Wire harness manufacturing apparatus and wire harness manufacturing method

A wire harness manufacturing apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of connector cups having a same outer shape as each other and configured to accommodate, one by one in a detachable manner, a plurality of connectors provided on one-end side and one or more connectors provided on the other-end side of a wire harness to be manufactured in which a branch shape is formed by combining a plurality of sub-harnesses;
• a sub-harness mounting plate on which the plurality of sub-harnesses are mounted while the connector cups are attached to the connectors included in the sub-harnesses in a detachable manner;
• a plate fixing portion to which the sub-harness mounting plate is attached in a detachable manner;
• a plurality of slide portions respectively holding, via the connector cups, a plurality of one-end side connectors that are provided on the one-end side among the plurality of connectors, the plurality of slide portions configured to line up in parallel with each other in a predetermined array direction to perform a linear movement in a slide direction between a first end side and a second end side,
• one or more base end holding portions installed, in an immobile manner at least in the slide direction, on the first end side that is a base end of the linear movement, each of the base end holding portions configured to hold, via the connector cup, one of a plurality of other-end side connectors that are provided on the other-end side among the plurality of connectors;
• a connector transfer mechanism configured to detach the one-end side connector and the other-end side connector together with the connector cups from the sub-harness mounting plate attached to the plate fixing portion, transfer the one-end side connector together with the connector cup to the slide portion, and transfer the other-end side connector together with the connector cup to the base end holding portion;
• and
• an electric wire processing portion configured to perform electric wire processing including processing to form the branch shape by selectively bundling electric wires of the plurality of sub-harnesses stretched, by the linear movement, between the plurality of slide portions and the one or more base end holding portions.