Apparatus for binding conductors in a harness

A harness bundling and binding apparatus which is used on a harness making machine which serially produces electrical harnesses, each harness comprising a plurality of parallel wires, said harness making machine having a conveyor which transports said bundles laterally of their axes to a conveyor discharge station at which said harnesses move laterally of their axes from said conveyor, said harness bundling and binding apparatus comprising:

• at least one bundling and binding device, each of said bundling and binding device comprising first and second bundling rolls, said rolls being mounted on first and second shafts which are in parallel spaced-apart relationship, said rolls having cylindrical surfaces which are in contact with each other in a nip zone,
• first and second tape dispensing means associated with said first and second rolls of each of said devices, first and second bundling tapes extending from said dispensing means towards said rolls on one side of said nip zone, said tapes extending onto said cylindrical surfaces of said rolls, over said cylindrical surfaces and through said nip zone to the other side of said nip zone, said tapes having adhesive surfaces which are opposed to each other,
• indexing means for indexing said first and second shafts in opposite directions of rotation through a predetermined angle of rotation,
• a plurality of bundle receiving recesses on said cyclindrical surface of said first roll, said recesses being located at equally spaced angular intervals and extending across said cylindrical surface and between the side surfaces of said first roll and
• a plurality, equal to the number of said bundle receiving recesses, of gathering and guiding means mounted on at least one of the side surfaces of one of said rolls, each of said gathering and guiding means extending radially beyond the cylindrical surface of the associated roll and having opposed convergent surfaces, the opposed convergent surfaces extending towards the cylindrical surface of the roll whereby,
• during operation of said harness making machine, said harnesses are discharged from said conveyor and received by said rolls on said one side of said nip zone of each bundling and binding device, and said bundles of each harness are serially passed through said rolls to the other side of said nip zones, said bundles being compacted into sheaves by said rolls, and portions of said first and second bundling tapes will be adhered to said sheaves on opposite sides thereof and adjacent portions of said tapes will be adhered to each other whereby said sheaves will be bound by said tapes.