A wire harness assembly work cell includes a wire harness assembly work table with a pneumatically powered or spring-fed universal applicator tool for mass terminating sets of wires into insulator wafers. The insulator wafers may be assembled in stacks to form cable-end connector headshells. Insulation displacement terminals (IDT) are designed to receive wide ranges of wire diameters so that larger varieties of wire sizes may be received into these connector assemblies while using fewer different sizes of terminals, thus reducing the number of items in a bill of material (BOM) and substantially reducing the volumes and overhead costs of testing and quality control documentation dedicated to each individual BOM item.

A wire harness assembly work cell includes a wire harness assembly work table with a pneumatically powered or spring-fed universal applicator tool for mass terminating sets of wires into insulator wafers. The insulator wafers may be assembled in stacks to form cable-end connector headshells. Insulation displacement terminals (IDT) are designed to receive wide ranges of wire diameters so that larger varieties of wire sizes may be received into these connector assemblies while using fewer different sizes of terminals, thus reducing the number of items in a bill of material (BOM) and substantially reducing the volumes and overhead costs of testing and quality control documentation dedicated to each individual BOM item.

There is described a clocking angle setting tool for a wire harness having a support arm provided with a clamp for attaching a harness cable of the wire harness to the support; arm, a connector receptacle for receiving a connector provided at the end of the harness cable and a key or keyway for engaging with a complementary keyway or key of the connector. The connector receptacle is spaced from the clamp and is rotatably mounted to the support arm. A locking mechanism for locking an angular position of the connector receptacle relative to the support arm is included. The angular position of the connector receptacle relative to the support arm determines a clocking angle of the connector relative to the harness cable.

An Insulation Displacement Contact Compliant connector system (IDCC) which includes a housing, header pins, and a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Each header pin has at least a single barb to be retained into the housing. Each pin has a blade for contacting a wire. A compliant feature on the pin retains itself into holes in the PCB. The housing has a negative space similarly shaped to the pin. The housing includes a strain relief which provides a lead-in for a wire. When the system is fully assembled, the pins reside in the housing, and exit through the housing and into and through respective holes in the PCB. A wire can be inserted into the housing once the pins reside in the housing. There are several options for the assembly process including a) a pin-to-housing insertion process; b) a housing assembly-to-PCB process or a connector-to-PCB process; and c) a wired housing assembly-to-PCB assembly process or a wire harness-to-PCB assembly process.

An Insulation Displacement Contact Compliant connector system (IDCC) which includes a housing, header pins, and a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Each header pin has at least a single barb to be retained into the housing. Each pin has a blade for contacting a wire. A compliant feature on the pin retains itself into holes in the PCB. The housing has a negative space similarly shaped to the pin. The housing includes a strain relief which provides a lead-in for a wire. When the system is fully assembled, the pins reside in the housing, and exit through the housing and into and through respective holes in the PCB. A wire can be inserted into the housing once the pins reside in the housing. There are several options for the assembly process including a) a pin-to-housing insertion process; b) a housing assembly-to-PCB process or a connector-to-PCB process; and c) a wired housing assembly-to-PCB assembly process or a wire harness-to-PCB assembly process.

A robotic wire termination system for efficiently and accurately connecting a plurality of wires to an electrical connector having a plurality of connector pins with corresponding wire receptacles. The system generally includes a housing, a removable alignment plate, a robotic positioner, a heating device, a touch responsive display, and a control unit. The alignment plate removably holds a selected electrical connector in a specific position and orientation with the connector pins exposed in the housing and the wire receptacles exposed outside. The display provides a visual representation of the connector pins and selections of the connector pins. The control unit receives inputs indicating the pin selections and controls the robotic positioner to sequentially move the heating device along three orthogonal longitudinal axes to a series of heating positions relative to the selected connector pins to provide heat for melting solder to connect wires to the wire receptacles.

A multidrop cable may include multiple nodes electrically coupled thereon. The nodes may each include a respective PCB layer and a respective connector. The connector may provide connection between the transmission lines of the multidrop cable and the PCB layer. The PCB layer may include circuitry to reduce an induced noise of the multidrop cable by adding twist to the respective signals of the transmission lines. The PCB layer may also preserve the characteristic impedance of the multidrop cable by providing inductance in series between the respective signals of the transmission lines.

A multidrop cable may include multiple nodes electrically coupled thereon. The nodes may each include a respective PCB layer and a respective connector. The connector may provide connection between the transmission lines of the multidrop cable and the PCB layer. The PCB layer may include circuitry to reduce an induced noise of the multidrop cable by adding twist to the respective signals of the transmission lines. The PCB layer may also preserve the characteristic impedance of the multidrop cable by providing inductance in series between the respective signals of the transmission lines.

A connector assembly (10) is disclosed in which a connector part (12) and a cable manager part (20) are provided. The cable manager part (20) can be provided with a separable lacing fixture (24) that functions to retain the severed portions (6a) of the wires (6) that result from the termination process, rather than allowing the severed wire portions (6a) to fall to the floor in an uncollected state. In one aspect, the cable manager part (20) has a main body (22) to which the separable lacing fixture (24) is attached via a plurality of breakaway portions (34). During installation, the connector part (12) is inserted onto the cable manager part (20) and is placed in a wire termination tool (7) which fully inserts the connector part (12) onto the cable manager part (20). This action causes the connector part (12) to cut the wires (6) and to sever or break the breakaway portions (34) such that the separable lacing fixture (24) is separated from the fully formed connector (10).

An Insulation Displacement Contact Compliant connector system (IDCC) which includes a housing, header pins, and a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Each header pin has at least a single barb to be retained into the housing. Each pin has a blade for contacting a wire. A compliant feature on the pin retains itself into holes in the PCB. The housing has a negative space similarly shaped to the pin. The housing includes a strain relief which provides a lead-in for a wire. When the system is fully assembled, the pins reside in the housing, and exit through the housing and into and through respective holes in the PCB. A wire can be inserted into the housing once the pins reside in the housing. There are several options for the assembly process including a) a pin-to-housing insertion process; b) a housing assembly-to-PCB process or a connector-to-PCB process; and c) a wired housing assembly-to-PCB assembly process or a wire harness-to-PCB assembly process.