Wire Seal Fitting Apparatus Using Tapered Needle Guide
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing seal-fitting devices face challenges in efficiently and accurately fitting wires with seals, often resulting in damage to the seal's internal contour, productivity losses, and variability in seal position due to inadequate support during expansion and transfer processes.
Innovation Solution
A novel fitting principle where a seal is pushed onto a needle with varying diameters, allowing for direct transfer onto a wire, utilizing a pusher-on with adaptable jaws and a gripping element to manage the seal and wire movements, ensuring gentle handling and precise positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the wire is pushed directly into the seal, then the fitting operation is simple, but the internal contour of the seal may be damaged and already stripped wires cannot be processed
Solution Approach 1:
A needle is introduced as an intermediary element between the wire and the seal. The needle with its tapered end provides a gentle guiding surface that directs the wire into the seal without damaging the seal's internal contour. The needle acts as a mediator that enables the fitting operation while protecting the seal integrity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If expansion collar is used to expand the seal before fitting, then the seal can be fitted onto stripped wires, but the device complexity increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The complex expansion collar mechanism is extracted and replaced by a simpler needle-based guiding system. The needle provides the necessary guidance function without requiring the elaborate expansion and contraction mechanisms of traditional devices, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining the ability to process stripped wires.
3Adaptability or versatility
If hollow cylinder with needle is pushed into the seal, then the seal can be transferred onto the wire, but the device complexity and operation time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hollow cylinder component is extracted from the system, leaving only the essential needle element. This simplifies the overall structure and reduces the number of moving parts that need to be coordinated during the fitting operation, thereby reducing operation time while maintaining seal transfer capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of pushing the hollow cylinder into the seal and then retracting it, the invention uses a simple needle that remains in place to guide the wire. The process is inverted by keeping the guiding element stationary and moving the wire through it, rather than moving the guiding element in and out.
4Reliability
If bipartite expansion collar and releaser are used, then the seal can be held and transferred, but the external diameter of the expansion collar increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bipartite expansion collar structure is extracted and replaced by a simple needle. The needle provides sufficient guidance and positioning function without requiring the complex bipartite structure, thereby reducing the external diameter while maintaining reliable seal transfer.
Data Source
AI summary
A fitting apparatus for fitting a wire with an elastic wire element has a needle, which has a receptacle. An external diameter at a first end of the needle is smaller than at a second end. Centering jaws are configured to fix the needle and to form in a closed state an orifice, which serves as access to the receptacle of the needle. To push the elastic wire element on, a pusher-on is used. A gripping element holds the needle in an area of the first end. Drives enable relative movements.