Connector harness assembly machine

The machine of claim 23 wherein said harness test assembly includes gate ejection means associated with said probe means for directing a completed connector harness into an accept area or a reject area in response to said probe means.

In a connector harness assembly machine including a harness fabrication assembly with an insertion station for automatically inserting a plurality of terminated wire leads into a plurality of corresponding terminal receiving cavities formed in a connector housing, the improvement comprising:

• a housing feed assembly for feeding a plurality of housings, one at a time, to a housing load station spaced from said insertion station;
• and
• a housing indexing assembly for holding and moving a housing between said insertion and housing load stations, said housing indexing assembly including a first stationary rail and a second reciprocally mounted rail parallel to and spaced from first rail, said rails having ledge means to hold housings therebetween and extending between said load station and said insertion station, said rails including one-way indexing tabs to permit movement of the held housings in one direction upon movement of the second rail.

In a connector harness assembly machine including a harness fabrication assembly with an insertion station for automatically inserting a plurality of terminated wire leads into a plurality of corresponding terminal receiving cavities formed in a connector housing, the improvement comprising:

• a housing feed assembly for feeding a plurality of housings, one at a time, to a housing load station spaced from said insertion station, said housing feed assembly including a housing chute for receiving a plurality of generally vertically stacked housings over the housing load station, and a gate member mounted on said chute adapted to engage the lowermost housing;
• and
• a housing indexing assembly for holding and moving a housing between said insertion and housing load stations, said housing indexing assembly being associated with said gate member and said lowermost housing for normally holding said lowermost housing and allowing the lowermost housing to drop into the housing load station in response to the housing indexing assembly moving a new housing to the insertion station.

In a connector harness assembly machine for automatically inserting a plurality of terminated wire leads, one at a time, into a plurality of corresponding terminal receiving cavities formed in the connector housing, including a wire preparation means with at least one wire preparation station for producing terminated wire leads, a harness fabrication assembly including an insertion station wherein wire leads are inserted into the connector housing, and a wire transport assembly for moving the wire leads to the insertion station one at a time, the improvement comprising:

• means at the insertion station for holding the connector housing so that the cavities thereof face downwardly;
• and
• said wire transport assembly including a wire carrier for releasably holding a wire lead, means for pivotally mounting said wire carrier between an initial position wherein said wire lead is held generally in a horizontal disposition and an insertion position wherein said wire lead is held generally in a vertical disposition, and cam means adapted to engage said wire carrier prior to said insertion station for pivoting said wire carrier from its initial position to its insertion position.