Wire harness manufacturing device and wire harness manufacturing method

Abstract

To automatically perform an operation from formation of a branching shape to shape determination by binding.SOLUTION: There is provided a wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 which has a plurality of slide parts 12 provided so as be moved straight, each of which carries a tip-side connector to which a withdrawable wire W18 is connected, a moving tape winding mechanism 22 (branch forming part) which selectively binds a plurality of wires W18 drawn out by the plurality of slide parts 12 to form a branch and a control unit 27 which controls the amount of wire drawn out by the movement of the slide parts 12 and the branching operation by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 (branching forming part).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a wire harness manufacturing apparatus and a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing a branched wire harness. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, a manufacturing device for manufacturing a branched wire harness has been used in which a plurality of holding members for holding the wire harness are arranged in accordance with the branch shape on a flat wiring board (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In such a manufacturing device, a wire harness is manufactured through a series of operations, such as arranging a plurality of electric wires on the wiring board so as to form a branch shape, and then bundling each part to determine the branch shape. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2018-606043 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Here, most of the work using the above-mentioned manufacturing apparatus is performed manually by an operator. In particular, the work from forming the branch shape to finalizing the shape by bundling is often performed by a skilled operator based on experience. On the other hand, with regard to the manufacture of wire harnesses, the development of an apparatus that automatically performs the manufacturing work without human intervention is also underway. However, it is difficult to automate the work from forming the branch shape to finalizing it, which is performed by a skilled operator, and there is a demand for an apparatus that can automatically perform these operations.

[0005] Therefore, the present invention focuses on the above-mentioned problems and aims to provide a wire harness manufacturing apparatus and a wire harness manufacturing method that can automatically perform operations from forming the branch shape to determining the shape by bundling. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, a wire harness production device includes a plurality of slide sections each mounted with a tip connector connected to drawable electric wires and moved linearly, a branch forming section selectively bundling the electric wires drawn by the plurality of slide sections to form a branch, and a control section for controlling the amount of electric wire drawn by the movement of the slide section and the branching operation by the branch forming section. a rear-end connector connecting section that cuts the electric wire and connects it to a rear-end connector at a pull-out origin side of the electric wire where the amount of the electric wire pulled out has been controlled; and a rear-end connector mounting section that mounts the rear-end connector to which the electric wire is not connected at a rear-end connector mounting position that is shifted in a direction perpendicular to the pull-out direction of the electric wire from a rear-end connection position where the electric wire is connected by the rear-end connector connecting section at the pull-out origin side, and a rear-end connector moving section that moves in the perpendicular direction after mounting to position the rear-end connector to the rear-end connection position, and the control section also controls a connection operation by the rear-end connector connecting section and a positioning of the rear-end connector to the rear-end connection position by movement of the rear-end connector moving section. It is characterized by: Another wire harness manufacturing apparatus includes a plurality of slide sections each mounted with a tip side connector connected to a pull-out electric wire and moved linearly; a branch forming section selectively bundling the plurality of electric wires pulled out by the plurality of slide sections to form a branch; a control section controlling an amount of electric wire pulled out by the movement of the slide section and a branching operation by the branch forming section; and a tip side connector connecting section connecting the electric wire to the tip side connector at a tip side connection position on the pull-out origin side of the electric wire, wherein the slide section is configured to mount the tip side connector to which the electric wire is not connected at a tip side connector mounting position on the opposite side from the pull-out origin side in the pull-out direction of the electric wire, and after mounting, moves linearly toward the pull-out origin side to position the tip side connector at the tip side connection position, and the control section also controls the connection operation by the tip side connector connecting section and the positioning of the tip side connector at the tip side connection position by the movement of the slide section.

[0007] In order to solve the above problem, a wire harness manufacturing method includes: an electric wire drawing step of drawing out the electric wires while controlling the amount of each of the electric wires to be drawn out by linearly moving a plurality of slide parts, each of which carries a tip side connector to which drawable electric wires are connected, and a branch forming step of selectively bundling the plurality of electric wires drawn out by the slide parts to form a branch; a rear-end connector connecting step of cutting the electric wire and connecting it to a rear-end connector at a pull-out origin side of the electric wire where the amount of the electric wire pulled out has been controlled; and a rear-end connector moving step which is a step executed prior to the rear-end connector connecting step, in which the rear-end connector to which the electric wire is not connected is mounted on a rear-end connector moving section at a rear-end connector mounting position at the pull-out origin side which is shifted in a direction perpendicular to the pull-out direction of the electric wire from a rear-end connection position where the electric wire is connected by the rear-end connector connecting step, and after mounting, the rear-end connector moving section is moved in the perpendicular direction to position the rear-end connector to the rear-end connection position. The present invention is characterized by comprising: Another wire harness manufacturing method includes an electric wire drawing step of drawing out electric wires while controlling the draw-out amount of each of the electric wires by linearly moving a plurality of slide parts provided so as to mount a tip side connector to which a drawable electric wire is connected, and the slide parts are each provided so as to move linearly; a branch forming step of selectively bundling the plurality of electric wires drawn by the slide parts to form a branch; a tip side connector connecting step of connecting the electric wires to the tip side connector at a tip side connection position on the draw-out origin side of the electric wires; and a tip side connector moving step which is a step executed prior to the tip side connector connecting step, in which the tip side connector to which the electric wire is not connected is mounted on the slide parts at a tip side connector mounting position on the opposite side to the draw-out origin side in the draw-out direction of the electric wires, and after mounting, linearly moving the slide parts toward the draw-out origin side to position the tip side connector at the tip side connection position. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the above-described wire harness manufacturing apparatus and wire harness manufacturing method, the operations from forming the branch shape to finalizing the shape by bundling can be performed automatically. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is an external perspective view showing a wire harness production device according to an embodiment; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the wire harness production apparatus shown in FIG. 1. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a wire harness manufactured by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. [Figure 4] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the slide and rail shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. [Diagram 5] 5 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the sliding parts shown in FIG. 4. FIG. [Figure 6] 3 is a perspective view showing the tip side connector supply unit shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a state in which a tip side connector is supplied to a tip side connector mounting unit by the tip side connector supply unit. FIG. [Figure 7] 3 is a perspective view showing the tip side connector mounting portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a state in which the tip side connector is mounted on a slide portion by the tip side connector mounting portion. FIG. [Figure 8] 3 is a diagram showing a part where electric wires are connected to a tip-side connector in the connector connecting portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, together with a flow of electric wire connection. FIG. [Figure 9] 3 is a diagram showing the rear end side connector supply unit shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 together with a flow of connector supply. FIG. [Figure 10] 3 is a diagram showing a portion where electric wires are connected to a rear-end connector in the connector connecting portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, together with an initial operation in a flow of connecting electric wires. FIG. [Figure 11] 11A to 11C are diagrams showing a connecting operation of electric wires performed in the connector connecting portion subsequent to the initial operation shown in FIG. 10. [Figure 12] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the fixed tape winding mechanism shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. [Figure 13] 13 is a plan view of a tape winding section during pulling out provided in the fixed tape winding mechanism shown in FIG. 12, as viewed in the direction of arrow V11 in FIG. [Figure 14] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the wire gripping / slack providing portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. [Figure 15]15 is a perspective view showing how an excess length of the electric wire is pulled out by an electric wire gripping mechanism corresponding to the excess length pulling shown in FIG. 14. FIG. [Figure 16] 16 is a schematic plan view showing how an excess length of the electric wire is pulled out by the electric wire gripping mechanism shown in FIG. 15. FIG. [Figure 17] 17 is a schematic plan view similar to FIG. 16 showing a modified example of the electric wire gripping mechanism shown in FIG. 16. FIG. [Figure 18] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the large-scale gathering portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. [Figure 19] FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing how the large-scale gathering portion shown in FIG. 18 gathers the electric wires. [Figure 20] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the moving tape winding mechanism shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm. [Figure 21] FIG. 21 is a perspective view showing the moving tape winding mechanism shown in FIG. 20 alone. [Figure 22] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the clip attachment portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm. [Diagram 23] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the exterior material mounting portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm. [Figure 24] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the prefabricated electric wire arrangement unit shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm. [Diagram 25] FIG. 25 is a perspective view showing the existing electric wire arrangement portion shown in FIG. 24 as a single item. [Figure 26] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the dispensing unit shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm. [Figure 27] FIG. 27 is a perspective view showing the dispensing unit shown in FIG. 26 alone. [Figure 28] 4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S11 to S14 of a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. [Figure 29]4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S15 to S18 of a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. [Diagram 30] 4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S19 to S22 of a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. [Diagram 31] 4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S23 to S25 of a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. [Diagram 32] 4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S26 to S29 of a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. [Diagram 33] 4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S30 to S33 of a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. [Diagram 34] 4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S34 to S37 of a wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. [Diagram 35] 4 is a schematic diagram showing steps S38 to S40 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. [Diagram 36] 36 is a schematic diagram showing steps S51 and S52 of a wire tension control method performed under the control of a control unit during execution of the wire harness manufacturing method shown in FIGS. 28 to 35. FIG. [Figure 37] 36 is a schematic diagram showing steps S53 to S55 of a wire tension control method performed under the control of a control unit during execution of the wire harness manufacturing method shown in FIGS. 28 to 35. FIG. [Figure 38]36 is a schematic diagram showing step S56 and step S57 of the wire tension control method performed under the control of the control unit during execution of the wire harness manufacturing method shown in FIGS. 28 to 35. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of a wire harness manufacturing apparatus, a wire harness manufacturing method, a wire harness, a tension control device, and a tension control method will be described.

[0011] Fig. 1 is an external perspective view showing a wire harness production apparatus according to one embodiment, and Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing, in a schematic block form, the wire harness production apparatus shown in Fig. 1. Also, Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a wire harness produced by the wire harness production apparatus shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

[0012] The wire harness production apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is an apparatus that automatically produces a branched wire harness W1 as shown as an example in FIG.

[0013] The wire harness W1 to be manufactured is a component that is installed and routed in an automobile and connects multiple devices inside the automobile. The wire harness W1 includes multiple front connectors W11, multiple rear connectors W12, a branch wire tape winding portion W13, a branch wire exterior portion W14, a branch tape winding portion W15, a branch exterior portion W16, and multiple fixing clips W17.

[0014] The front connector W11 is a connector located at the front end side of the drawing direction D11 of the electric wire W18 in the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1. The front end side here corresponds to the front end side of the branch in the wire harness W1. The rear connector W12 is a connector located at the rear end side of the drawing direction D11, and the rear end side here corresponds to the base side of the branch in the wire harness W1. In this embodiment, there are fewer rear connectors W12 than front connectors W11, and some of the electric wires W18 connected to the multiple front connectors W11 are gathered together at some front connectors W11 and connected to one rear connector W12. In this embodiment, both the front connector W11 and the rear connector W12 are pressure-displacement connectors.

[0015] The branch wire tape-wound portion W13 is a portion in which the tape W19 is directly wound around the electric wires W18 connected to the same end connector W11 among the multiple electric wires W18 prepared, forming a branch wire in a branched shape. The branch wire exterior portion W14 is a portion in which an exterior material W20 such as a corrugated tube is directly attached to the electric wires W18 connected to the same end connector W11, forming a branch wire similar to the branch wire tape-wound portion W13. Note that the branch wire portion in which the tape W19 is wound around the electric wire W18 and then the exterior material W20 is attached will be referred to as the branch wire tape-wound portion W13 in the following description.

[0016] The branch tape winding portion W15 is a portion where the branch wire tape winding portions W13 of the electric wire W18 connected to different end connectors W11 are further wound with tape to form a branch. In this embodiment, as the branch tape winding portion W15, a portion where two branch wire tape winding portions W13 are wound with tape, and a portion where an additional branch wire tape winding portion W13 is added to that portion and wound with tape are exemplified. The branch exterior portion W16 is a portion where the branch wire exterior portions W14 of the electric wire W18 connected to different end connectors W11 are bundled together and further an exterior material W20 is attached to form a branch. Note that the portion where the branch wire exterior portion W14 and the branch exterior portion W16 are added to the branch wire tape winding portion W13 and bundled, and then tape-wound thereon, is referred to as the branch tape winding portion W15 in the description. In addition, in this embodiment, there is also a portion where the exterior material W20 is attached from above the branch tape winding portion W15. The branch tape-wound portion W15 is formed by winding the tape W19 over the tape W19 in the branch wire tape-wound portion W13.

[0017] The fixing clips W17 are fixing members for fixing the wire harness W1 to a predetermined fixing destination, and are attached to various locations of the wire harness W1.

[0018] 1 and 2 is an apparatus that automatically produces the branched wire harness W1 described above. That is, the wire harness production apparatus 1 is an apparatus that automatically performs a series of operations including drawing out the electric wires W18, connecting the front end connector W11 and the rear end connector W12, forming the branch shape and fixing the shape by winding tape, and attaching the exterior member W20 and the fixing clip W17.

[0019] The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 includes an electric wire shelf 11, a slide unit 12, a rail 13, a front end connector supply unit 14, a front end connector mounting unit 15, a rear end connector supply unit 16, a connector connection unit 17, a fixed tape winding mechanism 18, and an electric wire holding / excess length providing unit 19. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 also includes a large-scale gathering unit 20, a robot arm 21, a moving tape winding mechanism 22, a clip mounting unit 23, an exterior material mounting unit 24, a prefabricated electric wire arrangement unit 25, a discharging unit 26, and a control unit 27.

[0020] The electric wire shelf 11 is a structure that houses a plurality of electric wire reels 111, and a plurality of electric wires W18 for manufacturing the wire harness W1 are pulled out from this electric wire shelf 11 in a pulling direction D11.

[0021] The slide portion 12 is a portion capable of mounting the tip-side connector W11 and moving linearly between a first end side on the electric wire shelf 11 side and a second end side on the front side in the drawing-out direction D11. The rail 13 is a rail member that holds the slide portion 12 movably in a moving direction D12 which is the front-rear direction of the drawing-out direction D11. The movement of the slide portion 12 along the rail 13 is performed by a servo motor. In this embodiment, the slide portions 12 assembled to the rail 13 are arranged in nine rows in a direction D13 perpendicular to the moving direction D12.

[0022] The tip connector supply unit 14 stocks a plurality of tip connectors W11 and supplies the tip connectors W11 to the tip connector mounting unit 15. The tip connector mounting unit 15 mounts the supplied tip connectors W11 on the slide unit 12. The tip connectors W11 are supplied and mounted on the slide unit 12 at the second end of the movement path of the slide unit 12. The slide unit 12 moves to the first end, which is the electric wire shelf 11 side, to carry the mounted tip connector W11 to the connector connection unit 17. When the electric wire W18 is connected to the tip connector W11 at the connector connection unit 17, the slide unit 12 then moves to the second end in the drawing direction D11, thereby drawing out the electric wire W18.

[0023] The rear end connector supply unit 16 is a portion provided at a position shifted in the orthogonal direction D13 from the connector connection unit 17 on the first end side on the electric wire shelf 11 side, i.e., on the pull-out origin side of the electric wires W18. The rear end connector supply unit 16 stocks a plurality of rear end connectors W12 at the above-mentioned shifted position, and also picks up and supplies the rear end connectors W12 to the connector connection unit 17.

[0024] The connector connecting portion 17 is installed on the side from which the electric wire W18 is pulled out, and when the front connector W11 is carried by the sliding portion 12, the connector connecting portion 17 connects the electric wire W18 to the front connector W11 by pressure welding. After the electric wire W18 is pulled out, the rear connector W12 is supplied by the rear connector supplying portion 16, and at an appropriate timing thereafter, the connector connecting portion 17 cuts the pulled-out electric wire W18 and connects it to the rear connector W12.

[0025] The fixed tape winding mechanism 18 is fixedly installed on the side of the electric wire W18 from which it is pulled out, and is a portion where the sliding portion 12 winds tape around the electric wire W18 while it is being pulled out.

[0026] The electric wire gripping / slack providing portion 19 is a portion that releasably grips the multiple electric wires W18 pulled out by the sliding portion 12 at the pull-out origin side, and further pulls out the slack of some of the electric wires W18 as necessary.

[0027] The large-scale gathering portion 20 is a part of a mechanism for selectively gathering the electric wires W18 drawn out by the movement of different slide portions 12 to form a branched shape. This large-scale gathering portion 20 is a portion for gathering the electric wires W18 of a given amount when the amount of the electric wires W18 exceeds a predetermined amount.

[0028] In the wire harness production apparatus 1 of this embodiment, the components described so far are assembled to a metal frame 28 to form an integrated structure. That is, the slide section 12, the rail 13, the front end connector supply section 14, the front end connector mounting section 15, the rear end connector supply section 16, the connector connection section 17, the fixed tape winding mechanism 18, and the electric wire gripping / excess length providing section 19 are assembled to the metal frame 28. Then, the electric wire shelf 11 is disposed on the first end side of this integrated structure, and the robot arm 21, the movable tape winding mechanism 22, the clip mounting section 23, the exterior material mounting section 24, the existing electric wire arrangement section 25, the dispensing section 26, and the control section 27 are disposed around the integrated structure.

[0029] The robot arm 21 selects and holds one mechanical device from among a plurality of types of mechanical devices, namely, the moving tape winding mechanism 22, the clip mounting unit 23, the exterior material mounting unit 24, and the dispensing unit 26, and carries it to a work position for the selected mechanical device. The robot arm 21 then serves as a part for moving the carried mechanical device in accordance with the work operation. In this embodiment, a total of four robot arms 21 are installed, two on each side in the orthogonal direction D13 of the metal frame 28 to which the rails 13 and the like are attached.

[0030] The moving tape winding mechanism 22 is a mechanism for winding the tape W19 around a winding target. The clip attachment unit 23 is a mechanism for attaching a fixing clip W17 to the electric wire W18 wound with tape or the electric wire W18 to which the exterior material W20 is attached, from above the tape W19 or the exterior material W20. The exterior material attachment unit 24 is a mechanism for attaching an exterior material W20 such as a corrugated tube directly to the electric wire W18 or from above the tape W18 to the electric wire W18 wound with tape.

[0031] The moving tape winding mechanism 22, clip attachment section 23, and exterior material attachment section 24 are placed on mechanism standby tables 29 arranged adjacent to the robot arms 21, two of which are installed on each side of the metal frame 28. The robot arms 21 select, grasp, and carry to the work position a mechanism device corresponding to the work content on each mechanism standby table 29.

[0032] The prefabricated electric wire arrangement unit 25 is a mechanism that arranges a prefabricated electric wire, which has a front end connector W11 and a rear end connector W12 connected to both ends, in parallel with the electric wire W18 drawn out by the movement of the slide unit 12, at a work location separate from the wire harness manufacturing device 1. This prefabricated electric wire arrangement unit 25 is installed on the side of one mechanism standby table 29. When arranging a prefabricated electric wire, the robot arm 21 selects and grasps the prefabricated electric wire arrangement unit 25 on the side of this mechanism standby table 29, and carries it to the work position.

[0033] The discharge unit 26 is a mechanism that holds the completed wire harness W1, removes the front end connector W11 and the rear end connector W12 from the respective holders, and moves the wire harness W1 onto a table provided as a predetermined discharge destination 26a. The table of the discharge destination 26a is disposed adjacent to the other mechanism standby table 29 on the opposite side to the mechanism standby table 29 on which the pre-assembled electric wire arrangement unit 25 is disposed. The discharge unit 26 is disposed on the side of the discharge destination 26a. When the wire harness W1 is completed, the robot arm 21 selects the discharge unit 26 on the side of the discharge destination 26a, grasps it, and carries it to a working position.

[0034] The control unit 27 is a computer device that controls the operation of each component in the wire harness production apparatus 1 described above, and is installed adjacent to the mechanism waiting table 29 on which the prefabricated electric wire arrangement unit 25 is installed. In this embodiment, the control unit 27 includes a tablet terminal as an interface with the worker, and receives instructions to start work, etc. from the worker via this tablet terminal.

[0035] Each of the components of the wire harness production apparatus 1 outlined above will be further described below with reference to separate drawings.

[0036] Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the slide portion and the rail shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, and Fig. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the slide portions shown in Fig. 4. In Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, the slide portion 12 and the rail 13 are shown in a position in which the drawing direction D11 of the electric wire W18 is opposite to that in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 so that the structure of the slide portion can be easily seen.

[0037] In this embodiment, nine rails 13 are arranged parallel to each other in a direction perpendicular to the pull-out direction D11, and one slide portion 12 is held on each rail 13 so as to be movable in a movement direction D12, which is the front-to-rear direction of the pull-out direction D11.

[0038] The slide portion 12 is a portion on which the tip side connector W11 is mounted and which moves linearly along the rail 13 to draw out the electric wires W18 connected to the tip side connector W11. The slide portion 12 includes a holding portion 121 which holds the tip side connector W11, a slide main body portion 122 on which the holding portion 121 is mounted, and a connecting portion 123 which mediates the mounting of the holding portion 121 on the slide main body portion 122. Furthermore, the slide portion 12 is provided with a continuity inspection portion 124 which performs a continuity inspection on the tip side connector W11 during the manufacture of the wire harness W1.

[0039] First, the slide main body 122 is connected to the rail 13 so as to be movable in the movement direction D12. The slide main body 122 includes a slide connecting part 122a for the rail 13, and an arm part 122b extending in a strip shape from the slide connecting part 122a in the opposite direction to the electric wire drawing direction D11 and having a connecting part 123 connected to its tip.

[0040] The connecting part 123 is a columnar part attached to the tip of the arm part 122b so as to be rotatable in a rotation direction D14 about a rotation axis X11 perpendicular to both the moving direction D12 of the slide part 12 and the perpendicular direction D13 in the wire harness production apparatus 1. When the connecting part 123 rotates in the rotation direction D14, the holding part 121 rotates in the rotation direction D14, and the electric wire D18 from the tip side connector W11 held by the holding part 121 can be directed in a desired direction around the rotation axis X11.

[0041] The holding portion 121 is a columnar portion extending from an intermediate portion of the connecting portion 123 in the opposite direction to the drawing direction D11, and holds the tip end connector W11 at its tip end. The holding portion 121 is attached so as to be rotatable in a twist direction D15 about a twist axis X12 along the moving direction D12 of the sliding portion 12. By rotating the holding portion 121 in the twist direction D15 while holding the tip end connector W11 after the electric wire is connected, the electric wire D18 from the tip end connector W11 can be twisted.

[0042] The continuity inspection unit 124 is a rectangular plate-like part attached to the connecting part 123 so as to be movable in an inspection movement direction D16 above the holding part 121, proceeding in the opposite direction to the drawing-out direction D11 and descending to the mounting position of the tip side connector W11 in the holding part 121. A plurality of inspection pins 124a are provided on the lower end edge. When the continuity inspection unit 124 moves in the inspection movement direction D16, the inspection pins 124a come into contact with a conductive part in the tip side connector W11 to perform a continuity inspection. The continuity inspection at this time is performed under the control of the control part 27.

[0043] Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the tip side connector supply unit shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 together with a state in which the tip side connector is supplied to the tip side connector mounting unit by the tip side connector supply unit. Note that Fig. 6 also shows the tip side connector supply unit 14 and the tip side connector mounting unit 15 in a position in which the drawing direction D11 of the electric wire W18 is opposite to that in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, similar to Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 described above.

[0044] The tip side connector supply unit 14 is a portion in which nine rows of tip side supply mechanisms 14a are arranged in the orthogonal direction D13 of the wire harness production apparatus 1 so as to correspond one-to-one to the nine rows of slide units 12. Each tip side supply mechanism 14a includes a tip side stocker 141, a connector delivery unit 142, and a rotation mechanism 143.

[0045] In the tip side stocker 141, a plurality of tip side connectors W11, which are rectangular plate-shaped pressure-welded connectors, are stocked by being stacked in the thickness direction along the moving direction D12 of the slide portion 12. In this embodiment, in each tip side supply mechanism 14a, the tip side stockers 141 are provided in two rows arranged in the perpendicular direction D13.

[0046] The connector delivery section 142 is a rectangular plate-like section having a connector mounting surface 142a capable of mounting and holding two tip side connectors W11. The connector delivery section 142 catches the tip side connector W11 stocked in the tip side stocker 141 in a catch posture P11 in which the connector mounting surface 142a faces the tip side stocker 141. Furthermore, the connector delivery section 142 delivers the tip side connector W11 to the tip side connector mounting section 15 in a delivery posture P12 in which the connector mounting surface 142a in the connector mounted state faces upward.

[0047] The rotation mechanism 143 is a mechanical part that supports the connector delivery portion 142 rotatably in a delivery rotation direction D17 between the catch posture P11 and the delivery posture P12 around a rotation axis X13 along the orthogonal direction D13.

[0048] Fig. 7 is a perspective view showing the tip connector mounting portion shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 together with a state in which the tip connector is mounted on the slide portion by the tip connector mounting portion. Note that, in Fig. 7 as well, like Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 described above, the tip connector supply portion 14 and the tip connector mounting portion 15 are shown in a position in which the drawing direction D11 of the electric wire W18 is opposite to that in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.

[0049] The tip side connector mounting portion 15 first has nine rows of connector carriers 151 that correspond one-to-one to the nine rows of tip side supply mechanisms 14a and the slide portion 12. Furthermore, the tip side connector mounting portion 15 has a support bridge 152 that supports these nine rows of connector carriers 151 in a state where they are arranged in the orthogonal direction D13 and moves in the movement direction D12.

[0050] Each connector carrier 151 includes a connector hand 151a and a hand up / down mechanism 151b. The connector hand 151a is a part that picks up the tip side connector W11 from the connector mounting surface 142a of the connector delivery section 142 in the delivery attitude P12 and mounts the tip side connector W11 onto the holding section 121 of the slide section 12. The hand up / down mechanism 151b is a mechanism that moves the connector hand 151a in a receiving direction D18 that moves the connector hand 151a up and down relative to the connector mounting surface 142a and in a mounting direction D19 that moves the connector hand 151a up and down relative to the holding section 121 of the slide section 12.

[0051] In this embodiment, the tip side connector W11 delivered by the connector delivery section 142 in each tip side supply mechanism 14a of the tip side connector supply section 14 is carried to the holding section 121 of the slide section 12 by each connector transport section 151 of the tip side connector mounting section 15. Through the operation of each of these sections, the tip side connector W11 stocked in the tip side stocker 141 is mounted on the holding section 121 of the slide section 12. A series of operations related to this mounting is performed on the second end side of the wire harness production apparatus 1, which is opposite to the first end side that is the electric wire shelf 11 side. Moreover, the tip side connector W11 mounted on the slide section 12 at this second end side is in a state in which the electric wire W18 is not connected.

[0052] In this manner, in this embodiment, the sliding portion 12 mounts the tip side connector W11 to which the electric wire W18 is not connected at a tip side connector mounting position P13 at the second end side opposite to the pull-out origin side (the first end side that is the electric wire shelf 11 side) in the pull-out direction D11 of the electric wire W18. Then, after mounting, the sliding portion 12 moves to the connector connection portion 17 on the pull-out origin side.

[0053] The connector connecting portion 17 includes a portion for connecting the electric wire W18 to the front connector W11 held by the sliding portion 12, and a portion for connecting the electric wire W18, which is drawn out by the sliding portion 12 moving in the drawing direction D12 after the connection, to the rear connector W12. First, the portion of the connector connecting portion 17 for connecting the electric wire W18 to the front connector W11 will be described below.

[0054] Fig. 8 is a diagram showing the flow of connecting electric wires to the tip connector in the connector connection part shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. In Fig. 8, the right side of the figure is the side of the electric wire shelf 11, and the left side of the figure is the side facing the tip connector mounting position P13 described above.

[0055] As shown in FIG. 8, the connector connection portion 17 includes a tip connector connection portion 171 that connects the electric wire W18 to the tip connector W11 at a tip connection position P14 on the drawing origin side. When connecting the tip connector W11, the slide portion 12 moves linearly toward the drawing origin side so as to position the tip connector W11 of the holding portion 121 at the tip connection position P14. The connector connection portion 17 also includes a rear end connector connection portion 172 that is adjacent to the tip connector connection portion 171 on the drawing origin side. The rear end connector connection portion 172 is a portion that connects the electric wire W18 to the rear end connector W12. The rear end connector connection portion 172 will be described later with reference to another drawing, and here, the tip connector connection portion 171 will be described with reference to FIG. 8.

[0056] At the pull-out origin side of the tip-side connector connection portion 171, the wire guide portion 30 that guides and feeds the tip of the electric wire W18 pulled out from the electric wire shelf 11 to the tip-side connector connection portion 171 is disposed so as to pass under the rear-end connector connection portion 172. The wire guide portion 30 has a comb-tooth-shaped wire guide 301 on the wire shelf 11 side, and guides the tip of the electric wire W18 to the tip-side connector connection portion 171 while aligning the electric wire W18 with the wire guide 301. Before the crimping, the wire guide portion 30 feeds the tip of the electric wire W18 about 25 mm in the feed-in direction D20 to the crimping portion 171a of the tip-side connector connection portion 171. Furthermore, the wire guide portion 30 moves slightly downward in the positioning direction D21 to position the tip of the electric wire W18 to the tip-side connector W11 at the tip-side connection position P14. After this alignment, the pressure-connecting portion 171a of the tip-side connector connecting portion 171 descends in the pressure-connecting direction D22, and connects the tip of the electric wire W18 to the tip-side connector W11 by pressure connection.

[0057] In this embodiment, in the connector connection portion 17, a plurality of front-end connector connection portions 171 and rear-end connector connection portions 172 are provided so as to be aligned in the orthogonal direction D13 of the wire harness production apparatus 1. The electric wires W18 are connected to the front-end connectors W11 by the plurality of front-end connector connection portions 171 sequentially in the orthogonal direction D13 to the front-end connectors W11 of the nine rows of the slide portion 12. This distributes the pressure applied to the metal frame 28 of the wire harness production apparatus 1 during pressure welding.

[0058] When the electric wire W18 is connected to the front end connector W11 in this manner, the slide portion 12 moves in the drawing direction D11 of the electric wire W18. This movement of the slide portion 12 causes the electric wire W18 to be drawn out from the electric wire shelf 11 by a length required for forming the wire harness W1, and the electric wire W18 is transferred to a post-process such as branch formation and tape winding. At an appropriate timing in this post-process, the rear end connector connecting portion 172 connects the electric wire W18 to the rear end connector W12. Here, in this embodiment, the rear end connector supply portion 16 supplies the rear end connector W12 prior to the connection by the rear end connector connecting portion 172.

[0059] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the rear end connector supply unit shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 together with the flow of connector supply.

[0060] The rear end connector supply unit 16 includes a plurality of rear end supply mechanisms 16a and connector rails 16b that support a rear end connector moving unit 163 (described later) of each rear end supply mechanism 16a so as to be movable in the orthogonal direction D13. Each rear end supply mechanism 16a includes a rear end stocker 161, a rear end connector mounting unit 162, and a rear end connector moving unit 163 in one-to-one correspondence with each other.

[0061] In the rear end stocker 161, a plurality of rear end connectors W12, which are rectangular plate-shaped pressure-welded connectors, are stocked and stacked in the thickness direction along the moving direction D12 of the slide portion 12. In this embodiment, some of the plurality of rear end stockers 161 accommodate wide connectors having a width twice that of a standard size connector as the rear end connectors W12, and some others accommodate standard size connectors as the rear end connectors W12.

[0062] The rear end connector mounting portion 162 takes out the rear end connectors W12 one by one from the rear end stocker 161 and mounts them on the rear end connector moving portion 163. When mounting, the support bridge 162a supporting the multiple rear end connector mounting portions 162 moves to position each rear end connector mounting portion 162 at a removal position for the rear end connector W12 in each rear end stocker 161. At this removal position, each rear end connector mounting portion 162 descends in the downward direction D23 toward the rear end connector W12 of each rear end stocker 161 and catches the rear end connector W12.

[0063] Next, each rear end connector mounting portion 162 rises in an upward direction D24 while holding the rear end connector W12, and the support bridge 162a moves in a sliding direction D25 along the moving direction D12 to position the rear end connector W12 above the rear end connector mounting position P15. This rear end connector mounting position P15 is a position shifted in a direction perpendicular to the drawing direction D11 of the electric wire W18 from the rear end connection position P16 where the electric wire W18 is connected by the connector connecting portion 17 on the drawing origin side of the electric wire W18. When each rear end connector mounting portion 162 reaches above the respective rear end connector mounting position P15, it descends in a downward direction D26 and mounts the rear end connector W12 on the rear end connector moving portion 163 waiting at the rear end connector mounting position P15.

[0064] When the rear end connector W12 is mounted in this manner, the rear end connector moving parts 163 move in a positioning direction D131 along the orthogonal direction D13 to position the rear end connector W12 at the rear end connection position P16. After this positioning, the rear end connector W12 is connected to the electric wire W18 by the rear end connector connecting part 172 of the connector connecting part 17.

[0065] Fig. 10 is a diagram showing a portion where electric wires are connected to the rear-end connector in the connector connecting portion shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, together with an initial operation in the flow of connecting electric wires. Also, Fig. 11 is a diagram showing the operation of connecting electric wires in the connector connecting portion, which is performed following the initial operation shown in Fig. 10. In these Figs. 10 and 11, the right side in the figures is the electric wire shelf 11 side, and the left side in the figures is the side facing the above-mentioned rear-end connection position P16.

[0066] In this embodiment, as described with reference to FIG. 8, the front connector connection portion 171 and the rear connector connection portion 172 are provided adjacent to each other in the connector connection portion 17. With respect to the moving direction D12 of the slide portion 12, the front connector connection portion 171 is disposed on the pull-out destination side (second end side) of the electric wire W18, and the rear connector connection portion 172 is disposed on the pull-out origin side (first end side) which is the electric wire shelf 11 side. At this time, the connector connection portion 17 includes a driving source 173 for the pressure contact operation, and a transmission mechanism 174 for switchably transmitting the output of the driving source 173 to the front connector connection portion 171 and the rear connector connection portion 172. The connection operation by the front connector connection portion 171 described with reference to FIG. 8 is performed in a state in which the driving source 173 and the front connector connection portion 171 are connected by the transmission mechanism 174. In addition, before the connecting operation by the rear end connector connecting portion 172, the connector connecting portion 17 remains in the state at the time of the previous connecting operation by the front end connector connecting portion 171. That is, as shown in the upper part of FIG. 10, the transmission mechanism 174 connects the driving source 173 to the front end connector connecting portion 171. In the initial operation of the flow of connecting electric wires, as shown in the lower part of FIG. 10, the transmission mechanism 174 switches the destination of the output of the driving source 173 to the rear end connector connecting portion 172. At the same time, the connector connecting portion 17 moves along the moving direction D12 to position the rear end connector connecting portion 172 above the rear end connecting position P16. The rear end connector W12 is positioned at the rear end connecting position P16 by the rear end connector moving portion 163.

[0067] In this way, when the initial operation shown in Fig. 10 is completed, the rear end connector connecting portion 172 connects the electric wire W18 as shown in Fig. 11. The rear end connector connecting portion 172 has an electric wire cutting blade 172a and a pressure-connecting portion 172b at its top-bottom tip. In addition, a wire cutting lower die 31 against which the electric wire cutting blade 172a slides during pressure-connection is provided in a portion that holds the electric wire W18 before pressure-connection between the tip of the rear end connector connecting portion 172 and the rear end connector W12 at the rear end connecting position P16. Then, after the initial operation is completed, the rear end connector connecting portion 172 moves in a pressure-connecting direction D27 downward toward the rear end connector W12. As a result of this movement, first, the wire cutting blade 172a clamps the wire W18 between itself and the wire cutting lower die 31 to cut it from the wire shelf 11 side, and then the crimping portion 172b connects the cut wire W18 on the pull-out side to the rear end connector W12 by crimping.

[0068] As described above, in the connector connection portion 17, a plurality of front-end connector connection portions 171 and rear-end connector connection portions 172 are arranged side by side in the orthogonal direction D13 of the wire harness production apparatus 1. The electric wires W18 are connected to the rear-end connectors W12 sequentially in the orthogonal direction D13 to the rear-end connectors W12 by the rear-end connector connection portions 172. As a result, the pressure applied to the metal frame 28 of the wire harness production apparatus 1 during pressure welding is also distributed to the rear-end side.

[0069] Branching of the wire harness W1 including tape winding is performed at each timing from while the electric wire W18 is being pulled out by the slide portion 12 after the front end connector W11 is connected to before and after the electric wire W18 is subsequently connected to the rear end connector W12.

[0070] FIG. 12 is an oblique view showing the fixed tape winding mechanism shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, and FIG. 13 is a plan view of the pull-out tape winding section provided in the fixed tape winding mechanism shown in FIG. 12, as viewed from the direction of arrow V11 in FIG. 12.

[0071] As described above, the fixed tape winding mechanism 18 is fixedly installed on the pull-out side of the electric wire W18, and is a mechanism for winding tape around the electric wire W18 while it is being pulled out by the slide portion 12, and is equipped with six tape winding portions 181 during pulling out and a support rail 182.

[0072] The six during-pulling tape winding sections 181 are arranged to be aligned in the orthogonal direction D13 of the wire harness production apparatus 1. In this embodiment, the during-pulling tape winding sections 181 are arranged to correspond one-to-one with six rows of the nine rows of the slide sections 12 except for three predetermined rows, and are capable of winding tape around the electric wires W18 pulled out by each row of the slide sections 12. Each during-pulling tape winding section 181 rotates the tape reel 181a in the reel rotation direction D28 around the electric wires W18 in each row, and winds and bundles the tape W19 pulled out from the tape reel 181a.

[0073] Furthermore, each of the drawn-out tape winding sections 181 includes a pair of holding arms 181b that hold the electric wire W18 to be wound with tape. The pair of holding arms 181b are mechanical parts that are installed so as to close in a clamping direction D29 to clamp the electric wire W18 to be wound with tape during tape winding. The electric wire W18 being drawn out by the sliding section 12 is held by the pair of holding arms 181b, and is wound with the tape W19 from the tape reel 181a in a stable state. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the six drawn-out tape winding sections 181 are configured to rotate the tape reels 181a in the same reel rotation direction D28.

[0074] Such tape winding during drawing out is performed on the electric wires W18 drawn out by a predetermined part of the nine rows of slide parts 12. Then, while the part is being tape-wound, the electric wires W18 are drawn out by the length required for forming the wire harness 1. The amount of drawing out of the electric wires W18 is grasped by the control unit 27 as the movement amount of each slide part 12, and the control unit 27 stops the movement of the slide parts 12 in order from the slide parts 12 that have been drawn out by the amount of drawing out corresponding to the required length. At this time, under the control of the control unit 27, the electric wire gripping / slack providing unit 19 releasably grips the electric wires W18 drawn out by the slide parts 12 at the drawing origin side. Furthermore, the electric wire gripping / slack providing unit 19 performs a process of further drawing out the slack of some of the electric wires W18 after drawing out by the slide parts 12.

[0075] FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing the wire gripping / slack providing portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG.

[0076] The electric wire gripping / slack providing section 19 includes eight rows of gripping units 191, each of which grips the electric wire W18 with a comb-shaped electric wire gripping mechanism 191a (electric wire gripping section) so as to correspond one-to-one to the eight rows of the nine rows of the slide section 12, except for one predetermined row. These eight rows of gripping units 191 are supported by a support rail 192 in a state of being arranged in the perpendicular direction D13. The electric wire gripping mechanism 191a in each gripping unit 191 is a mechanism that switches between a gripping state and a non-gripping state of the electric wire W18 by opening and closing the interval between the comb teeth in an opening direction D301 and a closing direction D302. Among the eight rows of gripping units 191, the electric wire gripping mechanisms 191a in three predetermined rows of gripping units 191 have a shape corresponding to drawing out the slack of the electric wire W18.

[0077] FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing how an excess length of an electric wire is pulled out by an electric wire gripping mechanism corresponding to the excess length pulling shown in FIG. 14, and FIG. 16 is a schematic plan view showing how the excess length of an electric wire is pulled out by the electric wire gripping mechanism shown in FIG. 15.

[0078] In this embodiment, the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a of the gripping unit 191 corresponding to the excess length drawing has a shape in which the length of the multiple comb teeth 191a-1 gradually increases toward the right side in the figure. When the excess length is drawn out, the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a is switched to a state in which the electric wire W18 is not gripped, and rotated by 90° in the excess length rotation direction D31 toward the right side in the figure, i.e., toward the longest comb tooth. As a result, the electric wire W18 is drawn out in the drawing direction D11 by the comb teeth that hold each electric wire W18. At this time, the drawing amount increases as the comb teeth that draw out the electric wire W18 are longer, as shown in FIG. 16. In the wire harness W1, the portion from which the excess length is drawn out in this way corresponds to a bending arrangement in which the shorter excess length is on the inside and the longer excess length is on the outside. By providing each electric wire W18 with the above-described graduated excess length, the harness portion can be naturally bent when the above-described bending arrangement is performed, and the load due to bending on the electric wire W18 in that portion can be reduced.

[0079] FIG. 17 is a schematic plan view similar to FIG. 16 showing a modified example of the electric wire gripping mechanism shown in FIG.

[0080] The electric wire gripping mechanism 591a of the modified example shown in FIG. 17 includes a fixed end 591a-1 whose position is fixed in the longitudinal direction of the electric wire W18, a movable moving end 591a-2, and a support rod 591a-3 that movably supports the moving end 591a-2. First, the multiple fixed ends 591a-1 have a mechanism that switches between a gripping state and a non-gripping state of the electric wire W18 by opening and closing the comb teeth, as in the above-mentioned embodiment. On the other hand, the multiple moving ends 591a-2 are formed to have the same length, unlike the above-mentioned embodiment. Furthermore, the multiple moving ends 591a-2 are supported by a support rod 591a-3 arranged to cross the moving end 591a-2 so that the crossing angle with respect to the support rod 591a-3 can be changed. When the support rod 591a-3 rotates around one end in the support rod rotation direction D33, each moving end 591a-2 moves in a direction away from the fixed end 591a-1 according to the rotation angle. The amount of movement at this time gradually increases as it moves away from the rotation center of the support rod 591a-3. That is, in this modification, the rotation of the support rod 591a-3 can obtain a shape similar to that of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a of the embodiment shown in FIG. 16. Furthermore, by appropriately setting the amount of rotation of the support rod 591a-3, it is possible to adjust the amount of extra length drawn out via the amount of movement of the moving end 591a-2.

[0081] The electric wire gripping mechanism 591a of this modification can be operated as follows. First, connector position information is acquired, which indicates how the connector of the wire harness W1 is arranged in an actual vehicle. Next, the rotation angle of the support rod 591a-3 is calculated based on the connector position information when the harness is arranged. Furthermore, based on the calculation result, the movement distance of the end of the support rod 591a-3 on the opposite side to the rotation center is calculated. Then, based on the calculated movement distance, a driving source such as a motor is driven to move the end of the support rod 591a-3, thereby rotating the support rod 591a-3 by the required amount. This rotation moves the multiple moving end portions 591a-2, and the overall shape of the electric wire gripping mechanism 591a is determined. When the determined electric wire gripping mechanism 591a is rotated 90° in the extra length rotation direction D31 as in the above-described embodiment, the electric wire W18 is pulled out in the pull-out direction D11 by the extra length corresponding to the shape determined by the rotation of the support rod 591a-3. In this way, according to the configuration of this modified example, it is possible to pull out the extra length corresponding to the connector arrangement in the actual vehicle state.

[0082] The drawing of the electric wire including the excess length and the tape winding at the drawing origin side by the fixed tape winding mechanism 18 are basically performed on the electric wires W18 connected to the same front end connector W11 held by each of the nine rows of slide parts 12. Here, in this embodiment, the front end connectors W11 and the rear end connectors W12 do not correspond one-to-one, and the number of the rear end connectors W12 is also smaller. Therefore, in the wire harness manufacturing device 1 of this embodiment, a process is performed in which the electric wires W18 connected to the different front end connectors W11 are selectively gathered together to form a branch shape, in addition to the tape winding for the electric wires W18 connected to the same front end connector W11. The gathered electric wires W18 are bundled by tape winding and connected to one rear end connector W12, so that the electric wires W18 of the wire harness W1 are collected into a smaller number of rear end connectors W12 than the front end connectors W11. In this embodiment, the gathering of the electric wire W18 described above is performed by the large-scale gathering unit 20 and a small-scale gathering unit provided in the moving tape winding mechanism 22, which will be described later.

[0083] FIG. 18 is a perspective view showing the large-scale gathering portion shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, and FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing how the large-scale gathering portion shown in FIG. 18 gathers the electric wires.

[0084] The large-scale gathering unit 20 in this embodiment is a mechanism capable of gathering all of the electric wires W18 drawn out by the nine rows of slide parts 12 in the orthogonal direction D13 of the wire harness production apparatus 1. This large-scale gathering unit 20 straddles the metal frames 28 on both sides of the wire harness production apparatus 1 and is supported by the metal frames 28 so as to be movable in the moving direction D12 of the slide parts 12. The large-scale gathering unit 20 includes a support bridge 201 supported by straddling the metal frames 28, and a pair of gathering arms 202 supported by the support bridge 201 so as to be movable in the orthogonal direction D13. The support bridge 201 moves to a predetermined gathering position and the pair of gathering arms 202 close, whereby the multiple electric wires W18 are gathered and bundled. At this time, the holding portion 121 of each slide portion 12 rotates, so that the tip side connector W11 held by the holding portion 121 is oriented so that the electric wires D18 are obliquely directed toward the portion bundled by the electric wire gathering.

[0085] In addition, in this embodiment, an arm mechanism similar to the large-scale moving part 20 is also provided in the support bridge 152 of the tip-side connector mounting part 15 described above, making it possible to move the electric wires on a similar large scale in this tip-side connector mounting part 15 as well.

[0086] On the other hand, a small-scale gathering unit that gathers an amount of wire not more than a predetermined amount that is smaller than the amount of wire that can be gathered by the large-scale gathering unit 20 is provided on a moving tape winding mechanism 22 carried by a robot arm 21.

[0087] FIG. 20 is a perspective view showing the moving tape winding mechanism shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm, and FIG. 21 is a perspective view showing the moving tape winding mechanism shown in FIG. 20 by itself.

[0088] The robot arm 21 is a multi-joint arm mechanism, two of which are provided on each side of the metal frame 28, and at its tip, selects and grasps one of multiple types of mechanical devices, including the moving tape winding mechanism 22, and transports it to a working position using that one mechanical device.

[0089] The movable tape winding mechanism 22 carried by the robot arm 21 is a mechanism for winding the tape W19 around the electric wire W18 at the destination. The movable tape winding mechanism 22 includes a mechanism frame 221, a robot arm connection section 222, a tape reel 223, a reel rotation mechanism 224, a small-scale gathering section 225, and a drive source 226.

[0090] The mechanism frame 221 is a plate-shaped frame that supports each mechanism part in the moving tape winding mechanism 22. The robot arm connection part 222 is provided on one end edge of the mechanism frame 221 and is a part that is mechanically and electrically connected to and grasped by the robot arm 21. The tape reel 223 is a reel for the tape W19 to be wound, and the reel rotation mechanism 224 is a mechanism part that holds the tape reel 223 and rotates it in the reel rotation direction D34 around the electric wire W18 to be wound.

[0091] The small-scale gathering section 225 is a mechanism that gathers the electric wire W18, which is a target for winding the tape W19 and has a predetermined amount of electric wire less than the amount of electric wire in the large-scale gathering section 20. The small-scale gathering section 225 includes a roller 225a and a gathering blade 225b. The roller 225a and the gathering blade 225b are both installed so as to extend in a direction intersecting the electric wire W18 during tape winding. A receiving recess 225b-1 for receiving the electric wire W18 is formed on the edge of the gathering blade 225b on the roller 225a side, and the roller 225a is disposed so that its circumferential surface faces the receiving recess 225b-1. During tape winding, the gathering blade 225b receives the electric wire W18 in the receiving recess 225b-1 and moves in an electric wire clamping direction D35 toward the circumferential surface of the roller 225a in which the electric wire W18 is clamped. The tape W19 is wound around the electric wire W18 that has been gathered and clamped by this movement. During this tape winding, the robot arm 21 moves the moving tape winding mechanism 22 linearly in the tape winding direction D36 along the electric wire W18 while the tape W19 is being wound. This allows the tape to be wound over a predetermined tape winding range.

[0092] In this embodiment, as described above, in addition to the moving tape winding mechanism 22, the mechanical devices to be grasped by the robot arm 21 include a clip mounting section 23, an outer casing mounting section 24, an existing electric wire placement section 25, and a payment section 26.

[0093] FIG. 22 is a perspective view showing the clip attachment portion shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm.

[0094] The clip mounting section 23 is a mechanism that mounts the fixing clip W17, which is carried by the robot arm 21 and is used to fix the wire harness W1 to a predetermined fixing destination, on the electric wire W18. The clip mounting section 23 includes a robot arm connection section 231, a holding hook 232 that holds the electric wire W18, and a clip sending mechanism 233 that feeds the fixing clip W17 along the inner peripheral edge of the holding hook 232 and winds it around the electric wire W18. Note that FIG. 22 illustrates a clip mounting section 23 in which two holding hooks 232 and two clip sending mechanisms 233 are arranged side by side in the longitudinal direction of the electric wire W18. In this clip mounting section 23, two fixing clips W17 can be mounted simultaneously. However, in this embodiment, a clip mounting section 23 that is provided with three or more holding hooks 232 and clip sending mechanisms 233 and that can simultaneously mount three or more fixing clips W17 is also prepared. When the wire harness W1 is manufactured, the robot arm 21 selects a clip installation portion 23 according to the number of fixing clips W17 to be installed and carries it to the installation location.

[0095] FIG. 23 is a perspective view showing the external material mounting portion shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 together with a robot arm.

[0096] The exterior material attachment section 24 is a mechanism portion that is carried by the robot arm 21 and attaches the exterior material W20 such as a corrugated tube to the electric wire W18. The exterior material attachment section 24 includes a robot arm connection section 241 and an attachment mechanism 242 that feeds and attaches the exterior material W20 along the electric wire W18. The cylindrical exterior material W20 in this embodiment has a longitudinal slit formed in the peripheral wall. The attachment mechanism 242 pushes the electric wire W18 through the slit so as to be pushed into the inside of the exterior material W20, and pays out and cuts the exterior material W20 by a required length. In the wire harness W1 of this embodiment, there are also locations where the above-mentioned tape winding mechanism 22 winds the tape on the exterior material W20 attached in this manner, and the clip attachment section 23 attaches the fixing clip W20.

[0097] FIG. 24 is a perspective view showing the prefabricated electric wire placement unit shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 together with a robot arm, and FIG. 25 is a perspective view showing the prefabricated electric wire placement unit shown in FIG. 24 by itself.

[0098] The existing electric wire arrangement unit 25 is a mechanism that holds an existing electric wire W21 having a front end connector W11 and a rear end connector W12 connected to both ends, and arranges the existing electric wire W21 in parallel with the electric wire W18 drawn by the movement of the slide unit 12 at the destination of the robot arm 21. The existing electric wire arrangement unit 25 includes a robot arm connection unit 251, a main body unit 252, and a connector holding unit 253. The main body unit 252 is a strip-shaped unit extending along the existing electric wire W21, and is a unit in which the robot arm connection unit 251 is provided at the center. The connector holding unit 253 is a unit provided at each end of the main body unit 252 and detachably holds the front end connector W11 and the rear end connector W12. The existing electric wire arrangement unit 25 holds the existing electric wire W21 by holding the front end connector W11 and the rear end connector W12 with the pair of connector holding units 253. The robot arm 21 carries the existing electric wire arrangement part 25 holding the existing electric wire W21 in this way to one slide part 12 and the rear end connector moving part 163 that are waiting at the arrangement location of the existing electric wire W21. Then, at the destination, the existing electric wire arrangement part 25 sets the tip end connector W11 of the existing electric wire W21 to the holding part 121 of the slide part 12, and sets the rear end connector W12 to the rear end connector moving part 163. As a result, the existing electric wire W21 is arranged in parallel with the electric wire W18 that has been drawn out by the movement of the other slide part 12.

[0099] FIG. 26 is a perspective view showing the dispensing unit shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 together with a robot arm, and FIG. 27 is a perspective view showing the dispensing unit shown in FIG. 26 alone.

[0100] The discharge unit 26 is a mechanism that holds the completed wire harness W1, transports it to the robot arm 21, and discharges the wire harness W1 onto a table provided as a discharge destination 26a. The discharge unit 26 includes a robot arm connection unit 261, a main body frame 262, a front connector holding unit 263, and a rear connector holding unit 264.

[0101] The main body frame 262 includes a front end frame 262a, a rear end frame 262b, and an intermediate frame 262c. The front end frame 262a is a band-shaped frame portion arranged along the orthogonal direction D13 in which the nine rows of slide parts 12 are arranged during dispensing, and has nine front end connector holding parts 263 attached so as to be aligned in a straight line. The rear end frame 262b is a band-shaped frame portion arranged along the orthogonal direction D13 in which the six rear end connector moving parts 163 are arranged, and has six rear end connector holding parts 264 attached so as to be aligned in a straight line. The intermediate frame 262c is a frame-shaped frame portion connecting between the front end frame 262a and the rear end frame 262b, and has a robot arm connection part 261 provided in the center thereof.

[0102] Nine tip side connector holding portions 263 are attached to the tip side frame 262a so as to be aligned in a straight line, and each of them releasably holds the tip side connector W11 of the completed wire harness W1. Also, the tip side connector holding portions 263 are attached rotatably around their respective support shafts 263a so as to hold the tip side connector W11 in a posture corresponding to the orientation of the tip side connector W11 in the completed wire harness W1.

[0103] The rear end connector holding portions 264 are attached to the rear end frame 262b so as to be aligned in a straight line, and each releasably holds the rear end connector W12 in the completed wire harness W1. The rear end connector holding portions 264 hold the rear end connector W12 held in a direction determined by the rear end connector moving portion 163, and are therefore attached to the rear end frame 262b in a fixed position.

[0104] When the dispensing unit 26 dispenses the wire harness W1, the slide units 12 are first aligned in a straight line in the orthogonal direction D13, so that the leading-end connectors W11 in the completed wire harness W1 are aligned. Then, the robot arm 21 carries the dispensing unit 26 so that the leading-end connector holding unit 263 and the rear-end connector holding unit 264 are positioned above the aligned leading-end connectors W11 and the rear-end connectors W12 that are originally aligned. After this positioning, the dispensing unit 26 descends, and the leading-end connector holding unit 263 and the rear-end connector holding unit 264 grip the leading-end connector W11 and the rear-end connector W12. Then, the robot arm 21 raises the dispensing unit 26, so that the leading-end connector W11 and the rear-end connector W12 are removed from the slide units 12 and the rear-end connector moving unit 163. Then, the robot arm 21 carries the discharge unit 26 holding the wire harness W1 by gripping the connector onto a table at the discharge destination 26a. When the wire harness W1 reaches the discharge destination 26a, the front end connector holding unit 263 and the rear end connector holding unit 264 release the front end connector W11 and the rear end connector W12, and place the wire harness W1 on the discharge destination 26a. With this discharge by the discharge unit 26, the production of the wire harness W1 by the wire harness production apparatus 1 is completed.

[0105] A series of steps in the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness W1 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 described above including the details of each part will be described below with reference to Figs. 28 to 34 which show each process in a schematic manner.

[0106] FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram showing steps S11 to S14 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0107] Step S11 in Fig. 28 is a step in which the electric wires W11 are connected to the nine tip side connectors W11 that have been carried to the tip side connection positions P14 on the pull-out origin side by the nine rows of slide portions 12. At the stage of this step S11, the rear end connectors W12 have not yet been set, and nine gripping units 191 are shown in Fig. 28 to face the nine tip side connectors W11. The "No. 4" tip side connection position P14 and gripping unit 191 correspond to the position where the above-mentioned prefabricated electric wire W21 is set in a subsequent process, and are shown by dotted lines in step S11.

[0108] In step S12, the nine rows of slide parts 12 move in the drawing direction D11. This movement is performed under the control of the amount of electric wire drawing by the control unit 27. As a result, the electric wires W18 connected to the eight tip side connectors W11 except for "No. 4" are drawn out by the required amount. For "No. 4", the empty slide part 12 moves to the set position of the tip side connector W11 of the existing electric wire W21. During drawing in this step S12, the electric wire gripping mechanisms 191a of the nine gripping units 191 are in a non-gripping state, and switch to a gripping state after drawing is completed. After drawing is completed, each slide part 12 stops while pulling the electric wire W18 in the drawing direction D11 with a force that is balanced with the gripping force of each electric wire gripping mechanism 191a in the gripping state. By applying such tension, the multiple electric wires W18 are regulated to be parallel to each other. Such parallel state is basically maintained in the following steps of the wire harness manufacturing method.

[0109] In step S12, the "No. 5" electric wire W18 is pulled out while being wound with the tape W19 by the tape winding unit 181 during pulling out of the fixed tape winding mechanism 18 for a certain period of time from the start of pulling out. As a result, when the pulling out is completed, the tape W19 is wound over a predetermined length from the tip connector W11 side. Furthermore, after the tape winding is completed, the "No. 5" electric wire W18 is pulled out by a predetermined length, and then the tape W19 is wound again in a short distance. This short distance of tape winding is a temporary fixation so that the electric wire W18 does not come apart during work in the subsequent process. After this temporary fixation, the "No. 5" electric wire W18 is pulled out until it reaches the required length.

[0110] In step S12, the "6th" and "8th" electric wires W18 are twisted by rotating the holding portion 121 of the sliding portion 12 after the required length is pulled out. Note that the pulling out of the electric wires W18 accompanied by tape winding and twisting in step S12 is appropriately performed in multiple batches to avoid interference between rows.

[0111] In step S13, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 winds the tape W19 over a predetermined length around the wire W18 after the "6th" twist. The tape winding is performed while the moving tape winding mechanism 22 is moved by the robot arm 21 from the front end connector W11 side toward the pull-out origin side. The tape winding by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 is performed together with the wire movement of the wire W18 to be wound. The wire movement here is performed by the small-scale moving part 225 of the moving tape winding mechanism 22 when the control unit 27 determines that the amount of wire to be moved is equal to or less than a predetermined amount. Hereinafter, the tape winding by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 for the wire W18 connected to the same front end connector W11 is performed together with the wire movement by the small-scale moving part 225 of the moving tape winding mechanism 22 when the amount of wire to be moved is determined to be equal to or less than a predetermined amount in any case.

[0112] In step S14, the tape W19 is wound over a predetermined length around the "No. 1" electric wire W18 from the side of the tip connector W11 by the moving tape winding mechanism 22, and the exterior material W20 is attached to the "No. 9" electric wire W18 by the exterior material attachment unit 24. The exterior material W20 is attached twice from the side of the tip connector W11 with a fixed interval between them. As a result, the exterior material W20 is attached to the "No. 9" electric wire W18 at two locations: at the side of the tip connector W11 and at a location a fixed distance away therefrom.

[0113] FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram showing steps S15 to S18 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0114] In step S15, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 winds a predetermined length of tape W19 around the "No. 3" electric wire W18 from the side of the front connector W11. Also, the exterior material W20 is attached to the "No. 8" twisted electric wire W18 by the exterior material attachment unit 24. The attachment of the exterior material W20 here is performed once from the side of the front connector W11. Also, in step S15, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 fixes the "No. 9" exterior material W20 by winding tape. Winding tape around this exterior material W20 continues until step S17.

[0115] In step S16, a predetermined length of tape W19 is wound around the No. 2 electric wire W18 from the front connector W11 side by the moving tape winding mechanism 22. Also in step S16, the No. 8 exterior material W20 is fixed by tape winding by the moving tape winding mechanism 22, and tape winding by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 is continued for the No. 9 exterior material W20. Tape winding for the No. 8 exterior material W20 is also continued up to step S17 together with tape winding for the No. 9 exterior material W20.

[0116] In step S17, the fixing clips W17 are attached to the electric wires W18 No. 3 and No. 5 from above the tape W19 by the clip attachment portion 23. Here, one fixing clip W17 is attached to each electric wire W18. In addition, the tape wrapping around the exterior materials W20 No. 8 and No. 9 is completed in step S17.

[0117] In step S18, the fixing clips W17 are attached to the "6th" electric wire W18 from above the tape W19 by the clip attachment portion 23. Here, two fixing clips W17 are attached to the "6th" electric wire W18.

[0118] FIG. 30 is a schematic diagram showing steps S19 to S22 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0119] In step S19, the portions of the electric wires W18 connected to the different end connectors W11, "No. 2" and "No. 3", on which the tape W19 is wound, are bundled together by further winding the tape W19. The tape winding here is performed together with the electric wires W18 of the different end connectors W11, but here, it is determined that the amount of electric wire is equal to or less than a predetermined amount, and the tape winding is performed together with the electric wires being moved by the small-scale moving unit 225 of the moving tape winding mechanism 22. Then, one branch is formed by the tape winding here.

[0120] During this wire movement, at least one of the slide parts 12, "No. 2" and "No. 3", moves toward the pull-out origin side, and the holding part 121 rotates to direct the tip connector W11 toward the branch point. These operations of the slide part 12 relieve the tension applied to each electric wire W18 by the wire movement.

[0121] In step S19, for the "No. 9" electric wire W18, fixing clips W17 are attached from above the two exterior materials W20 by the clip attachment portions 23. Here, two fixing clips W17 are attached to each exterior material W20.

[0122] In step S20, on the drawing source side, the six rear end side connectors W12 are carried to the rear end side connection position P16 by the rear end side connector moving part 163. At this time, for "No. 4", the empty rear end side connector moving part 163 moves to a position facing the slide part 12.

[0123] In step S21, the prefabricated electric wire W21 is carried to the "No. 4" set position by the prefabricated electric wire placing unit 25. Then, at this set position, the front end connector W11 of the prefabricated electric wire W21 is set in the holding unit 121 of the sliding unit 12, and the rear end connector W12 is set in the rear end connector moving unit 163. Also, in step S21, the "No. 6" and "No. 8" electric wires W18 twisted when the electric wires were drawn out in step S12 are twisted again by rotating the holding unit 121.

[0124] In step S22, the external packaging material W20 is attached to each of the "No. 4" prefabricated electric wire W21 and the "No. 7" electric wire W18 by the external packaging material attaching unit 24. The attachment of the external packaging material W20 here is performed once from the side of each of the tip-side connectors W11.

[0125] FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram showing steps S23 to S25 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0126] In step S23, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 fixes the "4th" and "7th" exterior materials W20 by winding tape.

[0127] In step S24, the surplus length of the "No. 5" electric wire W18 is pulled out by rotating the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a in the gripping unit 191. The temporary fastening formed by wrapping the tape W19 in the above-mentioned step S12 holds the electric wire W18 so that it does not come apart when the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a rotates to pull out the surplus length.

[0128] In step S25, the rear end connector connecting portion 172 of the connector connecting portion 17 connects and disconnects the electric wires W18 to each of the six rear end connectors W12 brought to the rear end connecting position P16 in step S20. Here, in this embodiment, the electric wires W18 connected to the different front end connectors W11, namely "No. 1" and "No. 2", are connected to one rear end connector W12. Similarly, the electric wires W18, namely "No. 5" and "No. 6", and the electric wires W18, namely "No. 7" and "No. 8", are also connected to one rear end connector W12. The connection and disconnection of the electric wires W18 from the different front end connectors W11 to one rear end connector W12 is performed in two separate steps as follows.

[0129] First, after the rear end connector connecting portion 172 has completed connecting and disconnecting the electric wire W18 of one front end connector W11 to one rear end connector W12, the rear end connector moving portion 163 moves the rear end connector W12. That is, the rear end connector moving portion 163 moves the rear end connector W12 to which the electric wire W18 of one front end connector W11 is connected, so as to move it closer to the adjacent rear end connection position P16 where it can be connected to the adjacent electric wire W18 extending to the other adjacent front end connector W11. After this moving closer, the adjacent electric wire W18 is connected to the rear end connector W12 and disconnected. Such two connections and disconnections are performed for each of the electric wires W18, "No. 1" and "No. 2", the electric wires W18, "No. 5" and "No. 6", and the electric wires W18, "No. 7" and "No. 8".

[0130] FIG. 32 is a schematic diagram showing steps S26 to S29 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0131] In step S26, the "5" and "6" electric wires W18 connected to one rear end connector W12 are bundled by wire gathering, and a predetermined length of tape W19 is wound around the electric wires W18 by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 toward the pull-out origin side. The tape winding here is performed by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 winding the tape W19 over a part of the end side of the tape W19 already wound around each electric wire W18, while moving further toward the pull-out origin side. This tape winding is also performed together with the electric wire gathering by the small-scale gathering part 225 of the moving tape winding mechanism 22, when it is determined that the amount of electric wire is equal to or less than a predetermined amount. Then, one branch is formed by the tape winding here. Also, when the electric wires W18 are gathered here, the tension applied to each electric wire W18 is relieved by the movement of the sliding part 12 and the rotation of the holding part 121.

[0132] In step S26, the "7th" and "8th" electric wires W18 connected to one rear end connector W12 are bundled by wire gathering, and tape W19 is locally wrapped around the joining points near the ends of each exterior material 20. This local tape wrapping is also performed by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 together with the wire gathering by the small-scale gathering section 225, as it is determined that the amount of electric wire is equal to or less than a predetermined amount. This tape wrapping also forms one branch. The wire gathering here is also performed in a state where the tension applied to each electric wire W18 is relaxed by the movement of the sliding section 12 and the rotation of the holding section 121, as in the cases of "5th" and "6th".

[0133] In step S27, the electric wires W18 No. 1 to No. 6 are moved, and the exterior material W20 is attached to the electric wires W18 No. 7 and No. 8 connected to one rear end connector W12 at a position away from the branch point.

[0134] The wire movement of the electric wires W18 of "No. 1" to "No. 6" is performed by the large-scale moving unit 20, not the small-scale moving unit 225, of the moving tape winding mechanism 22, when the control unit 27 determines that the amount of wire to be moved exceeds a predetermined amount. The moved portion becomes one branch point. During this large-scale wire movement, substantially all of the slide units 12 of "No. 1" to "No. 6" move toward the pull-out origin, and each of the holding units 121 rotates to direct each of the tip-side connectors W11 toward the branch point. These operations of the slide units 12 relieve the tension applied to each of the electric wires W18 by the large-scale wire movement.

[0135] Moreover, the attachment of the exterior material W20 to the electric wires W18 of "No. 7" and "No. 8" is performed once by the exterior material attachment portion 24.

[0136] In step S28, the "1st" to "6th" electric wires W18 brought together in step S27 are wound with tape from the branch point side to the pull-out origin side by the moving tape winding mechanism 22. The tape winding here is performed by winding the tape W19 over a part of the tape W19 already wound around each electric wire W18 on the branch point side while the moving tape winding mechanism 22 moves further toward the pull-out origin side.

[0137] In step S28, the "7th" and "8th" electric wires W18 connected to one rear end connector W12 are fixed to the outer casing W20 attached in step S27 by wrapping the tape W19 around it by the moving tape winding mechanism 22. This tape winding around the outer casing W20 continues until the next step S29.

[0138] In step S29, for the electric wires W18 No. 1 to No. 6 that were wrapped with tape in step S28, the external material W20 is attached from above the tape W19 by the external material attachment section 24. This attachment of the external material W20 is performed once, starting from the vicinity of the branch point of the electric wire W18. Also, in this step S29, the wrapping of tape around the external material W20 for the electric wires W18 No. 7 and No. 8 continuing from step S28 is completed.

[0139] FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram showing steps S30 to S33 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0140] In step S30, the first to sixth electric wires W18 are fixed to the exterior packaging material W20 by wrapping the tape W19 around them by the moving tape wrapping mechanism 22. This wrapping of the tape around the exterior packaging material W20 continues until step S32.

[0141] In step S30, the electric wires W18 No. 7 to No. 9 are moved near the ends of the tape wound around the electric wires W18 No. 7 and No. 8. The moving of the electric wires W18 is performed by the small-scale moving unit 225 of the moving tape winding mechanism 22 when the control unit 27 determines that the amount of the electric wires to be moved is equal to or less than a predetermined amount. Also, during this moving of the electric wires W18, the movement of the sliding unit 12 and the rotation of the holding unit 121 reduce the tension applied to each electric wire W18.

[0142] In step S31, for the "7th" to "9th" electric wires W18, the tape W19 is wound over a portion of the tape W19 already wound around each electric wire W18 on the branch point side, and the tape is further wound toward the drawing origin side. The tape winding here is also performed by the moving tape winding mechanism 22.

[0143] In step S32, for the "No. 7" to "No. 9" electric wires W18, the external material W20 is attached by the external material attachment section 24 from above the tape W19 wrapped by the tape winding in step S31. The attachment of this external material W20 is performed once, starting from the vicinity of the branch point of the electric wire W18. Also, in this step S32, the winding of the tape W19 around the external material W20 of the "No. 1" to "No. 6" electric wires W18 continuing from step S30 is completed.

[0144] In step S33, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 fixes the "7th" to "9th" electric wires W18 attached in step S32 by winding the tape W19 around the exterior covering W20.

[0145] FIG. 34 is a schematic diagram showing steps S34 to S37 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0146] In step S34, the portions of the electric wires W18 No. 1 to No. 6 and the electric wires W18 No. 7 to No. 9 around which the tape W19 is wound are brought together to form a branch. The wires are brought together by the large-scale bringing-up unit 20 when it is determined that the amount of electric wires exceeds a predetermined amount. The brought-up portion becomes one branch point. During this large-scale wire bringing-up, substantially all of the slide parts 12 No. 1 to No. 9 move toward the pull-out origin side, and each of the holding parts 121 rotates to direct each of the tip-side connectors W11 toward the branch point. These operations of the slide part 12 relieve the tension applied to each of the electric wires W18 by the large-scale wire bringing-up.

[0147] In step S35, tape W19 is wound over the tape W19 already wound around each of the electric wires W18 from the branch points of the "No. 1" to "No. 9" electric wires W18 toward the pull-out origin side. The tape winding here is also performed by the moving tape winding mechanism 22. The tape winding in step S35 determines the branch shape of the wire harness W1 shown in FIG. 3.

[0148] In step S36, for the electric wires W18 "No. 1" to "No. 9", the exterior material W20 is attached from above the tape W19 wrapped in step S35 by the exterior material attachment section 24. This attachment of the exterior material W20 is performed only once from the branch point of the electric wire W18.

[0149] In step S36, a further exterior material W20 is attached to the portion between the branch point of the "7th" and "8th" electric wires W18 on the tip connector W11 side and the exterior material W20 on the branch point side with the "9th" electric wire W18. The attachment of this exterior material W20 is also performed only once by the exterior material attachment section 24 from the branch point on the tip connector W11 side.

[0150] In step S37, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 fixes the first to ninth electric wires W18 attached in step S36 to the exterior covering materials W20 by winding the tape W19 therearound. The moving tape winding mechanism 22 also fixes the seventh and eighth electric wires W18 attached in step S36 to the exterior covering materials W20 by winding the tape W19 therearound.

[0151] FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram showing steps S38 to S40 of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness shown in FIG. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS.

[0152] In step S38, for the electric wires W18 No. 7 and No. 8, one fixing clip W17 is attached from above each of the two exterior materials W20. These two fixing clips W17 are attached by the clip attachment portion 23.

[0153] In step S39, two fixing clips W17 are attached to the electric wires W18 No. 1 to No. 6 by the clip attachment portion 23. One fixing clip W17 is attached from above the exterior material W20 in the vicinity of the branching point of the electric wires W18 No. 1 to No. 6. The other fixing clip W17 is attached from above the tape W19 wound between this exterior material W20 and the branching point of the electric wires W18 No. 7 to No. 9.

[0154] In step S40, four fixing clips W17 are attached to the electric wires W18 of "No. 7" to "No. 9" by the clip attachment portion 23. Three fixing clips W17 are attached from above the exterior material W20 in the vicinity of the branching point of the electric wires W18 of "No. 7" to "No. 9". The other fixing clip W17 is attached from above the tape W19 wound between the exterior material W20 and the branching point of the electric wires W18 of "No. 1" to "No. 6". With the attachment of the fixing clips W17 in step S40, the wire harness W1 shown in FIG. 3 is completed. The completed wire harness W1 is held by the payout portion 26, and the nine front end connectors W11 and the six rear end connectors W12 are collectively removed from the holding portion 121 and the rear end connector moving portion 163 of the slide portion 12. Then, the wire harness W1 is carried onto a table of the delivery destination 26a and delivered by the movement of the delivery unit 26 by the robot arm 21. This is the end of the wire harness manufacturing method for manufacturing the wire harness W1 shown in Fig. 3 by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

[0155] In this embodiment, as described above, after the electric wire W18 is pulled out in step S12, each slide portion 12 pulls the electric wire W18 in the pulling-out direction D11 to apply tension to the electric wire W18. In the wire harness production apparatus 1, the control unit 27 controls the tension thus applied as follows during the execution of the wire harness production method.

[0156] FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram showing steps S51 and S52 of a method for controlling tension of electric wires, which is performed under the control of the control unit during execution of the wire harness manufacturing method shown in FIGS.

[0157] FIG. 36 shows a schematic diagram of a component part that functions as a tension control device 2 that controls the tension applied to the electric wire W18 drawn out from the electric wire reel 111 during the wire harness manufacturing method in the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1. The tension control device 2 in the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 includes a slide part 12 that moves linearly by driving a servo motor 32, and a control part 27. The slide part 12 is a part that holds the electric wire end part of the electric wire W18 that can be drawn out from the electric wire reel 111 via the tip side connector W11 and draws out the electric wire W18 by moving linearly. The control part 27 controls the amount of electric wire drawn out by the movement of the slide part 12, and performs the following control on the tension of the electric wire W18. That is, the control part 27 obtains the driving force of the servo motor 32 as an index indicating the tension of the electric wire W18, compares the driving force as the index with a predetermined reference value when the slide part 12 is stopped, and controls the tension of the electric wire W18 by moving the slide part 12 according to the comparison result.

[0158] Step S51 shown in FIG. 36 corresponds to the drawing of the electric wire W18 in step S12 in FIG. 28. In this step S51, the servo motor 32 drives the slide portion 12 to move in the drawing direction D11, thereby drawing out the electric wire W18. At this time, under the control of the control unit 27, the servo motor 32 drives the slide portion 12 with the following driving force F11. This driving force F11 is a force required for the slide portion 12 to draw out the electric wire W18 from the electric wire reel 111 via the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a in the non-gripping state. Furthermore, when drawing out the electric wire W18, the control unit 27 controls the amount of electric wire drawn out by the linear movement of the slide portion 12. This amount of drawing out is acquired by the control unit 27 based on the number of rotations of the servo motor 32 and the like. The control unit 27 stops the multiple slide portions 12 at the timing when they have moved an amount of movement corresponding to each amount of electric wire drawing out.

[0159] In step S52, the drawing of the electric wire W18 is completed, and the sliding portion 12 is stopped. In this stopped state, the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a is in a gripping state, and the sliding portion 12 pulls the electric wire W18 in the drawing direction D11 with a balancing force F12 that balances the gripping force of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a. This pulling by the sliding portion 12 with the balancing force F12 applies a predetermined tension to the electric wire W18. In this embodiment, a value corresponding to the gripping force of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a is used as a reference value.

[0160] FIG. 37 is a schematic diagram showing steps S53 to S55 of a method for controlling tension of electric wires, which is performed under the control of the control unit during execution of the wire harness manufacturing method shown in FIGS.

[0161] Figure 37 illustrates an example of a situation in which the tension of the electric wire W18 increases when the slide section 12 stops in the tension control device 2 of the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1, in which the electric wire W18 is pulled by being gathered by the large-scale gathering section 20.

[0162] In step S53, the large-scale gathering unit 20 starts to gather the electric wire W18 from the electric wire reel 111 while the sliding unit 12 is pulling the electric wire W18 from the electric wire reel 111 with a counterbalancing force F12 against the gripping force of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a. In this embodiment, the large-scale gathering unit 20 and the small-scale gathering unit 225 in the moving tape winding mechanism 22 that performs similar wire gathering are bundling units that gather a plurality of electric wires W18. In the following, the large-scale gathering unit 20 is taken as an example of the bundling unit to continue the explanation.

[0163] When bundling is performed by the large-scale gathering section 20, the wire W18 is pulled and the tension temporarily increases, and accordingly, the output of the servo motor 32 that drives the sliding section 12 temporarily increases from the above-mentioned balancing force F12 to an upward driving force F13. In this embodiment, the control section 27 sets a reference value used for tension control to a value smaller than the driving force of the servo motor 32 that temporarily increases due to bundling by the large-scale gathering section 20 and the small-scale gathering section 225. When the upward driving force F13 in the unwinding direction D11 eventually exceeds the reference value, the process in the control section 27 proceeds to the next step S54.

[0164] In step S54, the control unit 27 moves the slide unit 12 in a tension relaxation direction D32 opposite to the pull-out direction D11 of the electric wire W18 by a relaxation distance L11 longer than the distance required for the driving force of the servo motor 32 to fall below the reference value. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the control unit 27 rotates the holding unit 121 of the slide unit 12 in a tension relaxation rotation direction in which the index decreases with respect to the rotation direction D14 shown in FIG. 5. This tension relaxation rotation direction is a direction in which the holding unit 121 is directed toward the convergence point of the electric wire W18. As a result, the electric wire W18 from the wire reel 111 becomes slack while passing through the large-scale gathering unit 20 between the slide unit 12 and the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a. After this movement, the process proceeds to the next step S55.

[0165] In step S55, which is processing after the above-mentioned movement, the control unit 27 moves the sliding unit 12 in the unwinding direction D11 to a position where the sliding unit 12 stops while pulling the electric wire W18 with a balancing force F12 that balances the gripping force of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a. As a result, the electric wire W18 from the electric wire reel 111 is stretched with a predetermined tension between the sliding unit 12 and the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a while passing through the large-scale gathering unit 20. Processing such as tape winding during bundling by the large-scale gathering unit 20 is performed in this state in which the electric wire W18 is stretched.

[0166] Here, in this embodiment, the control unit 27 may retract the sliding part 12 to a predetermined retracted position in the tension relaxation direction D32 after the electric wire W18 is pulled out by the movement of the sliding part 12. This retraction is performed to avoid interference with a mechanical device carried by the robot arm 21 to perform processing such as tape winding on the electric wire W18 pulled out by another sliding part 12.

[0167] FIG. 38 is a schematic diagram showing steps S56 and S57 of the wire tension control method performed under the control of the control unit during execution of the wire harness manufacturing method shown in FIGS.

[0168] FIG. 37 shows a schematic diagram of a retraction process of the slide portion 12 performed by the control portion 27 constituting the tension control device 2 in the wire harness production apparatus 1 of the present embodiment as a part of the tension control method.

[0169] In step S56 of this retraction process, when the retraction period during which the approach of other device mechanisms is expected arrives, the control unit 27 controls the servo motor 32 to retract the sliding part 12 to a predetermined retraction position P17 in the tension relaxation direction D32. Due to this retraction, the electric wire W18 from the electric wire reel 111 becomes significantly slack between the sliding part 12 and the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a. Then, when the retraction period ends, the process proceeds to the next step S57.

[0170] In step S57, the control unit 27 moves the sliding part 12 in the drawing-out direction D11 to return the sliding part 12 to the equilibrium position P18 before the retraction. By this return of the sliding part 12, the electric wire W18 from the electric wire reel 111 becomes in a state of being stretched with a predetermined tension between the sliding part 12 and the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a.

[0171] In this embodiment, the tension control method including the retraction process is performed in parallel under the control of the control unit while the wire harness manufacturing method shown in Figs. 28 to 35 is being performed.

[0172] According to the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1, the wire harness manufacturing method, the wire harness W1, the tension control device 2, and the tension control method of the embodiment described above, the following effects can be achieved from various viewpoints.

[0173] First, the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1, the wire harness manufacturing method, and the wire harness W1 of the present embodiment have the following configuration from the viewpoint of branch formation by winding tape around the electric wires W18, and can achieve the effects of the configuration.

[0174] In the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the pulled-out tape winding section 181 in the fixed tape winding mechanism 18 and the moving tape winding mechanism 22 function as a leading tape winding section as described below. This leading tape winding section is a section that winds tape around the electric wires W18 connected to the same leading connector W11 among the plurality of leading connectors W11 and electric wires W18 prepared for manufacturing the wire harness W1. The moving tape winding mechanism 22 that winds tape around the electric wires W18 that are the target of wire gathering functions as a trailing tape winding section as described below. The trailing tape winding section is a section that forms a branch by winding tape around portions of the electric wires W18 that are connected to different leading connectors W11, the portions being individually tape-wound by the leading tape winding section.

[0175] In the wire harness manufacturing method shown in Figs. 28 to 35, the processes of steps S12 to S16 in which the pulling-out tape winding unit 181 and the moving tape winding mechanism 22 function as a leading tape winding unit are a leading tape winding process. The leading tape winding process is a process of winding tape around the electric wire W18 connected to the same front end connector W11. In addition, steps S19, S26, S28, S31, and S35 in which the moving tape winding mechanism 22 functions as a trailing tape winding process are a trailing tape winding process. The trailing tape winding process is a process of winding tape around already tape-wound portions of the electric wire W18 connected to different front end connectors W11 to form a branch.

[0176] According to the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and the wire harness manufacturing method of the present embodiment having such a configuration, first, the electric wires W18 connected to the same end connector W11 are tape-wound in advance. Then, the electric wires W18 connected to a different end connector W11 and already tape-wound in advance are tape-wound. By these two tape winding steps of the leading and trailing steps, the formation of the branch shape and the shape determination by tape winding are performed simultaneously in parallel. These operations can be performed without any particular skill as long as the leading and trailing steps are followed, so that they can be effectively automated. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is an automatic manufacturing apparatus based on this point. Thus, according to the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and the wire harness manufacturing method described above, the operations from the formation of the branch shape to the shape determination by tape winding can be performed automatically.

[0177] In this embodiment, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 as the trailing tape winding unit winds tape W19 over the tape W19 wound by the pulled-out tape winding unit 181 as the leading tape winding unit or the moving tape winding mechanism 22. This configuration makes it easier for the trailing tape winding unit to wind tape, compared to, for example, a case in which the trailing tape winding unit is caused to avoid the tape W19 wound by the leading tape winding unit. In view of the ease with which the trailing tape winding unit can wind tape, the above series of operations can be automated more effectively.

[0178] In this embodiment, the slide portion 12 is provided to pull out the electric wire W18. The leading tape winding section includes a moving tape winding mechanism 22 that functions as a during-pulling tape winding section 181 that winds the electric wire W18 while it is being pulled out and a post-pulling tape winding section that winds the electric wire W18 after it has been pulled out. The trailing tape winding section winds the already-wound portions of the electric wire W18 after it has been pulled out. With this configuration, tape winding is performed at the timings during and after the pulling out by the slide portion 12, so that the operations from forming the branch shape to determining the shape by tape winding can be performed automatically and more effectively. Furthermore, the operation time can be shortened by winding the tape at the timings during and after the pulling out.

[0179] In this embodiment, the during-pulling tape winding unit 181 winds the tape without moving, and the after-pulling tape winding unit and the trailing tape winding unit by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 move along the electric wire W18 to wind the tape. With this configuration, part of the tape winding is a task that does not involve movement, and therefore the mechanism related to the tape winding can be simplified accordingly.

[0180] In this embodiment, the post-pulling tape winding section and the trailing tape winding section of the moving tape winding mechanism 22 wind the tape while moving from the front side to the rear side in the pulling-out direction D11 of the electric wire W18. According to this configuration, the tip side connector W11 and the like located on the front side in the pulling-out direction D11 can be used as a reference for starting winding the tape.

[0181] In this embodiment, an exterior material attachment section 24 is provided for attaching the exterior material W20, and the post-pulling tape winding section and the trailing tape winding section of the moving tape winding mechanism 22 also wind the tape to fix the exterior material W20 to the electric wire W18. According to this configuration, the work from attaching to fixing the exterior material W20 can be performed automatically without human intervention.

[0182] In this embodiment, the robot arm 21 grasps the moving tape winding mechanism 22, carries it to the winding position of the tape W19, and moves it according to the tape winding work, thereby causing the tape winding mechanism 22 to operate as a post-pulling tape winding unit and a trailing tape winding unit. According to this configuration, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 is carried by the robot arm 21 to the winding position of the tape W19 and moved appropriately to form the post-pulling tape winding unit and the trailing tape winding unit. Therefore, the device configuration of the wire harness production apparatus 1 can be simplified compared to mounting the post-pulling tape winding unit and the trailing tape winding unit as separate mechanisms.

[0183] In this embodiment, at least one of the slide parts 12 (all of the slide parts 12 in this embodiment) rotates the tip connector W11 about the twist axis X12 after the electric wire W18 is pulled out, thereby twisting the electric wire W18. Then, among the preceding tape winding parts, the post-pulling tape winding part by the moving tape winding mechanism 22 winds tape around the twisted electric wire W18 as one of the winding targets. With this configuration, the wire harness W1 including the twisted electric wire W18 can also be automatically subjected to the operations from forming the branch shape to determining the shape by tape winding.

[0184] In this embodiment, a plurality of in-pulling tape winding portions 181 are provided so as to be aligned in a direction D13 perpendicular to the pulling direction D11 of the electric wire W18. Then, each in-pulling tape winding portion 181 rotates the tape reel 181a around each electric wire W18, and winds the tape W19 pulled out from the tape reel 181a around each electric wire W18. With this configuration, the plurality of in-pulling tape winding portions 181 can simultaneously and in parallel wind the tape around the electric wires W18 being pulled out by the plurality of slide portions 12.

[0185] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the multiple in-drawer tape winding sections 181 rotate the tape reels 181a in the same reel rotation direction D28. With this configuration, the reel rotation direction D28 of the tape reels 181a is the same between the multiple in-drawer tape winding sections 181, so it is possible to reduce the spacing between the multiple in-drawer tape winding sections 181 while avoiding interference between them. Furthermore, since the spacing can be reduced, it is possible to arrange the multiple in-drawer tape winding sections 181 side by side while preventing the device from becoming larger.

[0186] In this embodiment, a clip attachment portion 23 is provided. According to this configuration, the attachment work of the fixing clip W17 can also be performed automatically.

[0187] Moreover, the wire harness W1 manufactured by the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and the wire harness manufacturing method of the present embodiment has a branch wire tape-wound portion on the side of each tip connector W11, which forms a branch wire. This branch wire tape-wound portion is a portion where the electric wires W18 connected to the same tip connector W11 are wound with tape. The branch wire tape-wound portions are further wound with tape to form a branch, which is the branch tape-wound portion.

[0188] The above-mentioned wire harness W1 can be manufactured by a two-stage tape winding process, in which the branch wires are first wrapped around the branch wires, and then wrapped around the branch wires to form the branch. These operations can be performed without any special skill as long as the two-stage tape winding procedure is followed, and therefore can be effectively automated. Therefore, the above-mentioned wire harness W1 can be manufactured by automatically performing the operations from the formation of the branch shape to the determination of the shape by tape winding.

[0189] Next, the wire harness production apparatus 1 and the wire harness production method of the present embodiment have the following configuration from the viewpoint of performing a production operation while regulating the electric wires W18 in a parallel state, and can achieve the effects of this configuration.

[0190] In the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 of this embodiment, the comb-tooth-shaped electric wire gripping mechanism 191a and the multiple slide parts 12 that pull out the electric wire W18 and pull it while applying appropriate tension function as a parallel regulating part. The parallel regulating part is a part that regulates the multiple prepared electric wires to be in a parallel state. In addition, the pull-out tape winding part 181 in the fixed tape winding mechanism 18 and the moving tape winding mechanism 22 function as a leading bundling part that selects and bundles some of the multiple electric wires W18 before branch formation. In addition, the moving tape winding mechanism 22 functions as a trailing bundling part that further bundles the parts bundled by the leading bundling part to form a branch.

[0191] In the wire harness manufacturing method shown in Figs. 28 to 35, the process from step S12 in which the electric wires W18 are drawn out in a parallel state to immediately before step S30 in which the parallel state of all the electric wires W18 is broken, that is, up to step 29, is a parallel regulating process. The parallel regulating process is a process of regulating the plurality of electric wires W18 to be in a parallel state. In addition, each step in steps S12 to S16 in which the drawing-out tape winding unit 181 and the moving tape winding mechanism 22 function as a preceding bundling unit is a preceding bundling process in which some of the electric wires W18 of the plurality of electric wires W18 are selected and bundled. In addition, each of steps S19, S26, S28, S31, and S35 in which the moving tape winding mechanism 22 functions as a following tape winding unit is a following bundling process. The following bundling process is a process in which the parts bundled in the preceding bundling process are further bundled together to form a branch.

[0192] According to the above-mentioned wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and wire harness manufacturing method, the manufacturing of the wire harness W1 is started by restricting the plurality of electric wires W18 to a parallel state, which does not require skilled work such as arranging the electric wires W18 in a branched shape, and can be performed mechanically. After that, through two stages of bundling, the formation of the branched shape and the shape determination by bundling are simultaneously performed in parallel. These two stages of bundling can also be performed mechanically without requiring any particular skill as long as the procedure is followed. In this way, the formation of the branched shape and the shape determination performed through the two stages of bundling from the parallel state can both be performed mechanically, so they can be effectively automated. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is an automatic manufacturing apparatus based on this point. Thus, according to the above-mentioned wire harness manufacturing apparatus and wire harness manufacturing method, the work from the formation of the branched shape to the shape determination by bundling can be performed automatically.

[0193] In this embodiment, the parallel regulating portion constituted by the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a and the sliding portion 12 regulates the electric wires W18 to be parallel in the air. This configuration increases the degree of freedom of access to the electric wires W18 in subsequent bundling, as compared with a configuration in which a wiring board or the like is provided on which the electric wires W18 are placed and fixed in a parallel state, and the direction of access to the electric wires W18 can be optimized.

[0194] In the present embodiment, the parallel restriction portion formed by the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a and the sliding portion 12 restricts the electric wires W18 from both sides of the air space in the longitudinal direction of the electric wires W18. This configuration can further increase the degree of freedom of access to the electric wires W18 during bundling, as compared to a configuration in which the electric wires W18 are supported at multiple points in the longitudinal direction and restricted to a parallel state.

[0195] In the present embodiment, in the wire harness manufacturing method, the parallel regulating step of steps S12 to S29 is performed as follows. That is, in the present embodiment, the parallel regulating step is performed in parallel during the preceding bundling step of steps S12 to S16 and the following bundling step of steps S19, S26, and S28. According to this configuration, the parallel regulating step is performed in parallel during the preceding bundling step and the following bundling step, so that it is possible to effectively prevent the electric wires from being carelessly loosened and entangled during the formation of the branch shape.

[0196] Next, in this embodiment, the wire harness production apparatus 1 includes the tension control device 2, and the wire harness production method includes a tension control method, so that the present embodiment has the following configuration and can achieve the effects of the configuration.

[0197] First, the tension control device 2 of this embodiment includes a slide part 12 that moves linearly while holding an end of the electric wire, and a control part 27. The control part 27 controls the amount of electric wire pulled out, and obtains the driving force of the servo motor 32 that drives the slide part 12 as an index showing the tension of the electric wire W18. Then, when the slide part 12 is stopped, the control part 27 compares the driving force as an index with a predetermined reference value, and moves the slide part 12 according to the comparison result.

[0198] The wire harness production apparatus 1 of the present embodiment includes the above-mentioned tension control device 2, and a working mechanism that performs the work of manufacturing the wire harness W1 on the electric wire W18 in a state in which the tension is controlled by the tension control device 2. In the present embodiment, a plurality of components of the wire harness production apparatus 1 shown in Fig. 2 , excluding the tension control device 2 shown in Fig. 36 , function as the above-mentioned working mechanism.

[0199] 36 to 38, step S51 of the tension control method of this embodiment is a pull-out amount control process for controlling the amount of pull-out of the electric wire by linearly moving the sliding portion 12. Then, the subsequent steps S52 to S57 are movement control processes for comparing the driving force of the servo motor 32, which is an index of the tension, with a reference value when the sliding portion is stopped, and moving the sliding portion 12 according to the comparison result.

[0200] The wire harness manufacturing method of the present embodiment includes a tension control process (steps S51 to S57) for controlling the tension of the electric wires by the above-mentioned tension control method, and a work process (steps S11 to S40) for performing a manufacturing work of the wire harness.

[0201] The tension control device 2, the wire harness manufacturing device 1, the tension control method, and the wire harness manufacturing method of the present embodiment described above can provide the following effects. That is, according to the present embodiment, when the slide portion 12 is stopped after the electric wire W18 is pulled out by a desired amount, the control portion 27 controls the movement of the slide portion 12 according to a comparison result between an index indicating the tension of the electric wire W18 and a predetermined reference value. This control of the movement of the slide portion 12 enables an operation such as moving the slide portion 12 in a direction to relieve the tension when an excessive tension exceeding the reference value is likely to be applied to the electric wire W18 when the slide portion 12 is stopped, and the tension applied to the electric wire W18 can be suppressed. Moreover, the configuration required for such tension control is the electric wire pull-out configuration and the control configuration thereof. Thus, according to the present embodiment, the tension applied to the electric wire can be suppressed with a simple configuration.

[0202] In this embodiment, the slide portion 12 is configured to move linearly while carrying the tip connector W11 to which the electric wire end is connected. With this configuration, when handling an electric wire W18 having the tip connector W11 connected to the electric wire end, the tip connector W11, which has better holding properties than the electric wire itself, can effectively hold the electric wire end and control the tension.

[0203] In this embodiment, the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a is provided on the pull-out origin side of the electric wire W18, and the sliding part 12 pulls out the electric wire W18 when the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a is in a non-gripping state. When the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a is in a gripping state, the sliding part 12 pulls the electric wire W18 in the pull-out direction D11 with a force that balances the gripping force of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a, and stops while applying tension. Then, the control part 27 uses a value corresponding to the gripping force of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a as a reference value. According to this configuration, the electric wire W18 is pulled with a force that balances the gripping force on the pull-out origin side, so that work on the electric wire W18 can be performed when the sliding part 12 is stopped under good workability in which an appropriate tension is applied to the electric wire W18.

[0204] In this embodiment, a plurality of slide units 12 are provided so as to move in parallel with each other. Between the slide unit 12 and the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a, the large-scale gathering unit 20 and the small-scale gathering unit 225 of the moving tape winding mechanism 22 are provided as a gathering unit for gathering the electric wires W18. In the control unit 27, the reference value of the tension control is set to be smaller than an index that temporarily increases due to gathering by the gathering unit. According to this configuration, even if the tension temporarily increases when gathering the electric wires W18 for bundling or the like, the tension is reflected in advance in the reference value for the tension control, so that the increase in tension can be effectively suppressed.

[0205] In addition, in this embodiment, when the tension index exceeds a reference value, the control unit 27 moves the slide unit 12 in the tension relaxation direction D32 by a relaxation distance L11 that is longer than the distance required for the index to fall below the reference value. Furthermore, after the movement, the control unit 27 moves the slide unit 12 in the pull-out direction D11 to a position where the electric wire W18 is stopped while being pulled by a balancing force F12 against the gripping force of the electric wire gripping mechanism 191a. According to this configuration, when the index exceeds the reference value, the slide unit 12 is first moved by the above-mentioned long relaxation distance L11, and the tension of the electric wire W18 is significantly suppressed. After that, the slide unit 12 moves to a position where the electric wire W18 is stopped while being pulled by the balancing force F12, so that the electric wire W18 is tensioned with an appropriate tension. In this way, according to the above configuration, it is possible to effectively achieve both rapid relaxation when the tension increases and ensuring good workability for the electric wire W18 thereafter.

[0206] Furthermore, in this embodiment, when a predetermined retraction period arrives, the control unit 27 retracts the sliding part 12 to a predetermined retraction position in the tension relaxation direction D32, and when the retraction period ends, the control unit 27 returns the sliding part 12 in the pull-out direction D12 to the position before retraction. According to this configuration, for example, when the sliding part 12 or the electric wire W18 stretched by the sliding part 12 interferes with peripheral work, the sliding part 12 can be retracted together with the electric wire W18, so that the peripheral work can be performed with good workability.

[0207] In this embodiment, the slide portion 12 includes a holding portion 121 and a slide main body portion 122. When the index exceeds a reference value, the control portion 27 moves the slide main body portion 122 in the tension relaxation direction D32 and rotates the holding portion 121 in the tension relaxation rotation direction of the rotation directions D14 shown in Fig. 5. With this configuration, when the index exceeds the reference value, the movement of the slide main body portion 122 in the tension relaxation direction D32 and the rotation of the holding portion 121 in the tension relaxation rotation direction can more effectively suppress the tension of the electric wire W18.

[0208] Next, the present embodiment has the following configuration from the viewpoint of forming a branch by drawing out the electric wires at the sliding portion 12, and can achieve the effects of this configuration.

[0209] The wire harness production apparatus 1 of the present embodiment includes a plurality of slide parts 12 each mounted with a tip side connector W11 connected to an electric wire W18 and moved linearly. A moving tape winding mechanism 22 functions as a branch forming part that selectively bundles the electric wires W18 drawn out by the plurality of slide parts 12 to form a branch. A control part 27 controls the amount of electric wire drawn out and the branching operation.

[0210] 28 to 35, step S12 is an electric wire drawing process in which the electric wires W18 are drawn out while controlling the drawing amount of each of the electric wires W18 by linearly moving a plurality of slide parts 12. Also, the process from step S19, where branching begins, to step S35, where the branch shape is finally determined, is a branch forming process in which the plurality of electric wires W18 are selectively bound together to form the branch.

[0211] According to the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and the wire harness manufacturing method of the present embodiment, skilled work such as arranging the electric wires W18 in a branched shape is not required. Then, the linear movement of the multiple slide parts 12, each of which holds the tip-side connector W11, and the branch formation after the movement are performed, from the formation of the branched shape to the determination of the shape by bundling. This series of operations can be performed mechanically without requiring any particular skill as long as the procedures are followed, and the operations are performed under predetermined control in consideration of this point. In other words, according to the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and the wire harness manufacturing method described above, the operations from the formation of the branched shape to the determination of the shape by bundling can be performed automatically.

[0212] In this embodiment, a rear-end connector connecting portion 172 is provided that cuts the electric wire W18 at the pull-out origin side and connects it to the rear-end connector W12, and the control portion 27 also controls the connecting operation. According to this configuration, the cutting of the electric wire W18 at the pull-out origin side and the connection of the rear-end connector W12 can also be performed automatically under the control of the control portion 27.

[0213] In this embodiment, the rear end connector moving part 163 is provided as follows. The rear end connector W12 is mounted at a rear end connector mounting position P15 that is shifted in the orthogonal direction D13 from the rear end connection position P16. The rear end connector moving part 163 is a part that moves in the orthogonal direction D13 after the rear end connector W12 is mounted so as to position the rear end connector W12 at the rear end connection position P16. The control part 27 also controls the positioning of the rear end connector W12 at the rear end connection position P16 by the movement of the rear end connector moving part 163. According to this configuration, the positioning of the rear end connector W12 at the rear end connection position P16 on the pull-out origin side of the electric wire W18 can also be automatically performed under the control of the control part 27.

[0214] In this embodiment, a tip connector connecting portion 171 is provided to connect the electric wire W18 to the tip connector W11 at the tip connection position P14 on the drawing origin side. The slide portion 12 is configured to mount the tip connector W12 at the tip connector mounting position P13 on the opposite side to the drawing origin side, and after mounting, to move linearly toward the drawing origin side so as to position the tip connector W11 at the tip connection position P14. The control unit 27 also controls such a connection operation by the tip connector connecting portion 171 and the positioning of the tip connector W11 at the tip connection position P14 by the movement of the slide portion 12. According to this configuration, a series of operations from positioning the tip connector W11 at the tip connection position P14 by the movement of the slide portion 12 to the connection of the tip connector W11 can be automatically performed under the control of the control unit 27.

[0215] Furthermore, in this embodiment, a tip side connector mounting portion 15 is provided that mounts the tip side connector W11 on the sliding portion 12 at the tip side connector mounting position P13. The control portion 27 also controls the mounting operation of the tip side connector W11 on the sliding portion 12 by the tip side connector mounting portion 15. According to this configuration, the mounting of the tip side connector W11 on the sliding portion 12 at the tip side connector mounting position P13 can also be performed automatically under the control of the control portion 27.

[0216] Next, this embodiment has the following configuration from the viewpoint of the overall configuration of the device and method, which involves pulling out the electric wire W18 by moving the slide portion 12 and then connecting the rear end connector W12 after passing through branch formation, and can achieve the effects of this configuration.

[0217] The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 of this embodiment includes a plurality of slide parts 12 capable of mounting the tip side connectors W11, and a tip side connector connecting part 171 that connects the electric wires W18 to the tip side connectors W11 of each slide part 12. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 also includes a small-scale gathering part 225 and a large-scale gathering part 20 that function as electric wire gathering parts, and a moving tape winding mechanism 22 that functions as a tape winding part. The electric wire gathering part is a part that selectively gathers the electric wires W11 drawn out by different slide parts 12 to form a branch shape, and the tape winding part is a part that winds the gathered electric wires W18 with tape to determine the branch shape by the electric wire gathering part. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 also includes a rear end side connector moving part 163 and a rear end side connector connecting part 172. The rear end connector moving portions 163 are provided in plurality so as to mount a rear end connector W12 thereon, and are portions which move in the orthogonal direction D13 to distribute the electric wires W18 drawn out by the movement of the sliding portion 12 to each rear end connector W12. The rear end connector connecting portion 172 is a portion which cuts the electric wires W18 distributed to each rear end connector W12 and connects them to the rear end connectors W12.

[0218] In the wire harness manufacturing method shown in Figs. 28 to 35, step S11 is a preceding connection step in which the electric wires W18 that can be drawn are distributed to and connected to a plurality of front-end connectors W11. Step S12 is an electric wire drawing step in which the front-end connectors W11 are linearly moved parallel to each other to draw out the electric wires W11. Steps S19 to S35, which perform tape winding with wire gathering, are a tape winding step in which the drawn-out electric wires W18 are selectively gathered together to form a branch shape, and the branch shape is determined by tape winding. Step S25 is a following connection step in which the drawn-out electric wires W18 are distributed to the plurality of rear-end connectors W12, and the electric wires W18 distributed to each rear-end connector W12 are cut and connected to the rear-end connectors W12.

[0219] According to the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and the wire harness manufacturing method of the present embodiment, the wire harness W1 is manufactured through connecting the electric wires to the front connector W11, drawing out the electric wires, forming and fixing the branch by gathering the electric wires and winding them with tape, and connecting the electric wires to the rear connector W12. Since all of these operations do not require skilled work such as routing the electric wires W18 in a branched shape and can be performed mechanically, all of the operations can be effectively automated. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is an automatic manufacturing apparatus based on this point. Thus, according to the wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 and the wire harness manufacturing method described above, the series of operations related to the manufacturing of the wire harness W1 can be performed automatically.

[0220] In this embodiment, the slide portion 12 includes a holding portion 121 that holds the tip side connector W12, and a slide main body portion 122. The holding portion 121 rotates around the twist axis X12 to twist the electric wires W18. With this configuration, the wire harness W1 including the twisted electric wires W18 can also be manufactured automatically without manual intervention.

[0221] In this embodiment, the holding portion 121 of the sliding portion 12 is attached so as to be rotatable about a rotation axis X11 perpendicular to the moving direction D12 of the sliding portion 12. When the electric wire W18 connected to the tip side connector W11 is moved, the holding portion 121 rotates so as to orient the tip side connector W11 in the direction of the moved electric wire W18. According to this configuration, when the electric wire W18 is moved, the rotation of the holding portion 121 causes the tip side connector W12 to orient in the direction of the moved electric wire W18, thereby reducing the tension applied to the electric wire W18.

[0222] In addition, in this embodiment, after the electric wire W18 from one front end connector W11 is connected and disconnected to the rear end connector W12, it may be necessary to further connect the adjacent electric wire W18 extending to another adjacent front end connector W11 to the rear end connector W12. In such a case, the rear end connector moving unit 163 moves the rear end connector W12 to the adjacent rear end connection position P16 where the adjacent electric wire W11 can be connected. Then, the rear end connector connecting unit 172 connects and disconnects the adjacent electric wire W18 to the rear end connector W12 at the adjacent rear end connection position P16. According to this configuration, when the electric wires W18 connected to the multiple front end connectors W11 are distributed to one rear end connector W12, the distribution can be effectively performed by moving the rear end connector W12 instead of the electric wires W18, whose posture tends to be unstable. Furthermore, since the electric wires W18 are connected to the rear end connector W12 in multiple steps for each front end connector W11, the load on the rear end connector W12 and its surrounding structure during connection can be reduced.

[0223] In this embodiment, the wire gathering section includes the large-scale gathering section 20 and the small-scale gathering section 225. With this configuration, the wire gathering can be effectively performed by selectively using the large-scale gathering section 20 and the small-scale gathering section 225 depending on the amount of wire.

[0224] In the present embodiment, a prefabricated electric wire arrangement section 25 is provided for arranging the prefabricated electric wire W21 in parallel with the electric wire W18. According to this configuration, the prefabricated electric wire W21, which is separately prepared, can be additionally installed after the electric wire W18 is drawn out by the sliding section 12, so that the degree of freedom in manufacturing the wire harness W1 can be increased.

[0225] In the present embodiment, an electric wire gripping mechanism 191a is provided which functions as an extra length drawing section that grips and twists the middle portion of at least some of the electric wires W18 to further draw out the extra length. According to this configuration, it is possible to appropriately provide extra length to some of the electric wires W18 depending on, for example, the routing shape of the completed wire harness 1, and therefore the degree of freedom in manufacturing the wire harness W1 can be increased.

[0226] In this embodiment, the movable tape winding mechanism 22 serving as the tape winding section temporarily fastens the electric wire W18 to be pulled out by winding tape on the tip connector W12 side of the intermediate portion that is gripped when pulling out the slack. According to this configuration, by temporarily fastening the electric wire W18 to be pulled out, it is possible to effectively prevent the electric wire W18 from coming undone when pulling out the slack.

[0227] In the present embodiment, a delivery unit 26 is provided that moves the completed wire harness W1 to a predetermined delivery destination 26a. According to this configuration, the manufacture of the wire harness W1, including the delivery of the completed wire harness W1, can be performed automatically.

[0228] The above-described embodiments merely show typical forms of the wire harness manufacturing apparatus, the wire harness manufacturing method, the wire harness, the tension control device, and the tension control method. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus, the wire harness manufacturing method, the wire harness, the tension control device, and the tension control method are not limited to these, and can be implemented in various modifications.

[0229] For example, in the above-described embodiment, the wire harness W1 to be mounted and routed in an automobile is illustrated as an example of the wire harness to be manufactured. However, the wire harness is not limited to this, and may be a wire harness other than that to be mounted in an automobile.

[0230] In the above-described embodiment, the wire harness W1 having nine front-end connectors W11, six rear-end connectors W12, and a branched shape branched at seven locations is exemplified as an example of the wire harness to be manufactured. However, the wire harness is not limited to this, and the specific number of connectors and the number of branches are not important as long as the wire harness has connectors on both ends and has a branched shape.

[0231] In the above-described embodiment, as an example of a wire harness manufacturing apparatus, a wire harness manufacturing apparatus 1 including nine rows of slide units 12 and the shapes and arrangements of other mechanical parts are specifically shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 is given. However, the wire harness manufacturing apparatus is not limited to this, and the number of slide units as well as the shapes and arrangements of each mechanical part can be set arbitrarily. [Explanation of symbols]

[0232] 1. Wire harness manufacturing equipment 2 Tension control device 11 Electric Cable Shelf 12 Slide section 13 Rail 14 Tip side connector supply section 14a Tip side supply mechanism 15 Tip connector mounting section 16 Rear end connector supply section 16a Rear end supply mechanism 16b Connector rail 17 Connector connection part 18 Fixed tape winding mechanism 19 Wire gripping / excess length providing section 20 Large-scale gathering area 21 Robot Arm 22 Moving tape winding mechanism 23 Clip attachment part 24 Exterior material attachment part 25 Existing wire arrangement section 26 Payment Section 26a Payment destination 27 Control Unit 28 Metal Frame 29 Mechanism Waiting Table 30 Wire guide section 31 Wire cutting lower die 32 Servo motor 111 Wire reel 121 Holding part 122 Slide body 122a Slide connection part 122b Arm section 123 Connecting part 124 Continuity Inspection Department 124a Inspection pin 141 Tip side stocker 142 Connector delivery area 142a Connector mounting surface 143 Rotation Mechanism 151 Connector carrier 151a Connector hand part 151b Hand up / down mechanism 152,162a,201 Support bridge 161 Rear end stocker 162 Rear end connector mounting section 163 Rear end connector moving part 171 Tip connector connection part 171a, 172a Pressure welded part 172 Rear end connector connection part 172a Electric wire cutting blade 173,226 Power Source 174 Transmission Mechanism 181 Tape winding section in drawer 181a,223 Tape reel 181b Holding arm 182,192 Support rail 191 Grasping Unit 191a,591a Wire gripping mechanism 202 Pull-up arm 221 Mechanism Frame 222,231,241,251,261 Robot arm connection part 224 Reel rotation mechanism 225 Small-scale 225a Lola 225b Pulling Blade 225b-1 Receiving recess 232 Retaining hook 233 Clip sending mechanism 242 Attachment mechanism 252 Main body 253 Connector holder 262 Main Frame 262a Tip side frame 262b Rear end frame 262c intermediate frame 263 Tip connector holder 263a Support shaft 264 Rear end connector holding part 301 Wire Guide 591a-1 Fixed end 591a-2 Moving end 591a-3 Support rod D11 Pull-out direction D12 Movement direction D13 Orthogonal direction D14 Rotation direction D15 Twist Direction D16 Inspection movement direction D17 Delivery rotation direction D18 Receiving direction D19 Loading direction D20 Feed direction D21 Alignment direction D22, D27 Pressure welding direction D23,D26 Downward direction D24 Upward direction D25 Slide direction D28,D34 Reel rotation direction D29 Clamping direction D31 Extra length rotation direction D32 Tension relaxation direction D33 Support rod rotation direction D35 Wire clamping direction D36 Tape winding direction D131 Positioning direction D301 Opening direction D302 Close direction F11 Driving Force F12 Balancing force F13 Ascending drive force L11 relaxation distance P11 Catching posture P12 Delivery posture P13 Tip connector mounting position P14 Tip connection position P15 Rear end connector mounting position P16 Rear end connection position P17 Evacuation position P18 Balance position W1 Wire harness W11 Tip connector W12 Rear end connector W13 Branch wire tape winding section W14 Branch line exterior W15 Branch tape winding section W16 Branch exterior W17 Retaining Clip W18 electric wire W19 Tape W20 exterior material W21 Prefabricated wire X11, X13 rotation axis X12 Twist Axis

Claims

1. a plurality of slide sections each mounted with a tip connector connected to a drawable electric wire and adapted to move linearly; a branch forming portion that selectively bundles the plurality of electric wires drawn out by the plurality of slide portions to form a branch; a control unit that controls an amount of electric wire drawn by the movement of the sliding unit and a branching operation by the branch forming unit; a rear end connector connecting portion that cuts the electric wire at a pull-out origin side of the electric wire where the pull-out amount of the electric wire is controlled and connects the electric wire to a rear end connector; a rear-end connector moving unit that moves the rear-end connector to which the electric wire is not connected in the orthogonal direction after mounting at a rear-end connector mounting position that is shifted from a rear-end connection position where the electric wire is connected by the rear-end connector connecting unit in the orthogonal direction relative to the drawing direction of the electric wire at the drawing origin side, and that moves the rear-end connector in the orthogonal direction to position the rear-end connector to the rear-end connection position after mounting; Equipped with The control unit also controls the connection operation by the rear end connector connection unit and the positioning of the rear end connector to the rear end connection position by movement of the rear end connector moving unit.

2. a plurality of slide sections each mounted with a tip connector connected to a drawable electric wire and adapted to move linearly; a branch forming portion that selectively bundles the plurality of electric wires drawn out by the plurality of slide portions to form a branch; a control unit that controls an amount of electric wire drawn by the movement of the sliding unit and a branching operation by the branch forming unit; a tip-side connector connecting portion that connects the electric wire to the tip-side connector at a tip-side connecting position on the base side of the electric wire; Equipped with the sliding portion is configured to mount the tip side connector to which the electric wire is not connected at a tip side connector mounting position on the opposite side to the pull-out origin side in a pull-out direction of the electric wire, and to move linearly toward the pull-out origin side after mounting to position the tip side connector at the tip side connection position, The wire harness manufacturing apparatus is characterized in that the control unit also controls the connection operation by the tip connector connection portion and the positioning of the tip connector to the tip connection position by moving the slide portion.

3. a tip-side connector mounting portion that mounts the tip-side connector to which the electric wire is not connected on the slide portion at the tip-side connector mounting position, 3. The wire harness manufacturing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit also controls an operation of the tip-side connector mounting unit to mount the tip-side connector on the slide portion.

4. an electric wire drawing process in which a plurality of slide sections are provided so as to linearly move each slide section carrying a tip side connector to which a drawable electric wire is connected, thereby drawing out the electric wires while controlling the drawing amount of each of the electric wires; a branch forming step of selectively bundling the plurality of electric wires drawn out by the sliding portion to form a branch; a rear end connector connecting step of cutting the electric wire at the pull-out origin side of the electric wire where the pull-out amount of the electric wire has been controlled and connecting the electric wire to a rear end connector; a rear-end connector moving step, which is a step executed prior to the rear-end connector connecting step, in which the rear-end connector to which the electric wire is not connected is mounted on a rear-end connector moving section at a rear-end connector mounting position at the pull-out origin side which is shifted in a direction perpendicular to the pull-out direction of the electric wire from a rear-end connection position where the electric wire is connected by the rear-end connector connecting step, and after mounting, the rear-end connector moving section is moved in the perpendicular direction so as to position the rear-end connector to the rear-end connection position; A method for manufacturing a wire harness comprising the steps of:

5. an electric wire drawing process in which a plurality of slide sections are provided so as to linearly move each slide section carrying a tip side connector to which a drawable electric wire is connected, thereby drawing out the electric wires while controlling the drawing amount of each of the electric wires; a branch forming step of selectively bundling the plurality of electric wires drawn out by the sliding portion to form a branch; a tip-side connector connecting step of connecting the electric wire to the tip-side connector at a tip-side connecting position on the base side of the electric wire; a tip-side connector moving step, which is a step executed prior to the tip-side connector connecting step, in which the tip-side connector to which the electric wire is not connected is mounted on the slide section at a tip-side connector mounting position on the opposite side to the pull-out origin side in a pull-out direction of the electric wire, and after mounting, the slide section is linearly moved toward the pull-out origin side so as to position the tip-side connector at the tip-side connecting position; A method for manufacturing a wire harness comprising the steps of:

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