(19)
(11) EP 0 226 665 A1

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(43) Date of publication:
01.07.1987 Bulletin 1987/27

(21) Application number: 85202106.2

(22) Date of filing: 18.12.1985
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC)4H01R 43/20, H05K 13/04
(84) Designated Contracting States:
AT BE CH DE FR GB IT LI LU NL SE

(71) Applicant: ELMECON, CONSULTING ASSOCIATES B.V.
NL-5504 RD Veldhoven (NL)

(72) Inventor:
  • Piepers, Harry Christiaan
    NL-5615 JM Eindhoven (NL)


(56) References cited: : 
   
       


    (54) Device for assembling connector housings


    (57)  Device for assembling various types of connector housings (39,57,62,66), to wit filling the cavities of the housing with contacts (40,54,60,67) in the form of a pin or a spring or socket, said device executed as a traverse system with a number of parallel feeding tracks (52) for connector housings (39,57,62,66) which are intermittently supplied in the longitudinal direction of the feeding tracks (52), above which connector housings and transverse to the longitudinal direction of the parallel rows of these a carrier (44,45,46,53,59,65ʹ), carrying pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67) is moved intermittently either regularly or irregularly so that a contact (40,54,60,67) from said carrier (44,45,46,53,59,65ʹ) can be brought into the desired cavity of a connector housing (39,57,62,66) if such cavity is present below a contact.




    Description


    [0001] The invention relates to a device for assembling various types of connector housings, to wit filling the cavities of the housing with contacts, said housings in particular being standardized multi-row connector housings, wherein a male contact in particular in the form of a pin, or a female contact in particular in the form of a spring or socket, has to be brought into a cavity of the connector housing.

    [0002] The assembled connector housings can be used on printed circuits and may have an arbitrary basic grid and pitch and for example have three rows and a pitch of 0.1" such that e.g. in a standardized housing 3 x 32 = 96 contact positions can be obtained.

    [0003] Such connector housing assembling devices are already used by various manufacturers for a number of years. The use of connector housings is generally accepted so that large numbers of this type of housings are used all over the world.

    [0004] The manufacturers are continuously trying to improve the assembling techniques so that presently most manufacturers have automated assembling devices available for bringing both pin as well as spring or socket contacts into cavities in connector housings. This has resulted in a sharp competi­tion and in the search for an increasingly more efficient way of filling/assembling of the cavities in the connector housings with either pin, spring or socket contacts. For the sake of simplicity in the following there will be spoken only of pin or spring contacts.

    [0005] Although in filling such connector housings good results have been achieved in practice a need arose for connector housings in which arbitrary cavities are filled with pin or spring contacts. The contacts as such are causing about 65 % of the price of the connector housings. Consequently partial filling of cavities with pin or spring contacts would be possible without these contacts going lost. So a demand arose for connector housings provided with pin and spring contacts according to a specific filling pattern.

    [0006] As most contacts are produced in strips on a 0.1" grid or a plurality thereof, it is a fairly obvious method to cut one or more strips to the length of the connector housing provided with the cavities and to mount these strips into the housing.

    [0007] If a specific filling pattern is required, the manufacturer will be obliged to remove the superfluous contacts from the cavities of the connector housing, which removed contacts can be considered as lost. This method results in increasing manufacturing costs of the connector housings.

    [0008] The invention aims to provide an improved device for assembling/filling connector housings, wherein no or hardly any losses of pin or spring contact will occur.

    [0009] According to the invention a device for assembling/­filling cavities in connector housings with pin or spring contacts is executed as a traverse system with a number of parallel feeding tracks N for connector housings, the cavities in these connector housings having to be filled with pin or spring contacts, said connector housings being intermittently supplied in the longitudinal direction of the feeding tracks, which is called setting-up the parallel rows of connector housings, with which preferably at some distance above and transverse to the longitudinal direction of the parallel rows of connector housings with cavities, a carrier executed as a carrier strip, a bandoleer either endless or not with pin or spring contacts, is also moved intermittently, called setting-up the carrier, with which the distance between the center lines of the pin or spring contacts on the carrier is the pitch, the distance between the center lines of the cavities in two connector housings, moving parallel to each other, being n times the pitch, in which n is a whole number, in which the system for setting-up the carrier with pin and spring contacts may be carried out regularly as well as irregular­ly, the device inserting a pin or spring contact in the desired cavity in each one of the parallel connector housings if such a contact is present above said desired position, whereafter the parallel rows of the connector housings are set up to a subsequent desired cavity thereof below a regularly or irregularly set-up carrier in such a way that a pin or spring contact will appear above the next desired cavity of the connector housings, whereafter the device again inserts a pin or spring contact into the desired cavities of the parallel rows of connector housings, the preceeding method being repeated until all desired cavities in a parallel row of connector housings are filled/assembled, each row of cavities in longitudinal direction of the connector housings being served by a separate carrier with pin or spring contacts, a micro­processor or a PLC taking care of the control according to a programmed assembling/filling and connector housings in such a way that the pattern of the pin and spring contacts in the cavities in the connector housing is randomly adjustable per production series of connector housings.

    [0010] The advantages hereof are that a faultless arbitrary desired assembling/filling the cavities of connector housings can take place with a speed which is much higher than can be achieved with the known assembling devices for connector housings. There is also no or hardly any loss of pin or spring contacts, by which a substantial economic advantage is obtained as well.

    [0011] A further embodiment of the device for assembling/filling cavities in connector housings with pin or spring contacts according to the invention consists in that the number of parallel supply tracks N for connector housings to be filled with pin or spring contacts is at least 1 and at most about 100. The advantage of this being that if desired a great number of connector housings may be faultlessly assembled/filled simultaneously according to the instructions of the client, whereby for a large number of parallel supply tracks the production speed may become very high as well.

    [0012] In addition the device according to the invention may be controlled in such a manner that the regularly setting up of the carrier occurs in that after each insert of pin or spring contacts into the cavities of the parallel rows of connector housings, the carrier is always set up over (n+1) times the pitch of the pin or spring contacts connected to it, the irregular setting-up of the carrier taking place in that after each insert of pin or spring contacts into the cavity of parallel rows of connector housings it is set-up alternately over (n+1) times the pitch of the pin or spring contacts connected to it until n pin or spring contacts have been positioned in the longitudinal direction of the connector housing and the carrier subsequently one time has a set-up of (n.N+1) times the pitch, whereafter the cycle is repeated.

    [0013] The advantages hereof are that it is possible to play in on a desired situation in a very flexible manner. With a regular set-up of the carrier a very small loss of pin or spring contacts occurs only at the beginning of the carrier. With an irregular set-up of the carrier no loss at all of pin or spring contacts will occur, but this system requires a somewhat more complicated control of the carrier.

    [0014] In addition a further elaboration of a device according to the invention consits in it that the adjusted member of skipped pitches n of pin or spring contacts along the carrier is dependent on the distance between the center lines of the cavities of two parallel rows of connector housings moving along with each other in which the connec­tor housings in two parallel rows may be separately positioned and not tightly positioned against each other.

    [0015] The advantage hereof is, that each pitch dimension of the cavities in the connector housings can be adjusted in a very simple and accurate manner to the pitch dimension of the pin or spring contacts on an arbitrary carrier.

    [0016] The device according to the invention is further elaborated in such a way, that the programmed filling of a row of cavities in the longitudinal direction of the connector housing occurs by setting-up the connector housings over the pitch dimensions of the cavities, whereby an empty cavity is created by a double set-up of the connector housing in the longitudinal direction of it.

    [0017] The advantage of this being that any filling pattern in the connector housing can be realized in a simple manner and without causing special control problems.

    [0018] The device according to the invention will be elucidated by means of embodiments shown in the drawing, in which:

    Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of two sets of connector housings; one connector housing of each set having pin contacts which can be brought into engagement with spring contacts of the other housing, the termination posts of the pin contacts of one set being straight and the termination posts of the spring contacts being bent, the reversed being the case in the other set;

    Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of a known device for inserting spring contacts into the connector housing;

    Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of a device according to the invention for assembling/filling of the cavities in connector housings with pin or spring contacts, in which a filled bandoleer is supplied;

    Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of a device for filling an endless bandoleer with pin or spring contacts by means of a sorting apparatus for separately supplied contacts;

    Fig. 5 shows a perspective view of a device for filling a bandoleer with pin or spring contacts, supplied as strips, the contacts being clamped in the bandoleer;

    Fig. 6 shows the system of setting-up the carrier with pin or spring contacts and setting up the parallel rows connector housings from which the cavities have to be filled when starting the carrier, the setting-up of which is taking place according to the regular system; and

    Fig. 7 shows the system of setting-up the carrier with pin or spring contacts and setting-up the parallel rows connector housings from which the cavities have to be filled in connection with Fig. 6.



    [0019] In fig. 1 two sets of connector housings 1,2 and 3,4 are shown. In the one set 1,2 the connector housing 1 is filled with pin contacts 5 at the connecting side 6. At the termination side 7 the pin contacts 5 are provided with straight connecting pins 8. At the connecting side 9 the connector housing 2 is provided with spring contacts 10 which at the terminating side 11 are provided with bent connecting pins 12. It is indicated by means of arrows 13, how the connecting sides 6 and 9 will move towards each other in order to bring the pin contacts 5 into the spring contacts 10. In the second set of connector housings 3,4 the connecting pins 14 of the pin contacts 15 are now bent and the connecting pins 16 of the spring contacts 17 are now executed straight. The mounting of the connector housing 3 with the pin contacts 15 on the connector housing 4 with the spring contacts 17 is indicated by means of the arrows 18.

    [0020] In Fig. 2 filling a connector housing 30 with spring contacts 29 with a set-up device 31 according to a known technique is shown. The set-up direction of the carrier 32 with the pin contacts 29 is shown with the arrows 33. The carrier 32 passes over a so-called set-up wheel 34. The insertion of the spring contacts 28 into the connector housing 30 takes place with the hollow rod 35 driven by the insert force 36. The connector housing 30 is set-up over the feeding track 37.

    [0021] Fig. 3 shows an embodiment of a device 38 for filling the cavities in the connector housings 39 with pin or spring contacts 40 according to the invention. It concerns connector housings 39 with in the longitudinal direction three parallel cavities to be filled, because of which the device 38 has three reels 41, 42, 43 for feeding three carrier strips 44, 45, 46 with pin or spring contacts 40. In the cut and insert stations 47, 48, 49 an inserting of the pin or spring contacts 40 takes place in the succeeding rows in the longitudinal direction of the connector housings 39. The set-up direction of the connector housings 39 is indicated with the arrows 50 and the set-up direction of the carrier strips 44, 45, 46 is indicated with the arrows 51. The connector housings 39 are moved over the base plate 52.

    [0022] In Fig. 4 the filling of an endless bandoleer 53 is shown, which is always provided with pin or spring contacts 54 at the station 56 by means of a filler 55. The set-up direction of the connector housings 57 is indicated with the arrow 58.

    [0023] Fig. 5 shows the filling of an endless bandoleer 59 with pin or spring contacts 60, which as shown in detail are tightly clamped to the bandoleer 59. In the station 64 the pin or spring contacts 60 are clamped onto the bandoleer 59 after having been released from the carrier strip 59a. The set-up direction of the connector housings 62 are indicated with the arrow 63.

    [0024] From the Figs. 3, 4, 5 it appears that apart from a filled bandoleer also a bandoleer may be used, which can be filled in a stage preceeding the device according to the invention, to serve subsequently as "filled" bandoleer in the device.

    [0025] Fig. 6 shows the system 65 of setting-up the carrier 65 ʹ, which for the sake of clarity is shown staggered. The number of parallel rows N of connector housings 66 amounts to eight. The distance between the center lines of the cavities in the parallel rows of connector housings 66 is adapted to the pitch P in the pin or spring contacts 67 on the carrier 65ʹ.For N=8 parallel rows of connector housings 66 is n=7 times the pitch P. The system 68 of setting-up the parallel rows of connector housings 66 is for convenience sake also shown staggered beside the connector housings. The carrier 65ʹremains in the line A-A and the connector housings 66 pass intermittently (set-up) therebelow. At the first insertion of pin or spring contacts 67 the cavities 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 of the connector housings 66 are filled. The carrier is set-­up over a distance of (n+1) times the pitch P and the connector housings 66 over one set-up 68, then the cavities 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, 43, 50, 57 of the connector housings 66 are filled. The numbering of the cavities in the connector housings 66 corresponds to the numbering of the pin or spring contacts on the carrier 65ʹ.As shown in Fig. 6 this filling is continued until the cavity 105 has been filled. The carrier 65ʹ then has still the pin or spring contacts 67, indicated with dashes in B.

    [0026] In Fig. 7 the filling process is continued. The 0 on the line A-A corresponds with number 56 in the upper part of Fig. 6 and now all pin or spring contacts 67 are gradually used and thus the carrier is emptied further. From Fig. 6 it appears that in this case only the twenty one pin or spring contacts indicated at C at the beginning of the carrier will get lost. The described example relates to a regular set-up of the carrier 65ʹ. In case of an irregular set-up of the carrier 65ʹthe twenty one pin or spring contacts 67 at C (Fig. 6) are used as well, so that no loss of contacts will occur at all.

    [0027] In the above a preferred embodiment of the device for assembling/filling various types connector housings is described. It will be obvious, that other embodiments of the device are possible without leaving the scope of the invention.


    Claims

    1. Device for assembling various types of connector housings (39,57,62,66), to wit filling the cavities of the housing with contacts (40,54,60,67), said housings (39,57,62) in particular being standardized multi-row connector housings, wherein a male contact in particular in the form of a pin (40,54,60,67) or a female contact in particular in the form of a spring or socket (40,54,60,67) has to be brought into a cavity of the connector housing (39,57,62,66),
    characterized in
    that the device (38) is executed as a traverse system with a number of parallel feeding tracks N (52) for connector housings (39,57,62,66), the cavities in these connector housings having to be filled with pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67), said connector housings (39,57,62,66) being intermittently supplied in the longitudinal direction of the feeding tracks (52), which is called setting-up the parallel rows of connector housings (39,57,62,66), with which preferably at some distance above and transverse to the longitudinal direction of the parallel rows of connector housings (39,­57,62,66) with cavities,a carrier (44,45,46,53,59,65ʹ) executed as a carrier strip, a bandoleer either endless or not with pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67) is also moved intermittently, called setting-up the carrier, with which the distance between the center lines of the pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67) on the carrier (44,45,46,53,59,65ʹ) is the pitch, the distance between the center lines of the cavities in two connec­tor housings, moving parallel to each other, being n times the pitch (P), in which n is a whole number, in which the system for setting-up the carrier (44,45,­46,53,59,65ʹ) with pin and spring contacts (40,54,60,67) may be carried out regularly as well as irregularly, the device inserting a pin or spring contact in the desired cavity in each one of the parallel connector housings if such a contact is present above said desired position, whereafter the parallel rows of the connector housings are set up to a subsequent desired cavity thereof below a regularly or irregularly set-up carrier (44,45,46,53,59,65ʹ) in such a way that a pin or spring contact (40,54,60,67) will appear above the next desired cavity of the connector housings, whereafter the device again inserts a pin or spring contact into the desired cavities of the parallel rows of connector housings, the preceeding method being repeated until all desired cavities in a parallel row of connector housings are filled/­assembled, each row of cavities in longitudinal direction of the connector housings being served by a separate carrier with pin or spring contacts, a microprocessor or a PLC taking care of the control according to a programmed assembling/filling the connector housings in such a way that the pattern of the pin and spring contacts in the cavities in the connector housing is adjustable per production series of connector housings.
     
    2. Device according to claim 1,
    characterized in
    that the number of parallel supply tracks N for connector housings (69,57,62,66) to be filled with pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67) is at least 1 and at most about 100.
     
    3. Device according to claim 1 or 2,
    characterized in
    that the regularly setting up of the carrier (44,45,­46,53,59,65ʹ) occurs in that after each insert of pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67) into the cavities of the parallel rows of connector housings (39,57,62,­66) the carrier is always set up over (n+1) times the pitch (P) of the pin or spring contacts connected to it.
     
    4. Device according to claim 1 or 2,
    characterized in
    that the irregular setting-up of the carrier (44,45,­ 46,53,59,65ʹ) is taking place in that after each insert of pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67) into the cavity of parallel rows of connector housings (39,57,62,66) it is set-up alternately over (n+1) times the pitch (P) of the pin or spring contacts connected to it until n pin or spring contacts (40,54,­60,67) have been positioned in the longitudinal direction of the connector housing (39,57,62,66) and the carrier (44,45,46,53,59,65ʹ) subsequently one time has a set-up of (n.N+1) times the pitch (P), whereafter the cycle is repeated.
     
    5. Device according to one of the claims 1 - 4,
    characterized in
    that the adjusted member of skipped pitches n of pin or spring contacts (40,54,60,67) along the carrier is dependent on the distance between the center lines of the cavities of two parallel rows of connector housings (39,57,62,66) moving along with each other in which the connector housings in two parallel rows may be separately positioned and not tightly positioned against each other.
     
    6. Device according to one of the claims 1 - 5,
    characterized in
    that the programmed filling of a row of cavities in the longitudinal direction of the connector housing (38,57,62,66) occurs by setting-up the connector housings over the pitch dimensions of the cavities, whereby an empty cavity is created by a double set-up of the connector housing (39,57,62,66) in the longitudinal direction of it.
     




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