1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for supplying a connector to be sent to a connector crimping device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A previously known electric wire crimping device for crimping an electric wire on a crimping terminal of a connector is shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 as disclosed in JP-A-60-14780.
The electric wire crimping device, indicated by generally, a includes a guide b for passing a plurality of electric wires W, a chuck c for chucking the front end of each of the electric wires W, a transporting chain d for moving the chuck c, a cutter e for cutting the plurality of electric wires W, a crimping punch g and crimping die h for simultaneously crimping the plurality of electric wires on terminals of a connector f and a holding cylinder i for holding the rear end of each of the plurality of electric wires.
The front end of each of the electric wires cut by the cutter e is crimped on the terminals of a first connector c1 by the crimping punch g and crimping die h as shown in FIG. 16. Next, the transporting chain d is driven to shift the connector c1 forward. Then, the terminals of a second connector c2 are connected to the intermediate portions of the electric wires W. After the transportation chain d moves forward, the terminals of a third connector c3 are connected to the wires. By moving the transporting chain d forward, the wires are cut at the rear end of the third connector c3.
Thus, the conventional wire crimping device a connects a plurality of connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . in series to the wires W in a longitudinal direction.
FIG. 17 shows an exemplary connector supplying apparatus for supplying the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . on which the electric wires are crimped using the above wire crimping device a which is a working object machine.
This wire crimping device places the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . between the adjacent ones of a large number of upright rods arranged on a conveyer i and shifts them to a rear stage by the conveyer.
Another example of the connector supplying apparatus is disclosed in FIG. 18 which slides down the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . sloped with an angle of .theta. within an accommodation groove of a rail material 1 using the slope.
The above connector supply apparatus shown in FIG. 17 has the following disadvantages. In the conventional connector supply apparatus, the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . are placed between the adjacent ones of the upright rods k arranged on the conveyer i so as to be shiftable. For this reason, where the wording object machine is the wire crimping device a shown in FIG. 15, the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . must be shifted successively from the connector supply device synchronously with the crimping state for the electric wires W to the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . If not, the transport chain d will be crowded with the connectors c1, c2, c3, thus hindering smooth wire crimping.
If control is made so that the crimping state of the wires on the connectors c1, c2, c3 . . . is in synchronism with the supply of the connectors c1 c2, c3, . . . , the structure of the connector supply means is complicate, thus making its fabrication and assembling difficult. In addition, in such a connector supply device, it was difficult to shift the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . arranged with their orientation to the working object machine.
In order to stop shifting the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . or supply them to the wire crimping device a and cause them to stand by, the above conventional connector supply device must stop the conveyer i itself. Thus, the wire crimping device a takes a long time and much labor for the wire crimping.
The connector supply device shown in FIG. 18 is simple in structure, and can be easily fabricated and assembled. However, the connectors c1, c2, c3, . . . which slide down are apt to make a string thereof. Thus, it was difficult to separate a necessary number of connectors from the succeeding connectors and supply them to the working object.