The device, system and process of the present invention greatly reduces the time and space necessary to assemble a wire harness enables efficient manufacture of wire harnesses and cable assemblies. The present invention comprises at least a wire or cable viewer module, a machine vision and optical character recognition module, one or more receptacles designed to receive and hold in place a wire harness or cable assembly connector, having multiple pin-hole cavities illuminated by a light source to identify a cavity for wire or cable insertion. Moreover, the present invention may further comprise a portable, computer-implemented system capable of executing a series of automated process steps designed to identify wire and cable markings and guide the error-free insertion of identified wires and cables into wire harness connector pin-hole receptacles for assembly of a wire harness or cable assembly.

A robotic system for laying out a specified wiring harness. A robotic arm is configured to arrange a plurality of wire segments along the harness support surface. A system controller is configured to direct the robotic arm to arrange each of the plurality of wire segments on the harness support surface along a specified wire route. A preparation device can label one or both ends of each wire segment as they are being laid out on the support surface. The labeler can automatically apply adhesive labels as flags at selected locations along the length of the wire segment. In a method of making a wiring harness, the robotic arm positions pins on a harness support surface to define wire routes and then arranges at least one wire segment on the harness support surface along each of the wire routes.

Methods and apparatus for robot motion control and wire dispensing during automated routing of wires onto harness form boards. The robot includes a manipulator arm and a wire-routing end effector mounted to a distal end of the manipulator arm. The wire-routing end effector is configured for dispensing and routing a wire along a path through form board devices mounted to a harness form board. The wire-routing end effector is moved along a planned path under the control of a robot controller. An end effector path is provided with a set of processes that enable rapid, even fully automatic, development of robot motion controls for routing wires on harness form boards. The system uses a measurement encoder on the end effector that is routing individual wires on a wire harness form board to learn the length of each wire and its length variation.

The wiring harness production mounting, includes: at least one screen for displaying data aiding in the production of wiring harnesses, and at least one attachment surface associated with the at least one display screen, the at least one attachment surface being configured to receive at least one cable-routing element.

The device, system and process of the present invention greatly reduces the time and space necessary to assemble a wire harness enables efficient manufacture of wire harnesses. The present invention comprises at least a wire viewer module, a machine vision and optical character recognition module, a cassette tray platform, designed to receive and hold in place a cassette tray, having one or more receptacles designed to receive and hold in place a wire harness connector, having multiple pin-hole cavities illuminated from below or behind by a light source mounted on a two-axis translation stage or gantry to identify a cavity for wire insertion. Moreover, the present invention may further comprise a portable, computer-implemented system capable of executing a series of automated process steps designed to identify wire markings and guide the error-free insertion of identified wires into wire harness connector pin-hole receptacles for assembly of a wire harness.

An apparatus configured to twist a first wire about a second wire is presented herein. The apparatus includes a securing mechanism configured to secure ends of the first wire and the second wire. The first wire is arranged parallel to the second wire along a longitudinal axis. The apparatus also includes a gripping mechanism configured to grip central portions of the first and second wires such that inner surfaces of the central portions of the first and second wires are in contact with one another and a rotating mechanism configured to rotate the gripping mechanism, thereby twisting the first and second wires about one another. A method of twisting a first wire about a second wire is also presented herein.

A wire harness-producing device configured to produce a wire harness by displaying a wire laying-out image in a full size in a length direction on a plurality of display devices, and laying out electric wires along the wire laying-out image. The wire harness-producing device includes an electric wire-feeding device to allow the electric wires to be manually pulled out, a storage section to store operation recipe information therein, and a displaying control section to perform a displaying control on the display devices. The operation recipe information includes lengths of the electric wires. When each of the electric wires to be laid out is pulled out, the displaying control section displays, on the display devices, a starting end location indicator indicating a location for a front end portion of each of the electric wires having been pulled out, based on the lengths of the electric wires in the operation recipe information.

A computerized discrete wire inventory indexing system organizes and automates the intake of wiring used in a wire harness assembly work cell. Functions in a work cell may be duplicated into a second arrangement symmetrically opposite to a first arrangement so that an indexing system in accordance with the invention may operate between or alongside the adjacent work cells to execute its tasks in tandem and produce pairs of wires to be used within the two work cells. The wire indexing system operates with a tandem wire pulling machine on a movable shuttle that grabs pairs of wires from the indexing system and draws them to length. Both the shuttle and the wire indexing system may includes fixtures for stripping and terminating wires by crimping terminals onto prepared wire ends. Computer control enables rapid and correct wire production and efficient process change-overs.

A wiring harness assembly includes a plurality of electrically conductive wires encased within a substrate formed of a dielectric material, a location feature integrally formed with the substrate, and an opening defined in the substrate located within a predetermined tolerance relative to the location feature. A section of the plurality of electrically conductive wires is exposed within the opening.

A wire harness manufacturing method includes manufacturing a standard-size electric wire in which a terminal-equipped electric wire which is connected to a terminal is manufactured in lot units for each type, clamping the terminal-equipped electric wire to a pair of electric wire clips, dispensing a plurality of terminal-equipped electric wires respectively clamped by the electric wire clamps to electric wire holders, storing the plurality of the terminal-equipped electric wires temporarily in the electric wire holders, locking the both end portions of the terminal-equipped electric wire to an electric wire clip tool respectively and aggregating an electric wire group configuring a wire harness at the electric wire clip tool to form a harness set, and detaching the end portions of the terminal-equipped electric wire from the harness set and inserting the terminal connected and fixed into a terminal accommodating chamber of a connector housing.