Apparatus and Method of Terminating a Wire to a Two Part Insulated Terminal

The present invention relates to an apparatus for applying an electrical terminal and insulated housing to an end of a wire.

Apparatus for applying electrical terminals of the type having an insulated housing partially assembled thereto, typically require two workstations, one to crimp the terminal onto the wire and another to push the insulated housing over the crimped terminal. This, of course, requires that the wire be presented to each workstation in turn. Another apparatus, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,048, which issued Dec. 10, 1985 to Cordeiro, performs both the crimping and pushing functions in a single workstation. The wire is securely clamped so that after the terminal is crimped onto the conductor, the upper crimp tooling can be withdrawn and the wire and terminal raised by the wire clamp, thereby leaving sufficient space around the crimped terminal to slide the insulated housing thereover. Such an apparatus, of necessity, is somewhat complex and is costly to manufacture and maintain. U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,291 which issued Dec. 25, 1990 to Phillips, et al. and is incorporated by reference as though set forth verbatim herein, discloses a two part terminal applicator that does not require a movable wire clamp to provide space to slide the insulated housing over the crimped terminal. Further, a U-shaped stop member is utilized which engages the edges of the crimped contact to prevent axial movement of the wire and contact as the insulating housing is pushed into assembled engagement therewith. This arrangement is only effective with a straight type terminal. What is needed is a means of securing the contact of a two part flag terminal during assembly of the housing to the contact without causing undue bending of the wire and that permits the easy removal of the assembled and crimped terminal and wire.

A method and apparatus are provided for attaching an electrical terminal to the end of a wire, the terminal including a contact and an insulating housing. The terminal is positioned in a workstation having a stop so that a side of the contact is adjacent the stop. A wire to receive the electrical terminal is positioned in the workstation. The apparatus is then caused to crimp the contact to the end of the wire and then a force applied to move the housing in a direction toward the stop so that the side of the contact abuts the stop and the housing moves into assembled engagement with the contact. As the housing is moving into assembled engagement it engages and moves an ejection member in opposition to a resilient bias force. When the force applied to the housing is removed, the ejection member moves the assembled housing and contact away from the stop. The apparatus includes a workstation, stop means and means for positioning the electrical terminal in the workstation so that a side of the contact is adjacent the stop means. Means for terminating the contact to the wire is provided as well as means for moving the housing toward the stop means so that the contact abuts the stop means and the housing moves into assembled engagement with the contact. An ejection member is provided adjacent the stop means that is resiliently biased toward the housing and away from the stop means and is arranged to engage and move the housing away from the stop means when the means for moving the housing disengages the housing.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a terminal applicator incorporating the teachings of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the applicator of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of the two part terminals, in strip form, prior to assembly;

FIG. 4 is an isometric of one of the terminals of FIG. 3 shown assembled and terminated to a wire;

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along the lines 5--5 of FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 6 through 10 are partial front views of the applicator of FIG. 1 showing various portions of the operating cycle.

There is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 an applicator 10 for applying terminals 12 to the end of a wire 14. The terminal 12 is the type having a contact 16 that is to be crimped to the wire 14 and an insulating housing 18 which is partly assembled to the contact as shown in FIG. 3. These are known as "flag" contacts because the receptacle portion 19 of the contact is directed at a right angle to the conductor 14, as best seen in FIG. 4. The terminal 12 is shown, in FIG. 4, with the wire 14 crimped to the contact 16 and the housing 18 in full assembled engagement with the contact. The terminals 12 are supplied on a reel, not shown, wherein each terminal 12 is interconnected by a carrier strip 20 in the usual manner. The carrier strip 20 and associated terminals 12 are fed along a guideway 22 by means of a feed mechanism 24 to a workstation 26. The applicator 10 includes a frame 30 and a base 32 rigidly attached together. The frame 30 is arranged to support the feed mechanism 24 and a ram 34 which carries a crimping tool 36 and is positioned directly above the workstation 26, as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2. The ram 34 includes the usual coupling 38 for operationally engaging a press, not shown, so that the ram 34 may be made to undergo reciprocating motion toward and away from the workstation 26. An anvil 40 is positioned on the base 32 directly under and in alignment with the crimping tool 36 so that as the tool 36 reciprocates, it moves into and out of crimping engagement with the anvil 40. The feed mechanism 24 is arranged to move the carrier strip 20 to the left, as viewed in FIG. 2, along the guideway 22 to position a single terminal 12' in the workstation directly on the anvil 40, as best seen in FIG. 1. The feed mechanism includes a pusher 50 which is actuated by a linear actuator 52, which, in the present example, is an air cylinder.

As best seen in FIG. 1, the guideway 22 is formed in a plate 56 which is attached to a support plate 58 which, in turn, is attached to the base 32 by any suitable means such as screw fasteners. A stop 60 is pivotally attached to the support plate 58 by means of a pin 62 which is pressed into a hole formed in the support plate 58. The stop 60 includes a stop arm 64 projecting toward a point in the workstation 26 just above the anvil 40. A tab 66 projects outwardly from the stop 60 and extend under the plate 56, as best seen in FIG. 5. A set screw 68 is threaded into the plate 56 directly above the tab 66. The set screw 68 may be adjusted to precisely control the position and orientation of the stop arm 64. A torsion spring 69 is disposed about the pin 62 and arranged to urge the stop 60 in a clockwise direction so that the tab 66 is urged against the set screw 68. A stripper arm 70 is positioned within a cavity 72 formed in the plate 56, as shown in FIG. 5. The stripper arm 70 is pivotally attached to the plate 56 by means of a pin 74 and is biased against one side 75 of the cavity 72 by a resilient member 76, in the present example a compression spring. The stripper arm 70 includes a face 78 which is substantially flush with an end 84 of the stop arm 64 when the stripper arm is against the side of the cavity 72 as shown in FIG. 5. The face 78 includes a chamfer 80 that provides clearance for the insulation crimp tabs 82 of the contacts 16 when fed into the workstation 26 by the feed mechanism 24. The cavity 72 includes sufficient clearance so that the stripper arm 70 may be pivoted away from the side 75 and against the opposing force of the spring 76 by applying a force against the face 78. This would cause the face 78 to move away from the end 84, in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 5, for a purpose that will be explained below. One end of the spring 76 is disposed in a blind hole in the stripper arm 70 and the other end is disposed in another hole in the plate 56 which is closed by a set screw in the usual manner. As best seen in FIG. 1, a linear actuator 90, an air cylinder in the present example, is securely attached to the frame 30. The actuator 90 includes a piston rod 92 which, when actuated, is arranged to move toward the workstation 26 and away therefrom. A pusher member 94 is coupled to the end of the piston rod 92 by any suitable means and is arranged to slide within a slideway within the frame 30. A cavity 96 is formed in the end of the pusher member to receive the end of the insulating housing 18.

In operation, a strip of terminals 12 is loaded into the guideway 22 and the first terminal 12' is advanced by the feed mechanism 24 into the workstation 26 so that the portion of the contact 16 to be crimped is directly over the anvil 40, as best seen in FIGS. 6 through 10. Note that the contact 16 is adjacent the end 84 of the stop 60, as viewed in FIG. 5. A conductor 14' is inserted into position within the crimping tabs of the contact 16 and the press actuated. As the ram 34 of the applicator 10 is caused to reciprocate downwardly, as seen in FIG. 7, one leg 100 of the crimping tool 36 engages the top of the stop arm 64 causing the stop 60 to pivot counterclockwise about the pin 62 so that the stop is well clear during the actual crimping of the contact 16. As the ram 34 reciprocates upwardly, as seen in FIG. 8, the stop 60 pivots clockwise under the urging of the torsion spring 69 so that the end 84 is again adjacent the contact 16. As the ram 34 continues its upward motion, the cylinder 90 is actuated by means of a cam attached to the ram which engages air valves, the cam and air valves not being shown. Actuation of the cylinder 90 causes the pusher member 94 to engage and slide the insulated housing 18 along a path into assembled engagement with the contact 16, as shown in FIG. 9. During this assembling operation the end 84 of the stop 60 blocks the path by abutting the contact 16 and holding it in position over the anvil 40. Note that the end 84 is now within the interior of the housing 18. As the insulating housing 18 is made to slide to the right, as viewed in FIGS 5, 8, and 9, it engages the face 78 of the stripper arm 70 causing the stripper arm to pivot counterclockwise, as viewed in FIG. 5, against the biasing force of the spring 76. As the ram 34 continues its upward motion, the cylinder 90 is then reversed, again by means of the cam attached to the ram, so that the pusher member 94 is withdrawn to the position shown in FIG. 10. As the pusher member withdraws to the left the stripper arm 70 follows under the urging of the spring 76 so that when the pusher member is fully withdrawn, the stripper arm 70 has moved the assembled terminal 12' and wire 14' clear of the stop arm 64 and end 84. At this point the assembled terminal and wire may be easily removed from the work station and the process repeated as desired.

An important advantage of the present invention is that the substantial force, about seven pounds, required to slide the insulated housing over the contact and into assembled engagement, is completely resisted by the stop arm while a subsequent automatic lateral movement of the assembled terminal permits easy removal from the applicator. Another important advantage is that both the crimping operation and the assembly operation are performed in one machine cycle of the ram.