An electric device on an automobile or the like is connected with other electric devices and a power source device via a wire harness formed by binding insulated wires thus constituting an electric circuit. In such a constitution, the wire harness is connected with the electric devices and the power source device by connecting connectors which are mounted on these components to each other.
With respect to these connectors, a crimp terminal which is connected to the insulated wire by crimping is incorporated in the inside of the connector. A female connector and a male connector which are connected to each other in the concave and convex relationship are configured to be engaged with each other by fitting engagement. Such connectors are used in many connection places where the wire harness is connected with the electric device and the power source device. Accordingly, a large number of crimp terminals are used in various places in the vehicle.
Such connectors are used under various environments and hence, there may be a case where unintended moisture adheres to a surface of the insulated wire due to condensation brought about by a change in ambient temperature or the like. There is a drawback that, when moisture intrudes into the inside of the connector along the surface of the insulated wire, a surface of a wire conductor exposed from a distal end of the insulated wire corrodes.
In view of the above, with respect to a crimp terminal, to prevent moisture from intruding into the inside of a crimping section which crimps a wire conductor, unlike an open-barrel-type crimp terminal where wire conductor inserted into a crimping section is not surrounded by the crimping section over the whole circumference, there has been proposed a closed-barrel-type crimp terminal provided with a cylindrical crimping section which crimps a wire conductor inserted into the inside of the crimping section in the form that the wire conductor is surrounded over the whole circumference.
Such a closed-barrel-type crimp terminal has been individually manufactured by molding, brazing or the like. In connecting the crimping section to the wire conductor by crimping, such connection is performed using continuous crimp terminals described in Patent Document 1, for example.
This will be described in more detail. The continuous crimp terminals are a resin-made integral body formed of cylindrical sleeves which individually hold crimp terminals in fitting engagement, and a connection belt which connects these sleeves to each other.
In connecting the crimping sections to the wire conductors by crimping using such continuous crimp terminals, the connection belt is fed to dies of an automatic crimping machine for respective sleeves in a state where the crimping sections of the respective crimp terminals are held in the sleeves by fitting engagement, and the crimping section and the wire inserted into the crimping section are connected to each other by crimping one by one by the dies for respective sleeves.
However, as described above, in the conventional method of manufacturing a closed-barrel-type crimp terminal, the closed-barrel-type crimp terminal is manufactured by molding one by one and hence, also at the time of crimping the wire, it is necessary to hold the crimping section of the closed-barrel-type crimp terminal in the sleeve of the continuous crimp terminals by fitting engagement individually. Accordingly, the manufacturing efficiency of a closed-barrel-type crimp terminal provided with a hollow crimping section is remarkably low.
On the other hand, in a case of the open-barrel-type crimp terminal, for example, a crimping section is crimped to an insulated wire using a device such as a terminal crimping device disclosed in Patent Document 2.
To be more specific, a terminal connection strip which is formed as an integral body consisting of a carrier having a strip shape and a plurality of crimp terminals which are provided to at least one edge side of the carrier in the width direction by way of connecting portions in a chained manner is paid off from a reel, is intermittently fed to a terminal crimping device and, at the same time, an insulated wire is arranged in the inside of the crimp terminal. Thereafter, a crimping section is caulked by anvils (6, 7) and crimpers (14, 15) so that the crimping section is crimped to a conductor thus connecting the crimp terminal to an insulated wire. At the same time, the crimp terminal and the carrier are separated from each other by a slide cutter (5) and hence, wire connection structural body can be continuously manufactured on a mass production basis.
On the other hand, in a case of the closed-barrel-type crimp terminal, to arrange the insulated wire in the crimping section of the crimp terminal, it is necessary to insert a conductor tip of the insulated wire through an insertion opening formed on a proximal end side of the crimping section. However, in inserting the conductor tip into the inside of the crimping section, the conductor tip and the slide cutter (5) which is arranged so as to sandwich the carrier interfere with each other thus giving rise to a drawback that the conductor tip cannot be inserted into the inside of the crimping section.
Accordingly, in the case of the closed-barrel-type crimp terminal, it is impossible to manufacture the wire connection structural body by sequentially connecting the crimp terminal to the insulated wire while sequentially conveying the terminal connection strip having a strip shape and hence, there is no other way but to manufacture the wire connection structural body individually using a method such as brazing or casting thus giving rise to a drawback that the wire connection structural body cannot be efficiently manufactured.