, the wire 60 is correctly positioned between the fixed part 36 and the movable part 38 before its insertion into one of the IDC slots 62 of the connector by means of the punch 31, 35.
The ridges 39 of the punch 31 are only slightly engaging the grooves 37 of the movable positioning part 38 (Figure 4B).
On Figure 5A a drain wire 64 is being positioned between the fixed part 36 and movable part 38 of the wire positioning means prior to its insertion into the corresponding IDC slot 66 of the connector.
In this case the ridges 39 of the punch 31 are almost completely engaged into the grooves 37 of the movable part 38 (Figure 5B).
Between the front punch guide 34 and the fixed part 36, which are connected to one another, through a lower extension member of the punch guide 34² (Figure 3), 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 manually positioned by pairs, one in each of said cut-out parts 52 in front of the opposite facing insertion punches 31. When the wires are positioned in the back of the cut-out parts 52 they push against switches 54 (Figure 2, 6) which perceive the presence of the wires, close the electrical contacts and actuate via the central control unit the motors 32 and 50 to execute the insertion operation.
Before the motors 32 act on the insertion punches 31, the motors 50 will adjust the gap between the fixed wire positioning part 36 and the movable positioning part 38 by acting on the L shaped bar 48 which controls the angular position of lever 40 and consequently the movable wire positioning part 38.
This central 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 positioning 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 to their appropriate length with a commonly used device which is not further described.
To achieve and control a complete programme 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 positioning 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 block 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 commonly used push-button means HI (Human Interface).
The operations which are to be carried 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

1. Equipment for wiring an electric connector provided with laterally slotted contacts of the kind known as "insulation displacement contacts" (IDC) and comprising a fixed frame (10) with a connector holder (14) and two oppositely mounted insertion units (30) provided with insertion punches (31) and which are able to be displaced along the connector holder (14) by means of a carriage (20), the extremity of each insertion unit being provided with wire positioning means (36, 38), characterized in that at least one wire positioning means (38) is movably mounted so as to obtain an adjustable passage or gap between a fixed positioning means (36) and the movable positioning means (38), said gap being adapted to the size of wire (5) prior to the insertion of said wire (5) by the insertion punches (31) into the slots of insulation displacement contacts of the connector.

2. Equipment according to claim 1 characterized in that at least one movable wire positioning means (38) is actuated and controlled by an electric motor (50).

3. Equipment according to claim 1, characterized in that the movable wire positioning part

(38) is integral with a lever (40) which pivots 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 lever (40) is provided with a pin (44) extending into a groove (46) the longitudinal axis of which makes an acute 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 groove (46) is integral with 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) moves between the wire positioning means (36, 38) and is provided with ridges (39) which cooperate with corresponding grooves (37) in the wire-positioning means (36, 38), said ridges (39) penetrating into the grooves (37) of the movable wire positioning part (38) in a manner depending on the size of the wires (60, 64) to be inserted.