Wire splitter for round conductor flat ribbon cable

A device for preparing a flat multi-conductor ribbon cable having a plurality of individually insulated conductors of circular cross section for termination into a flat cable connector, said cable having webs between the insulation coverings of each of the individual conductors, by selective splitting said webs between groups of at least one adjacent conductor per group, said splitting being effected over a first predetermined dimension along the length of said cable, comprising:

• first means comprising upper and lower meshing cutter blades each containing a plurality of spaced cutter sections, each of said sections having a number of adjacent troughs of concave cross section equal to the number of said conductors in the corresponding one of said groups, said troughs being elongated in the length dimension of said flat cable, and each of said cutter sections having cutting edges at the lines of meshing with the adjacent sections of the other of said cutters to shear said webs between said groups of conductors;
• second means comprising means for supporting said cutter blades and for imparting motion to at least one of said blades, said sections of each of said cutters producing a shearing action by meshing within the spaces between adjacent cutter sections of the other cutter;
• and third means comprising a convex-shape extant on the surface of at least one of said cutter blades facing the other of said blades, said convex shape corresponding to a curve in a plane parallel to said troughs, thereby to provide two progressing points of shear from a central point in the direction of said cable length, one progressing to one end of said convex shaped cutter blade and the other to the other end thereof.