The present disclosure is a U.S. National Phase of International Application No. PCT/CN2018/089656, filed Jun. 1, 2018 and entitled “SLIDE BLOCK-BASED POSITIONING MECHANISM AND AUTOMATIC TIE TOOL HAVING SAME”, which claims priority of Chinese Patent Application No. CN201810107686.2, filed with the Chinese Patent Office on Feb. 2, 2018, entitled “Automatic Tie Tool Having a Slider-based positioning mechanism”, and Chinese Patent Application No. CN201810106643.2, filed with the Chinese Patent Office on Feb. 2, 2018, entitled “Automatic Tie Tool”, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties.
The present disclosure relates to a slider-based positioning mechanism, and in particular to an automatic tie tool having a slider-based positioning mechanism and an automatic tie tool.
Conventional nylon ties (cable ties) have square heads. All the prior-art automatic tie tools applicable to conventional nylon ties implement automatic tying (or tie installation) operations by positioning the ties using the square heads of the ties, while one-piece fixing ties are widely used in cars, trains, motorbikes, and some other transport means. The one-piece fixing tie is a combination of a conventional tie function and an additional fixation feature at the head. The fixation feature of the head of the tie is used mainly for being fastened onto a frame of a vehicle or a housing of a household appliance. Common types of the head features of the one-piece fixing ties mainly include: a combined type of a fir-tree-shaped head plus butterfly or a fir-tree-shaped head plus wings, a combined type of an arrow head plus a butterfly or an arrow head plus wings, a flat-plate type with a locking hole, and so on. Because the heads of the one-piece fixing ties have irregular shapes and have a variety of shapes, it is difficult to position and automatically feed the one-piece fixing ties in automatic tools. The vast majority of the one-piece fixing ties are neither suitable for being loaded by vibratory bowl feeders nor being fed by tubes. None of the concepts and methods for design of the various automatic tie machines and tools that have been available are applicable to the automation of the one-piece fixing ties. Throughout the world, cable harnesses for transport means such as automobiles are tied by manual operations with low operating efficiency and with large labor intensity. According to the introduction of many large-scale multinational companies in the automotive cable harness industry, many multinational companies in the automotive cable harness industry have been trying to develop, alone or together with some famous tool manufacturers, an automatic tie tool suitable for one-piece fixing ties in the past thirty years in order to improve the efficiency of installation of the one-piece fixing ties and reduce to labor intensity, but their efforts for more than thirty years have not turned into success. Contacts or phone calls have been received from many large-scale multinational companies in the automotive industry and from famous multinational companies in the automotive cable harness industry between 2013 and 2017, for requesting the development of an automatic tie tool for one-piece fixing ties. The inventor of the present disclosure has developed a number design solutions of automatic tools that can be used in one-piece fixing ties upon conception for many years and multiple tests, but all the different design solutions involve: a slider-based positioning mechanism.
One of the objects of the present disclosure is to solve the problems of positioning and feeding of a one-piece fixing tie in an automatic tying tool.
It is conceived and summarized that tools for one-piece fixing ties may be designed in a variety of different structural forms according to different loading modes: a mode of manually loading ties one by one, pre-storing multiple ties in a curved magazine or a flat magazine and manually pushing and loading one tie each time a tie has been installed, automatically loading a tie by a robotic arm, automatically loading a tie from a wheel-shaped magazine, or loading interconnected ties, but each of the above-mentioned designs requires the one-piece fixing tie to be pre-positioned in the automatic tie tool and then pushed to a tying operation position. One of the objects of the present disclosure is to provide an automatic tie tool having a slider-based positioning mechanism, which allows a tie to be pre-positioned and then pushes the tie to the tying operation position.
The present disclosure is implemented by the following technical solution: An automatic tie tool having a slider-based positioning mechanism, including a slider (or slide block) and a guide rail; wherein the guide rail is fixed to a frame, the slider is fitted to the guide rail, five spatial degrees of freedom of the slider are restricted by the guide rail, the slider is configured to slide in a lengthwise direction of the guide rail, a head of a one-piece fixing tie is pre-positioned onto the slider, and the slider slides along the lengthwise direction of the guide rail to push the one-piece fixing tie from the pre-positioned position to a tying operation position.
Further, the slider has a slider hole allowing the tie to pass therethrough. That is, the slider and the slider hole are essential elements in the process of automatic installation of one-piece fixing ties.
Further, a protrusion structure is designed to be provided on the slider or a profiled recess is made in the slider according to the head of the one-piece fixing tie, so that the head of the tie is caught or stuck therein in slightly tight-fitting manner by using the elasticity of a plastic material of the head of the tie, that is, the head of the one-piece fixing tie is positioned onto the slider.
Further, the convex ribs on the slider configured to fix the head of the one-piece fixing tie are either integrated with the slider, or split into multiple parts and fixed on the slider by using bolts or pins.
Further, the slider is driven by a cylinder, or by a belt, or by a screw-nut transmission pair, or by being pushed out by a spring and pulled back by a flexible cord, or by serially-connected multiple sets of four-bar mechanisms with an increased stroke, or by a toggle mechanism with an increased stroke, or by a rocker-slider mechanism with an increased stroke, or by a crank-slider mechanism with an increased stroke.
Further, the belt, or the screw-nut transmission pair, or the flexible cord, or the serially-connected four-bar mechanisms, or the toggle mechanism, or the rocker-slider mechanism, or the crank-slider mechanism is driven by pneumatic power or electric power.
Further, the slider and the guide rail are fitted with each other in a cross section which is in a rectangle shape, or a double circular or arcuate shape, or a triangle shape, or a splined shape, or a combination of the above-mentioned basic cross-sectional shapes.
Further, the mechanism including the slider and the guide rail is used in an automatic tie tool into which ties are loaded manually, or in an automatic tool into which ties are loaded by a robotic arm, or in an automatic tie tool into which ties are loaded from a curved or flat-type magazine, or in an automatic tie tool into which ties are loaded from a wheel-shaped magazine, or in an automatic tie tool using interconnected ties.
In particular, the present disclosure is not only applicable to automatic tying tools for one-piece fixing ties having irregularly-shaped heads, but also applicable to automatic tying tools for conventional nylon ties having regularly-shaped heads.
The present disclosure brings about the advantageous effects of, e.g.:
1. solving the problem of positioning of a one-piece fixing tie in an automatic tie tool; and
2. providing a design method solving an automated tying operation for the one-piece fixing tie.
Reference Numerals: 1—slider; 101—convex rib; 102—profiled recess; 103—slider hole; 104—first convex rib group; 105—second convex rib group; 106—stop wall; 2—guide rail; 3—cylinder; 4—first guide claw; 5—second guide claw; 6—tension roller; 7—cutoff blade; 202—tie connecting plate; 301—cut-off blade cylinder; 302—cut-off blade mandril; 303—toggle mechanism; 8—center pin for the first guide claw; 9—center pin for the second guide claw; 10—screw; 11—belt pulley; 12—belt; 13—toggle mechanism; 14—one-piece fixing tie; 15—central mounting shaft; 16—crank-link mechanism; 17—serially connected four-bar mechanism; 18—rocker or crank; 19—linkage; 20—curved or flat-type magazine; 21—wheel-shaped magazine; 22—pushing rod; 30—frame.
In the description of the present disclosure, it should also be noted that the terms “disposed”, “mounted”, “coupled”, and “connected” should be understood broadly unless otherwise expressly specified or defined. For example, a connection may be fixed connection or detachable connection or integral connection, may be mechanical connection or electric connection, or may be direct coupling or indirect coupling via an intermediate medium or internal communication between two elements. The specific meanings of the above-mentioned terms in the present disclosure can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art according to specific situations.
The present disclosure will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.
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In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a first convex rib group 104 and a second convex rib group 105 and a stop wall 106 are disposed on and protruded from the surface of the slider 1, and each of the first convex rib group 104 and the second convex rib group 105 includes two convex ribs 101. Each convex rib 101 may also be referred to as a protrusion, a bump, a projection, or the like, which means a portion protruding from the surface of the slider. Here, the first convex rib group 104 is close to the edges of the slider, and the second convex rib group 105 is close to the middle portion of the slider. Two convex ribs 101 of the first convex rib group 104 are disposed spaced apart and a first mounting space is formed between the two convex ribs 101; two convex ribs 101 of the second convex rib group 105 are disposed spaced apart and a second mounting space is formed between these two convex ribs 101; the first mounting space and the second mounting space communicate with each other in the lengthwise direction of the guide rail 2. The first convex rib group 104 and the stop wall 106 cooperate with each other to limit the position of the head of the tie in the lengthwise direction of the guide rail 2; both the first convex rib group 104 and the second convex rib group 105 can limit the position of the head of the tie in a direction perpendicular to the lengthwise direction of the guide rail 2.
Further, the protrusion structure of the slider 1 is provided with a stop wall 106, wherein the stop wall 106 is close to the second convex rib group 105 so as to block a movement of the one-piece fixing tie 14 in the lengthwise direction of the guide rail 2. The direction in which the tie is pushed from the pre-positioned (predetermined) position to the tying operation (tie installation) position is set as a first direction, and a direction opposite to the first direction is set as a second direction. After the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 is stuck in the first mounting space and the second mounting space, the first function of the stop wall 106 is to block a movement of the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 in the second direction. The second function of the stop wall 106 is to keep the one-piece fixing tie 14 in place on the slider 1.
Further, the first convex rib group 104, the second convex rib group 105, and the stop wall 106 may be replaced with a profiled recess 102 provided in the surface of the slider 1.
Further, the positions of the convex ribs 101 and the stop wall 106, and the sizes of the first mounting space and the second mounting space are set according to the shape and size of the corresponding head of the one-piece fixing tie 14, and the convex ribs 101 and the stop wall 106 cooperate with each other to fix the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 onto the slider 1; or the convex ribs 101 and the stop wall 106 are replaced with the profiled recess 102, the profiled recess 102 is sized according to the corresponding head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 such that the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 is fixed onto the slider 1. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a slider hole 103 is further recessed in a surface part of the slider 1 where the first convex rib group 104 is located. The position of the slider hole 103 corresponds to the position of a hole in the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14, and matches in shape and size with a tail of the one-piece fixing tie 14. That is to say, the tail of the one-piece fixing tie 14 can pass through the hole in the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 and through the slider hole 103.
The convex ribs 101 on the slider 1 for fixing the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 may alternatively be split into multiple parts and fixed to the slider 1 by using bolts or pins, and the guide rail 2 is fixed to a frame 30. In other words, each convex rib 101 may be formed integrally with or detachably connected with the slider 1, and for example, the convex rib 101 and the slider 1 may be connected with each other by bolts or pins.
Further, the slider 1 is provided with a power introducing portion near the stop wall 106. The power introducing portion is configured to be connected with a power mechanism such as a cylinder or the like. The power introducing portion is provided with an engagement groove having an opening facing the second direction and an opening perpendicular to the surface of the slider 1.
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In this embodiment, a driving member for driving the cut-off blade 7 to mobe may be a cut-off blade cylinder 301. Specifically, a piston rod of the cut-off blade cylinder 301 is fixedly provided with a cut-off blade mandril (or jack ejector pin) 302. When the piston rod of the cut-off blade cylinder 301 extends out, the cut-off blade mandril 302 is jacked out so as to drive the cut-off blade 7 to move to achieve the separation of the ties. The cut-off blade 7 is movably mounted on the slider 1, and the cut-off blade mandril 302 is designed to be detachable from the cut-off blade 7. The slider 1 usually has two operation positions, i.e., the pre-positioned position and the tying operation position as mentioned above. When the slider 1 is in the pre-positioned position, the cut-off blade mandril 302 can act on the cut-off blade 7 and be automatically reset after the separation of the ties is completed. The cut-off blade 7 can move together with the slider 1 from the pre-positioned position to the tying operation position.
With continued reference to
With continued reference to
A first guide claw 4 is rotatably connected with the center pin 8 for the first guide claw, that is, the first guide claw 4 is rotatable about the center pin 8 for the first guide claw. The second guide claw 5 is rotatably connected with the center pin 9 for the second guide claw, that is, the second guide claw 5 is rotatable about the center pin 9 for the second guide claw. A guide channel is formed by the first guide claw 4 and the second guide claw 5. The first guide claw 4 has a first guide surface providing a guiding-in direction substantially flush with the lengthwise direction of the guide rail 2. While the slider 1 is sliding along the lengthwise direction of the guide rail 2 to push the tie from the pre-positioned position to the tying operation position, the tail of the one-piece fixing tie 14 enters the guide channel formed by the first guide claw 4 and the second guide claw 5. The second guide claw 5 has a second guide surface providing a guiding-out direction allowing passage through the hole of the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 when it is in the tying operation position. When the slider 1 is pushed to the tying operation position, the tail of the one-piece fixing tie 14 approaches the hole of the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14. The first guide claw 4 rotates about the center pin 8 for the first guide claw such that the tail of the one-piece fixing tie 14 passes through the hole of the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 and through the slider hole 103 of the slider 1 and is clamped by the tension rollers 6, the tension rollers 6 rotate to tighten the one-piece fixing tie 14, the cut-off blade 7 cuts off the tail of the one-piece fixing tie 14, the head of the one-piece fixing tie 14 is withdrawn from the slider 1, and the slider 1 moves back to the pre-positioned position.
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The methods described in the first to eighth embodiments are suitable for automatic tying of one-piece fixing ties having irregularly-shaped heads, and the methods described in the first to eighth embodiments are also suitable for automatic tying with conventional nylon ties having regularly-shaped heads.
The above description is merely illustrative of preferred embodiments of the present disclosure and is not intended to limit the present disclosure. The above embodiments may be appropriately changed or modified, by those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure relates, based on the disclosure and teaching provided in the above description. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and variations can be made to the present disclosure. Any modifications, equivalent alternatives, improvements and so on made within the spirit and principle of the present disclosure are to be included in the scope of protection of the present disclosure.
The automatic tie tool having a slider-based positioning mechanism of the present disclosure includes a guide rail and a slider. The slider is provided with a portion for positioning a tie, which can solve the problem of positioning of the one-piece fixing tie in the automatic tie tool. Such slider-based positioning mechanism can be used in an automatic tie tool into which ties are loaded manually, or in an automatic tool into which ties are loaded by a robotic arm, or in an automatic tie tool into which ties are loaded from a curved or flat-type magazine, or in an automatic tie tool into which ties are loaded from a wheel-shaped magazine, or in an automatic tie tool using interconnected ties.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
201810106643.2 | Feb 2018 | CN | national |
201810107686.2 | Feb 2018 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/CN2018/089656 | 6/1/2018 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2019/148723 | 8/8/2019 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4499928 | Furutsu | Feb 1985 | A |
9889562 | Rembisz | Feb 2018 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
101604825 | Dec 2009 | CN |
105415380 | Mar 2016 | CN |
106002924 | Oct 2016 | CN |
107150832 | Sep 2017 | CN |
107264551 | Oct 2017 | CN |
H0789511 | Apr 1995 | JP |
Entry |
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English translate (JPH0789511A), retrieved date Aug. 17, 2022. |
FUYU FSL40 Linear Guide Rail Slide, retrieved date Aug. 18, 2022. |
English translate (CN107150832A), retrieved date Aug. 18, 2022. |
International Search Report and Written Opinion for International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2018/089656, dated Aug. 8, 2019. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20210024235 A1 | Jan 2021 | US |