Patent Application
20120309228
The present invention relates to a connector protection structure for a wire harness mounted in a vehicle and a method of producing the structure.
A wire harness for a vehicle is conventionally known. A technology is also conventionally known to preassemble a connector for an optionally mounted electric component to the wire harness. Furthermore, a technology is also known to wrap a cushioning sheet around the outer periphery of the connector for the option in order to prevent noise from occurring due to interference between the connector and another component during vehicle running (e.g., Patent Literature 1).
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-240136
In the technology disclosed in Patent Literature 1, however, attachment of the cushioning sheet to the connector requires work, for example, to wrap and bond the cushioning sheet around the outer periphery of the connector. This increases work man-hours in production of wire harnesses, and thus leads to an increase in the production cost of wire harnesses.
In addition, expensive urethane form is used for the cushioning sheet in the technology of Patent Literature 1. This increases the material cost, and thus also leads to an increase in the production cost of wire harnesses.
In view of the circumstances above, an object of the present invention is to provide a connector protection structure that provides good protection of a connector and a method of producing the structure.
In order to address the circumstance, a first aspect provides a connector protection structure including a connector electrically connected to an electric wire and a protector protecting the connector by surrounding the connector, the protector being formed of a protection material that includes a base material and a binder material having a melting point lower than that of the base material, the protector being joined in a joint portion thereof by cooling and solidifying the melted binder material. The connector is accommodated in an inner space formed in an inner surface of the protector. The binder material in the inner surface and outer surface is melted, cooled, and solidified such that the inner surface of the protector is harder than the outer surface of the protector.
A second aspect provides the connector protection structure according to the first aspect, in which the protector includes a main body and a projection extending from the main body along the electric wire, and the projection is fixed to the electric wire.
A third aspect provides the connector protection structure according to first or second aspect, in which the connector is accommodated in the inner space through an opening provided on the electric wire side and a connecting surface of the connector is closed by a closure.
A fourth aspect provides a method of producing a connector protection structure that includes a connector electrically connected to an electric wire and a protector accommodating the connector in an inner space formed in an inner surface, the protector being formed of a protection material that includes a base material having a melting point at a first temperature and a binder material having a melting point at a second temperature lower than that of the base material. The method includes (a) a process of heating a first surface and a second surface of the protection material; (b) a process of molding the protector such that the first surface is provided as the inner surface and the second surface is provided as an outer surface; and (c) a process of cooling and solidifying the binder material melted in the process (a). In the process (a), the first surface is heated at a first treatment temperature which is equal to or higher than the second temperature and lower than the first temperature and the second surface is heated at a second treatment temperature which is equal to or higher than the second temperature and lower than the first temperature and is lower than the first treatment temperature.
A fifth aspect provides the method of producing the connector protection structure according to the fourth aspect, in which, in the process (b), the protection material is pressurized in a state where the protection material sandwiches an inner surface former, and thereby the inner space to accommodate the connector is formed on the inner surface side of the protector.
According to the connector protection structure and the method of producing the same of the first to fifth aspects, the outer surface of the protector is molded so as to be softer than the inner surface of the protector. Thus, even if the outer surface of the protector interferes with another component, the impact of the interference is absorbed by the outer surface of the protector, thus preventing noise from being generated by the interference.
In the connector protection structure and the method of producing the same of the first to fifth aspects, the inner space of the protector can be formed depending on a size of a connector to be mounted. Thus, simply accommodating the connector in the inner space sufficiently secures the connector to the protector. In other words, additional work, such as winding, can be reduced to fix the protector to the connector, and thus work man-hours can be reduced in production of the protection structure. This curtails the production cost of the protection structure of the connector.
In particular, according to the connector protection structure of the second aspect, the projection of the protector is fixed to the electric wire, and thus the protector is readily fixed to the electric wire. Accordingly, the protector is furthermore prevented from disengaging from the connector.
In particular, according to the connector protection structure of the third aspect, the protector provides a good coverage of the connecting surface of the connector. This effectively prevents dust and others from being deposited on the connecting surface of the connector.
In particular, according to the method of producing the connector protection structure of the fifth aspect, selecting various inner surface formers allows inner spaces corresponding to sizes of connectors to be formed in protectors. Thus, protectors that correspond to various connectors can be formed without an increase in the production cost of entire wire harnesses.
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Embodiments of the present invention are described below in detail with reference to the drawings.
The wire harness 10, which is a bundle of a plurality of electric wires 22 (refer to
The main wire 20 includes the plurality of electric wires 22 and electrically connects connectors 25 (25a and 25b) attached to both ends. The connectors 25 (25a and 25b) at the both ends are then connected to associated connectors of electric components (not shown in the drawing).
The branch wire 30 includes, as shown in
The protection structure 33 prevents interference between the connector 35 and another component. With reference to
The connector 35 is electrically connected to the plurality of electric wires 32 included in the branch wire 30, as shown in
The protector 40 protects the connector 35 which is unused and not connected to any electric component (not shown in the drawings). The protector 40 will be described in detail later.
The protector 40 is a shock absorber formed of nonwoven fabric 41, for example. With reference to
The nonwoven fabric 41 (protection material) is mainly composed of PET (polyethylene terephthalate: base material) and a binder material formed of a copolymer of PET and PEI (polyethylene isophthalate). More specifically, the nonwoven fabric 41 is composed of elementary fibers formed of the base material and shaped into a line and binder fibers formed of the sheath-shaped binder material disposed around the elementary fibers.
A melting point of the binder material (second temperature) is 110 to 150° C. and is defined so as to be lower than that of the base material (a melting point of PET: approximately 250° C. (first temperature)).
The main body 40a is a tubular body formed by heating and pressurizing the nonwoven fabric 41. With reference to
The main body 40a has an inner space 40c therein, as shown in
Thus, the protector 40 provides a good coverage of the connecting surface 35a of the connector 35. This effectively prevents dust and others from being deposited on the connecting surface 35a of the connector 35.
The projection 40b is a fixed piece in the main body 40a. With reference to
As described above, the protector 40 has the projection 40b projecting from the main body 40a and is thus readily fixed to the plurality of electric wires 32. Accordingly, the protector 40 is effectively prevented from disengaging from the connector 35.
Configurations of the heating device 50 and the mold 60 are described first, and then a method of producing the protection structure 33 is described.
The hardware configuration of the heating device 50 is described below. The heating device 50 heats main surfaces (first and second surfaces 41a and 41b; refer to
The nonwoven fabric 41 in the present embodiment has a rectangular racket shape, which mainly includes a base portion 42a and a connecting piece 42b, as shown in
The base portion 42a and the connecting piece 42b are provided adjacently, as shown in
Furthermore, with reference to
The inner surface heating portion 51 heats the first surface 41a, which will be the inner surface of the protector 40 after forming, at a first treatment temperature that is equal to or higher than the melting point of the binder material (second temperature) and lower than the melting point of the base material (first temperature). As shown in
The heater 53 is a heating component embedded in a main body 51a, as shown in
The outer surface heating portion 56 heats the second surface 41b, which will be the outer surface of the protector 40 after forming, at a second treatment temperature that is equal to or higher than the melting point of the binder material and lower than the melting point of the base material and is lower than the first treatment temperature. As shown in
The heater 58 is a heating component embedded in a main body 56a, as shown in
A controller 90 performs, for example, control of heating by the heaters 53 and 58 and data calculation. As shown in
The ROM (Read Only Memory) 91 is a so-called nonvolatile memory and stores a program 91a, for example. The ROM 91 may be a flash memory, which is a readable and writable nonvolatile memory.
The RAM (Random Access Memory) 92 is a volatile memory and stores data used in calculation by the CPU 93, for example. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) 93 executes control based on the program 91a of the ROM 91 (e.g., control of heating to the nonwoven fabric 41) and data calculation.
The hardware configuration of the mold 60 is described below. The mold 60 pressurizes the nonwoven fabric 41 heated by the heating device 50 so as to mold the nonwoven fabric 41 into the protector 40 having a desired shape. With reference to
The holder 61 is a holding component having a substantially U shape in a front view, as shown in
The support plate 62 is supported by the holder 61 in a state of being fitted in the holding space 61a. As shown in
With reference to
The compressor 63 is a pressurizing component that applies pressure to the nonwoven fabric 41 inserted in the placement space 62a. The compressor 63 mainly includes a flat portion 63a, an insertion portion 63b, and a projecting portion 63c, as shown in
Each of the flat portion 63a, the insertion portion 63b, and the projecting portion 63c is a substantially rectangular parallelepiped block. As shown in
The first surface 41a of the nonwoven fabric 41 is heated at the first treatment temperature which is higher than the heating temperature (second treatment temperature) of the second surface 41b of the nonwoven fabric 41. Specifically, operation of the heaters 53 and 58 is controlled such that meltage of the binder material in the first surface 41a is greater than meltage of the binder material in the second surface 41b. Thus, the inner surface (corresponding to the first surface 41a) of the protector 40 molded by the mold 60 is harder than the outer surface (corresponding to the second surface 41b) thereof.
The nonwoven fabric 41 can be inserted into the placement space 62a with the partition plate 62b of the support plate 62 as a reference surface. In addition, the insertion portion 63b can be inserted into the placement space 62a as being guided by the partition plate 62a. Thus, the compressor 63 can be positioned properly relative to the nonwoven fabric 41.
The inner surface former 66 is a bar-shaped body used for forming the inner space 40c in the protector 40. The inner surface former 66 is inserted between the nonwoven fabric 41 folded along the folding line 44 so as to face the first surface 41a of the nonwoven fabric 41. This forms a space to accommodate the connector 35 in the pressurized protector 40.
A method of producing the protection structure 33 is described below with reference to
Subsequently, the nonwoven fabric 41 is valley-folded along the folding line 44 such that the first surface 41a is provided inside and the outer surface 41b is provided outside. Thus, the first surface 41a serves as the inner surface of the protector 40 and the outer surface 41 b serves as the outer surface of the protector 40.
Subsequently, the folded nonwoven fabric 41 is inserted into the placement space 62a of the support plate 62. Then, the inner surface former 66 is inserted between the folded nonwoven fabric 41 so as to face the first surface 41a of the nonwoven fabric 41 (refer to
Subsequently, with the bar-shaped inner surface former 66 inserted between the nonwoven fabric 41, the nonwoven fabric 41 is pressurized in a direction of an arrow ARI (compressing direction; refer to
Selecting the inner surface former 66 from various sizes (e.g., various cross-sectional sizes) allows the inner space 40c of the protector 40 to be formed to meet the size of the connector 35. Thus, protectors 40 that correspond to various connectors can be formed without an increase in the production cost of the protection structure 33 and the wire harness 10.
Then, the nonwoven fabric 41 is pressurized, and thereafter the protector 40 is cooled by air and the like, thus completing forming the protector 40. The protector 40 is joined at a joint portion 49 thereof after the melted binder material is cooled and solidified. The first and second surfaces 41a and 41b are hardened based on an amount of pressure by the compressor 63 and meltage of the binder material.
As described above, in the protection structure 33 of the present embodiment, the binder material in the first and second surfaces 41a and 41b of the protector 40 is melted and then cooled and solidified such that the first surface 41a (inner surface) of the protector 40 is harder than the second surface 41b (outer surface) of the protector 40. Specifically, the second surface 41b of the protector 40 is formed so as to be softer than the first surface 41a of the protector 40. Thus, even if the second surface 41b of the protector 40 interferes with another component, the impact of the interference is absorbed by the protector 40, thus preventing noise from being generated by the interference.
Furthermore, in the protection structure 33 of the present embodiment, the inner space 40c of the protector 40 can be formed to meet the size of the connector 35 to be mounted. Thus, simply accommodating the connector 35 in the inner space 40c sufficiently secures the connector 35 to the protector 40. In other words, additional work, such as winding, can be reduced to fix the protector 40 to the connector 35, and thus work man-hours can be reduced in production of the protection structure 33. This curtails the production cost of the protection structure 33 of the connector 35.
In addition, in the protection structure 33 of the present embodiment, the protector 40 can be formed of the inexpensive nonwoven fabric 41. This curtails the production cost of the protection structure 33 of the connector 35.
A second embodiment of the present invention is described below. The second embodiment is similar to the first embodiment except for differences in a configuration of a protector and a method of forming the same. Thus, the description below focuses on the differences.
In the description below, configuration components similar to configuration components in the first embodiment are denoted with the same reference numerals. Since the configuration components with the same reference numerals are already described in the first embodiment, descriptions thereof are omitted in the present embodiment.
Similar to the protector 40 of the first embodiment, the protector 140 is a shock absorber formed of the nonwoven fabric 41. The protector 140 mainly includes a main body 140a and the projection 40b, as shown in
The main body 140a is a tubular body formed by heating and pressurizing the nonwoven fabric 41. Similar to the main body 40a of the first embodiment, the main body 140a has a rectangular parallelepiped or cubic shape having rounded corners, as shown in
An inner space 140c is a through-hole that passes through the protector 140. As shown in
In the method of producing the protection structure 133, the heaters 53 and 58 are driven by the controller 90 similar to the case of the first embodiment, and then the first and second surfaces 41a and 41b of the nonwoven fabric 41 are heated at the first and second treatment temperatures, respectively (refer to
Then, similar to the case of the first embodiment, the nonwoven fabric 41 is valley-folded along the folding line 44 such that the first surface 41a is provided inside and the outer surface 41b is provided outside. Thus, the first surface 41a serves as the inner surface of the protector 40 and the outer surface 41b serves as the outer surface of the protector 40.
Subsequently, the folded nonwoven fabric 41 is inserted into the placement space 62a of the support plate 62. Then, the inner surface former 66 is inserted between the folded nonwoven fabric 41 so as to face the first surface 41a of the nonwoven fabric 41 (refer to
Subsequently, with the bar-shaped inner surface former 66 inserted between the nonwoven fabric 41, the nonwoven fabric 41 is pressurized in the direction of the arrow AR1 (compressing direction; refer to
Selecting the inner surface former 66 from various sizes (e.g., various cross-sectional sizes) allows the inner space 140c of the protector 140 to be formed to meet the size of the connector 35. Thus, protectors 140 that correspond to various connectors can be formed without an increase in the production cost of the protection structure 133 and the wire harness 10.
Then, the nonwoven fabric 41 is pressurized, and thereafter the protector 140 is cooled by air and the like, thus completing forming the protector 140.
As described above, the protection structure 133 of the present embodiment can be formed such that the second surface 41b of the protector 140 is softer than the first surface 41a of the protector 140, similar to the case of the first embodiment. Thus, even if the second surface 41b of the protector 140 interferes with another component, the impact of the interference is absorbed by the protector 140, thus preventing noise from being generated by the interference.
Furthermore, in the protection structure 133 of the present embodiment, the inner space 140c of the protector 140 can be formed to meet the size of the connector 35 to be mounted, similar to the case of the first embodiment. Thus, simply accommodating the connector 35 in the inner space 140c sufficiently secures the connector 35 to the protector 40. This curtails the production cost of the protection structure 133 of the connector 35, similar to the case of the first embodiment.
In addition, in the protection structure 133 of the present embodiment, the protector 140 can be formed of the inexpensive nonwoven fabric 41, similar to the case of the first embodiment. This curtails the production cost of the protection structure 133 of the connector 35.
A third embodiment of the present invention is described below. The third embodiment is different in that the nonwoven fabric 41 is heated and molded by the same device (mold 260), whereas, in the first embodiment, the separate devices (heating device 50 and mold 60) are used for heating and molding.
Thus, the description below focuses on the difference. In the description below, configuration components similar to configuration components in the first embodiment are denoted with the same reference numerals. Since the configuration components with the same reference numerals are already described in the first embodiment, descriptions thereof are omitted in the present embodiment.
The holder 261, which has an external shape similar to the holder 61 of the first embodiment, supports the support plate 62. As show in
The compressor 263, which has an external shape similar to the compressor 63 of the first embodiment, applies pressure to the nonwoven fabric 41 inserted in the placement space 62a. As show in
The inner surface former 266, which has an external shape similar to the inner surface former 66 of the first embodiment, is used for forming the inner space 40c in the protector 40. As show in
A method of producing the protection structure 33 is described below with reference to
Subsequently, the folded nonwoven fabric 41 is inserted into the placement space 62a of the support plate 62. Then, the inner surface former 266 is inserted between the folded nonwoven fabric 41 so as to face the first surface 41a of the nonwoven fabric 41. Thus, the pre-heated protector 40 is provided.
Subsequently, the heaters 53 and 58 are driven by the controller 90, and then the first and second surfaces 41a and 41b of the nonwoven fabric 41 are heated at the first and second treatment temperatures, respectively. Thus, a portion or all of the binder material of first and second surfaces 41a and 41b of the nonwoven fabric 41 is melted and spread into the base material.
In addition to the heat treatment, the nonwoven fabric 41 is pressurized in a direction of an arrow AR1 (refer to
Then, the heating by the heaters 53 and 58 is stopped, and the protector 40 is cooled by air and the like, thus completing forming the protector 40.
Similar to the case of the first embodiment, the protector 40 is joined at the joint portion 49 thereof after the melted binder material is cooled and solidified. Similar to the case of the first embodiment, the first and second surfaces 41a and 41b are hardened based on an amount of pressure by the compressor 263 and meltage of the binder material.
As described, the protector 40 similar to that in the first embodiment can be formed in the present embodiment.
In addition, in the method of producing the protection structure 33 of the present embodiment, the protector 40 can be heated and molded by the same device. This reduces work man-hours required for heating and molding the protector 40, and thus curtailing the production cost of the protection structure 33 of the connector 35.
The embodiments of the present invention were described above. The present invention, however, is not limited to the embodiments above and may be modified in various ways.
In the present embodiments, the protector 40 is formed of one sheet of nonwoven fabric 41. A method of molding the protector 40 is not limited to this method. The protector 40 may be formed by heating and pressurizing two sheets of nonwoven fabric. Furthermore, the protector 40 may be formed of three or more sheets of nonwoven fabric.
10: Wire Harness
20: Main Wire
22, 32: Electric Wire
25, 35: Connector
30: Branch Wire
33: Protection Structure
35
a: Connecting Surface
40, 140: Protector
40
a, 140a: Main Body
40
b: Projection
40
c, 140c: Inner Space
40
d: Fixing Portion
40
e, 140f: Opening
40
f: Closure
41: Nonwoven Fabric
41
a: First Surface (inner surface)
41
b: Second Surface (outer surface)
44: Folding Line
49: Joint Portion
50: Heating Device
51: Inner Surface Heating Portion
53, 58: Heater
56: Outer Surface Heating Portion
60, 260: Mold
61, 261: Holder
62: Support Plate
63, 263: Compressor
66, 266: Inner Surface Former
90: Controller
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-104899 | Apr 2010 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2010/068276 | 10/18/2010 | WO | 00 | 8/16/2012 |
