Crimped wire harness fabricator and method.

摘要

The apparatus randomly inserts crimped wire lead (22) (Fig. 1) one at a time into a multicircuit connector (12). The apparatus includes a pair of elongate insertion jaws (350, 352) (Figs. 21 through 25) for longitudinally surrounding and gripping a crimp terminated wire lead (22). The insertion jaws are actuable by a gripper control (128) between a first open position (Fig. 26) a second intermediate gripping position (Fig. 27) wherein the jaws are axially slidable along the gripped wire lead and a third closed position wherein the jaws firmly grip the lead in a non-slidable manner. The jaws (350, 352) and their gripper control (128) are mounted for axial movement along the wire lead into the insertion station (42). A drive (130, 132) for the jaws moves the jaws in their intermediate wire gripping position along the wire segment until a proximity sensor (58) (Fig. 3) senses the tips of the jaws abutting the rear end of the crimp terminal (26). In response to the sensor (58) the gripper control (128) changes the jaws to their closed position on the wire prior to insertion. The insertion jaws (350, 352) push on the rear end of the terminal (26) and do not rely on the column strength of the wire during insertion of the lead (22) into the connector housing cavity (20). A programmable housing index module (68) is movable along X, Y and Z axes and a terminal guide jaw assembly (56) are provided for use with the insertion jaws to provide an apparatus capable of randomly inserting the leads (22) into the housing cavities (20) in any order.