The present invention relates to a device for automatic heading of a free lead of a recovered wire and to a procedure therefor. Such a device can be used with a device that produces electrical wiring with insulation displacement (IDC) by loading wires on a wire comb loader to complete a wiring where a crimped terminal is required on the ends of some wires, in the place of a connector IDC.

The existence of a device for loading wires on a wire comb loader is known from patent PD2005A297.

The above mentioned devices show how the loading of wires on a wire comb loader can automate particularly to produce electrical wiring with insulation displacement (IDC).

Now the above mentioned devices are the best the market has to offer for producing crimped wiring.

An example of said devices is shown in documents US2005/050722, US2006/230597, EP0994538, US5168611, WO2013/105262 and EP1775804. Said documents at best disclose examples of a device for automatic heading of a free lead, but the technical problem of automatic heading of recovered wires in an electrical wiring with insulation displacement connectors, IDC, is not covered by the known prior art.

However, the wiring requests also include other possibilities that the above mentioned device has only a limited ability to satisfy.

In fact it is necessary sometimes that some wires should have a free lead that is not loaded into the comb loader (recovered wires) for a heading other than insulation displacement.

This provision of a free wire could in any event be managed by the above mentioned device.

However, this free lead of this free wire had to be recovered manually for the specific and desired heading.

Since the heading could be very different for a series of free wires, it is evident that the complexity of such operations could lead to a higher risk of errors.

Nor was a preliminary treatment of the free lead with the desired heading.

In fact the loading of the wires into a wire comb loader and their transfer into a corresponding connector is possible only for wires without terminals, and therefore not headed.

Finally, the provision of a heading could be so various for the free lead of a different free wires.

Due to all the above-mentioned drawbacks the heading of the lead of free wires, is recovered manually after the crimping of the connectors.

All the drawbacks of such a procedure are those of a mixture automatic and manual: increase in the time employed, increase in costs, low quality of final product, low global productivity, poor adaptability and poor configurability

The aim of the present invention consist in solving one or more drawbacks of the prior art.

Another aim of the invention is that the device of the invention can be connected to devices of loading wires into connectors in original manner or also successive.

Another aim of the present invention is to provide a device for the heading of free leads of free wires and not crimped on both, but only on one of these.

A different aim of the present invention is to provide a device that can provides complete discretionality on terminals to be headed on free leads of free wires.

Another aim of the present invention is to provide a device that provides the possibility of putting one or more elements (for instance: faston and sleeve, seal, tinning) on the free end.

An important aim of the present invention is provide a device that allows you to treat the free end even before the relative connection to the terminal.

An equally important aim of the present invention is to provide a device that can run in an independent way but also in a coordinated manner with known devices.

A different aim of the present invention is to provide a device that can proceed in a coordinate way, but whose operations can precede or be subsequent to those of the devices that it is connected with, without interfering with the production.

An important aim of the present invention is to provide a device that can head the wires, also those whose length would be impossible to head manually, after their insertion into connectors.

A different aim is to provide a process for heading free leads of recovered wires that can use the device, that is the object of the present invention.

These and other objects are achieved by a device according to claim 1 and a procedure according to claim 7.

Advantageously the second or a different rotation position corresponds to that of a heading at a suitable heading device.

Advantageously, the heading station can be more than one, arranged in a circular manner or on a arc of a circle to be properly engaged by the wire lead to be headed, after a suitable rotation of the rotating unit.

Advantageously the retention of the recovered wire fed by a feeder of electrical wire , for the feeding of at least one wire to head, is done by a pressurised retention device near the end of the rotating head.

Said pressurised retention device consist of eccentric elements capable of locking the wire in a sliding seat specially crafted with its own perimetral profile and to automatically adapting to the different wire sections with which the feeder can be provided.

This adaption can be advantageously done by elastic elements that act on the periphery of the profile of such eccentric elements. Later in the description of the present invention reference will be made to a specific and preferred realisation having as its object a device to complete the wiring with insulation displacement connectors on both leads, where a serie of wires is required on the same cabling that on one side, in place of the insulation displacement connector, there is a crimped terminal with the further possibility to satisfy the request for insulation devices (sleeve, seal, tinning) according the advantageous characteristics mentioned above, without having any limiting effect on the protection scope that in general can be included in the definition of the invention in its essential characteristics.

The Technical characteristics of the invention, according to the above-mentioned aims, are clearly found in the content of claims listed below and the advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description that follows, made with reference to the attached drawings, which represent a preferred but not exclusive embodiment thereof, wherein:

• Figure 1 and figure 2 are different perspective view of a whole of a device of the invention in association with a known device operatively connected by a transfer slide of the wire comb loader.
• Figure 3 and figure 4 are different perspectives views of the device of the invention and the transfer slide of the wire comb loader for the possible association with a known device (not shown) for the wiring of a processing.
• Figure 5 is a perspective view of just a part of the device of the invention, without the heading device and the wire feeding unit, for the purpose of clarity.
• Figure 6 shows the transfer slide with a series of recovered wires for the wiring IDC-IDC fixed on the wire comb loader performed by a known device which is bringing to the device of the invention to receive the headed wires and complete the desired wiring in seats of the wire comb loader, after which the slide can come back to the known device and insert the IDC connectors.
• Figure 7 shows a top plan view of the device of the invention with rotating arm of the feeding unit rotated in line with a heading unit.
• Figure 8 shows a perspective view of an enlargement of the feed unit and the device for inserting the wire in the wire comb loader to complete the wiring.
• Figure 9 and figure 11 show what is set out in fig. 8 from a different perspective completed with the wires already inserted by the known device according to a head-head wiring and a series of headed wires inside the provided seats on the wire comb loader.
• Figure 10 shows what is set out in fig. 8 from a different perspective complete with recovered wires for starting so-called hybrid wiring, namely on one side IDC connector and on the other side headed wires according to the desired requirements.
• Figure 12 and 13 show an enlargement of a different perspective view of the feeding unit and the device for inserting the wire into the wire comb loader.
• Figure 14 shows a second front view of the device of the invention equipped with centering of the wire with the cutting and stripping blades according to the colour or the section of the wire exiting the rotating feeding unit.
• Figure 15 shows a detail of the previous figure with centring device highlighted.
• Figure 16 up to 20 show in an isolated way the insertion device with the guiding clamp highlighted, with relative movement of the guiding plates and the movement of the punch in the various phases of the locking of the wire and its insertion into the comb.
• Figure 21 and figure 22 show the insertion device with plates raised to highlight the positioning and shifting of the insertion punch.
• Figure 23 and figure 24 show respectively a flat section and a perspective view of the end of the rotating head of the wire feeder.
• Figure 25 is an enlargement of figure 24 to highlight the locking device of the wires with eccentric closure that allows you to obtain a lock of the wire independent from another one.
• Figure 26 show a partial view of said device for locking the wires, without the upper handling arm, for raising and lowering, at the end of which the various eccentric stops are splinded, countered in their rotating movement by elastic elements. This device easily and precisely provides the locking of the wires, also of varying diameters, performed by eccentric elements countered by elastic elements near the end of the head.

The locking of the wire near the feeding head allows to have extremely high precision regarding the length of the wire exposed by the head, avoiding inaccuracies due to rebounds of a remote and distant feeding-locking system, considering that the seat where said wire slides must be slightly loose per the sliding.

Referring to the drawings, the device of the invention 1 is shown in association with a known device 2, joined to it by a transfer slide 3 of the comb loader 10. Said transfer can occur both after the operations of the known device 2 have finished and also during these operations, because any recovered headed wires 17 and joined to the comb holder 10 don't interfere with the normal running of one or other device.

Previously the known device 2 could only connect to the comb loader 10 of the connector 10 a recovered wire without any heading this operation must be performed manually by an operator.

The device 1 is fed by a wire feeder 9 that can be single or multiple so to have a proper colour and section of the wire.

The generic wire fed by the feeder 9 is pushed in a guided manner inside the feeding head, supported by a rotating arm 18, where the feeding head 5 can have several paths taking to the exit hole 13 the wire to be processed.

Possibly said feeding head 5 can be equipped with various devices to check the wire, its speed, and its locking.

Said rotating feeding head 5 can rotate, in a remote-controlled manner, to present the free leads of the recovered wires 17 at the proper heading station 6,7,8, with which the device 1 is equipped.

A first unit, said transfer unit 4, is near the arrival and delivery point by the transfer rod 3 of the comb loader 10.

This transfer unit 4 is the array of elements that having received the headed recovered wire 17, cuts the wire coming out of the exit hole 13 of the feeding head 5 and joins this wire to the comb loader 10 pushing it with a transfer punch 16 into the predetermined position of the comb.

Preferably before, but also at the same time or even after, the cutting of the wire occurs by means of a shear, consisting of a pair of "V" opposing blade 19. Since it is very important that the cut wire is correctly and precisely inserted into the free position of the comb loader 10, the transfer unit 4 is equipped with a guiding clamp composed of a pair of mobile plates 11, 12.

Said mobile plates 11, 12 are hinged at the top and can be placed in a vertical position, facing one another and spaced apart, for a space equal to the thickness of the wire to be processed or they can be placed in an horizontal position, allowing the recovered wire 17 to be shifted, without interfering by the feeding head 5.

In fact during the transfer of the recovered wire 17 by a rotation of a part of the feeding head 5 to position it correctly under the transfer punch 16 for the insertion in the predetermined free seat of the comb loader 10, said plates 11, 12 must be lifted up so as not to interfere with said rotating movement. Moreover, The recovered wire 17 has a terminal or connector 20 or other heading device at its free lead and said plates 11, 12 close to lock the recovered wire 17 in the space between the exit hole 13 of the feeding head 5 and the headed terminal of the same recovered wire 17.

This locking of the piece of recovered wire 17 by the guiding clamp, which closes with plates 11, 12 in the shape of tabs with a movement of 90° is sufficiently solid for the secure retention, but without exercising an excessive grip opposing the sliding into the space created by them, pushed by the transfer punch 16, inside the predetermined free seat in the comb loader 10.

In fact the movement of the transfer punch 16 to transfer said recovered wire 17 held by the clamp realised by close plates 11,12 occurs by sliding inside the space created by said paired and facing plates 11, 12. Since very advantageously said feeding head 5 has many exit holes 13 paired and spaced, so that it can feed the recovered wire 17 of predetermined colour and/or section, the device of the invention 1 is equipped with transfer devices both of the comb loader 10 that moves it to the predetermined free seat to engaged by the properly headed recovered wire 17 as well as transfer devices of the transfer unit 4. Moreover, since the terminals 20 of the recovered wire 17 before being joined to the lead of the recovered wire 17 require that said wire is stripped at its end, the insertion device has a stripping unit. Said stripping unit consists of a couple of "V" blades 14 and 15 mirrored by cutting blades 19 at a predetermined distance that can perform a maximum determined measure; being shorter than the cutting blades, so that first the cutting is performed and then the retraction of the feeding head 5 occurs just as much as is necessary to perform the required stripping, at the same time the stripping blades 14 and 15 close to incise the insulation. After that the feeding head 5 draws back to perform the extraction of the sheath, that can be partial.

This stripping operation is usually the first operation performed by device 1, before from station 4 the feeding head 5 moves the free lead of the wire under one or more following heading station 6,7,8.

Afterwards, the recovered wire 17, stripped according to requirements, is moved by a partial rotation of the feeding head 5, near one of the heading station 6,7,8.

Possibly, with a partial rotation there can be the transfer of the recovered wire 17 processed by a first heading station to a second heading station for a second heading. For instance there might be need of a heading with an electrical terminal and an insulation cap (faston and faston cover).

Or said heading stations 6,7,8 can be set up for the heading of wires of different diameters so the same heading can be performed on wires of different dimensions.

Said operations, which in the past were performed manually, are all performed directly in an automated manner with all certainty that they will be precisely and quickly carried out and without any errors.

Once the heading phase has finished, at the suitably equipped stations 6,7,8, the feeding head 5, by means of an additional rotation places the recovered wire 17 headed with a terminal 20 near the transfer unit.

After pushing said wire with the feeding device 9 from the exit hole 13 of the feeding head 5 at the predetermined length, the locking plates 11,12 lower so that the wire is cut and into the comb loader 10. At the end of the feeding head 5, near the exit holes 13 of the recovered wires 17, said head is equipped with a device for locking said wire.

Said locking device consists of a lever 21, whose first arm 22 is raised and lowered by an actuator. On the second arm 23, contrasted to the first arm 22, is supported by a pin 25 on which is spliced a serie of stops with eccentric profile, preferably crescent shaped.

Said eccentric profile in a rest position pushes the wire inside its seat of the feeding head 5, preventing it from moving.

The eccentric profile of the locks 24 allows to the locking device to adapt to the variations in diameter of the wire. In fact said locks can be slightly rotated with respect the support pin 25, opposed by elastic devices 26, adapting to the diameter of the wire which is in the underlying seat.

As soon as the actuator moves the first arm 22 of the lever 21 of the locking device, the wire feeding 9 feeds one of the recovered wire 17 following the predetermined programme and said wire, sliding free into the seat of the feeding head 5, comes out of the exit hole 13 in the end of the feeding head 5 by the predetermined quantity. With this kind of locking device, placed near exit hole 13, you obtain high precision in the quantity of the recovered wire 17, not having rebounds and windings that could happen in a wide seat of the feeding head 5.