[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.
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.