JP6011464B2 - Wiring material manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a wiring material such as a flexible printed circuit (FPC).

  Internal wiring used for automobiles, large electronic devices, large mechatronics devices, etc. has conventionally been easy to secure sufficient wiring space due to the large size of the housing, so use a wire harness that bundles multiple cables. In response to complicated wiring. On the other hand, in small electronic devices and small mechatronic devices, it is necessary to minimize the wiring space in order to provide a plurality of functions in a small housing. Therefore, a small film wiring material such as a flexible printed circuit (FPC) is used for the internal wiring of such a small device.

  In recent years, even in automotive applications and large mechatronic devices, there is a demand for a device configuration that is the same size or smaller than the conventional size while enhancing functions. As a result, film wiring materials used for small electronic devices and mechatronics devices have come to be demanded as wiring in large devices.

  For example, a lithium ion secondary battery module mounted on an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle has a structure in which a plurality of single battery cells are arranged inside and electrode terminals of adjacent battery cells are connected by a connecting member such as a bus bar. ing. Lithium ion secondary batteries have a risk of heat generation when excessively charged, and when excessively discharged, charging and discharging functions are degraded due to dissolution of the electrode material. Therefore, a voltage with extremely high accuracy of about several tens of mV. Control is required. Therefore, each bus bar connected to each battery is connected to the control circuit and the protection circuit via a wiring material for monitoring the potential of each electrode.

  The voltage monitoring wiring member has a length of about 0.5 to 1 m due to the size of the secondary battery module. Further, this wiring material has a plurality of conductors because the wiring distance from the circuit board to each bus bar is different, and forms an arbitrary wiring pattern in which the conductors branch from the bundle of the plurality of conductors.

  In addition, there is a demand to reduce the area occupied by the wiring material while the number of battery cells increases and the number of wiring materials increases due to the demand for larger capacity and smaller size of the lithium ion secondary battery. Moreover, since this wiring material is required to have an arbitrary pattern of wiring, FPC or the like is used. By using a thin wiring material such as FPC, the area occupied by the wiring material can be reduced, and by forming the pattern shape in advance so as to match the position of each bus bar, incorrect wiring during battery module assembly is possible. And the positioning work between the wiring material for connection and the bus bar is simplified.

  In addition, for example, in a digital multi-function peripheral in which a copy, a scanner, and the like are integrated, in addition to wiring in the apparatus, wiring between a movable part such as a scanner reading mechanism and a control circuit is necessary. In such a wiring material, particularly in the case of A0 size (84.1 cm × 118.9 cm), the wiring length may exceed 1 m. Further, the wiring to the movable part side control circuit such as the scanner head or the ink jet head is constituted by a long straight part for providing a margin for the movable range and a branch part branching to the control circuit. For this reason, as a wiring material for such a digital multi-function peripheral, an FPC or the like capable of wiring in an arbitrary pattern is used like the above-described voltage monitoring wiring material.

  An FPC, which is an example of a wiring material, is manufactured by a process of forming a wiring pattern by photolithography on a film base material obtained by bonding a copper foil to a polyimide film as a covering member, and removing unnecessary portions of copper by an etching process. .

  Since FPC forms a conductor pattern by etching a copper foil, a waste of copper material is increased. Further, materials other than etching (photoresist, developer, cleaning solution, etc.) are required. In particular, in the case of wiring materials for voltage monitoring and digital multifunction devices, the wiring pattern is not as complex and dense as in an electronic circuit, and the simpler the structure is such that long conductors are branched, the more material Wasteful and cost increases.

  In addition, the conventional wiring material mainly forms a circuit of several centimeters square, but the wiring material for voltage monitoring and digital multifunction peripherals has a length of about 0.5 to 1 m or more. Therefore, the existing photolithography apparatus cannot cope. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the size of the photolithography apparatus, and the cost for manufacturing the wiring material further increases. Moreover, since FPC uses copper foil, the thickness of a conductor is very thin, and when it becomes large as mentioned above, conductor resistance increases.

  The flat harness (wiring material) described in Patent Document 1 is a copper wire having a circular cross section laid in the same plane along a predetermined wiring pattern and covered with an insulating film from both sides. A flat harness can be manufactured without including.

  The flat harness described in Patent Document 2 includes a ribbon cable as a first flat cable, and an FPC as a second flat cable connected to an intermediate position of the first flat cable via a connecting portion. A part of the conductor of the first flat cable and a part of the conductor of the second flat cable are electrically connected. According to this configuration, a flat harness that does not have a large FPC can be obtained by using the FPC only for the second flat cable.

JP 2002-157924 A JP 2002-203431 A

  However, according to the wiring material described in Patent Document 1, since a conductor having a circular cross section is used, when the wiring material is further thinned, the diameter of the conductor is reduced, so that the conductor resistance of the wiring material is increased. In addition, it is possible to increase the number of conductors to suppress an increase in the conductor resistance of the wiring material, but the number of steps for laying the conductors increases.

  According to the wiring material described in Patent Document 2, since the ribbon cable cannot form a branch structure, the FPC is used for the branch portion. However, the number of steps for connecting the ribbon cable and the FPC is increased. Moreover, the connection part which connects a ribbon cable and FPC becomes thick.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a wiring material capable of suppressing an increase in conductor resistance and simplifying the manufacturing process even when the wiring material is thinned.

One embodiment of the present invention provides the following wiring material manufacturing method in order to achieve the above object.

[ 1 ] A plurality of conductors having a cross-sectional shape having a predetermined thickness and a width equal to or greater than the predetermined thickness are spaced from each other, and the conductor is removed from the trunk portion supplied in a state of being arranged in parallel in the width direction. Forming a branch by bending in a direction or a direction intersecting the direction of the width and branching;
Covering the trunk and the branch so that both ends of the plurality of conductors are exposed by overlapping a pair of covering members ;
Including
The step of forming the branch part by branching includes:
Fixing the conductor by bringing a side surface of the conductor into contact with the first flat surface using a fixing member having an arcuate surface and a first flat surface following the arc-shaped surface;
Using the movable member having a second flat surface, the second flat surface is brought into contact with the side surface of the conductor opposite to the side surface in contact with the first flat surface of the conductor, and the movable member is Bending the conductor by moving it along the arcuate surface of the fixing member with the conductor sandwiched between the first flat surface ;
including,
Method for manufacturing a wiring material.
[ 2 ] The method further includes a step of removing a region where the pair of covering members are in contact with each other.
The method for producing a wiring material according to [ 1] .
[3] The conductor has a rectangular cross-sectional shape,
A method for manufacturing a wiring material according to claim [1] or [2] .

  According to the present invention, it is possible to suppress an increase in conductor resistance even when the wiring material is thin, and to simplify the manufacturing process.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a wiring material according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing a process of pulling out a conductor from the reel. FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing a process of bending a conductor. FIG. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing a state where each conductor is branched. FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically showing a process of covering a conductor with a covering member. FIG. 6 is a perspective view schematically showing a process of removing the removed portion of the covering member. 7A and 7B show an outline of a bending apparatus, FIG. 7A is a perspective view of a fixed member, FIG. 7B is a perspective view of a movable member, and FIG. 7C is a perspective view showing a state in which the fixed member and the movable member are combined. FIG. 8A and 8B show the operation of the bending apparatus, in which FIG. 8A is a cross-sectional view showing a state before the conductor is bent, and FIG. 8B is a cross-sectional view showing a state after the conductor is bent.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, in each figure, about the component which has the substantially same function, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and the duplicate description is abbreviate | omitted.

[Summary of embodiment]
In the wiring material of the present embodiment, in the wiring material including a conductor and a covering member that covers the conductor, the plurality of conductors having a cross-sectional shape having a predetermined thickness and a width equal to or greater than the predetermined thickness are spaced apart from each other. A trunk portion arranged in parallel in the width direction, a branch portion in which the conductor branches from the trunk portion in the width direction or a direction intersecting the width direction, and both end portions of the plurality of conductors are exposed. And a covering member that covers the trunk and the branch.

[Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a wiring material according to an embodiment of the present invention. The wiring member 1 has a trunk portion 21 in which a plurality of (six in this embodiment) conductors 2 having a predetermined thickness and a width larger than the predetermined thickness are arranged in parallel in the width direction of the conductors 2 at intervals. And a branch 22 that is branched by bending the conductor 2 from the trunk 21 in the width direction of the conductor 2, and a covering that covers the trunk 21 and the branches 22 so that both ends 20a and 20b of the plurality of conductors 2 are exposed. A member 3 and a branching portion 23 that branches at least one (six in this embodiment) conductor 2 in the width direction of the conductor 2 are provided.

(conductor)
The trunk portion 21 is composed of a portion from one end portion 20 a of the conductor 2 to the branch portion 23. The branch portion 22 is configured by a portion from the branch portion 23 to the other end portion 20 b of the conductor 2. The branch part 22 branches from the trunk part 21 so as not to overlap the other branch part 22 and the trunk part 21 toward the outside of the trunk part 21.

  The branch portion 23 refers to a portion of the conductor 2 that is divided in a direction different from the center line 21 a of the trunk portion 21. For example, the branching portion 23 bends the conductor 2 in the width direction of the conductor 2, that is, the conductor 2 is bent at an angle of 90 degrees with respect to the center line 21a so that the end portions 20b are located at the same distance from the center line 21a of the trunk portion 21. . Note that the angle at which the conductor 2 is bent at the branch portion 23 is not limited to 90 degrees, and may be any direction that intersects the width direction of the conductor 2, for example, 45 degrees or 135 degrees of the conductor 2.

  As the material of the conductor 2, for example, oxygen-free copper, tough pitch copper, copper alloy, aluminum, nickel or the like is used. The conductor surface may be subjected to nickel plating, tin plating or the like. The conductor 2 may be a round wire rolled into a rectangular cross-sectional shape, or a round wire drawn using a rectangular die to make the cross-sectional shape rectangular. For example, the conductor 2 is made of copper and has a rectangular shape with a cross-sectional shape thickness of 0.2 mm and a width of 1 mm. Conventionally used copper foil of FPC has a thickness of about 35 μm, so that the conductor resistance is much higher than that of the conductor 2 of the present invention. If an attempt is made to use a wiring material using a copper foil as a conductor so as to have a conductor resistance equivalent to that of the conductor 2 of the present invention, the width of the copper foil is about 5.7 mm in order to increase the cross-sectional area of the conductor. There is a problem that the width of the wiring material becomes very large. Therefore, according to this Embodiment, conductor resistance can be made small compared with the conductor using copper foil by making the cross-sectional shape of the conductor 2 rectangular. Further, in the case of a conductor having the same thickness as that of a circular conductor, the cross-sectional area is larger in the rectangular shape, so that the conductor resistance of the conductor 2 can be reduced. The conductor 2 may have a square cross-sectional shape or a cross-sectional shape in which a side surface, an upper surface, or a lower surface is arcuate.

(Coating member)
The covering member 3 includes a pair of covering members 3A and 3B. The plurality of conductors 2 are sandwiched between the pair of covering members 3A and 3B, and the trunk portion 21 and the branch portion 22 are covered so that the ends 20a and 20b are exposed. And insulate. The covering member 3 is bonded to the conductor 2 with an adhesive (not shown) applied to the opposing surface. The covering member 3 may cover the trunk portion 21 and the branch portion 22 by a method such as fusion.

  The covering member 3 is made of, for example, general polyimide, polyamide, polyethylene terephthalate or the like as an insulating member. As the adhesive, for example, an epoxy adhesive, a polyester adhesive, or the like is used.

(Method for manufacturing wiring material)
Next, an example of a method for manufacturing the wiring material 1 will be described. 2 to 6 are views showing a method of manufacturing a wiring material, FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing a process of drawing out a conductor from a reel, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing a process of bending the conductor. 4 is a perspective view schematically showing a state where each conductor is branched, FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically showing a process of covering the conductor with a covering member, and FIG. 6 is a removal portion of the covering member. It is a perspective view which shows the process to remove typically.

  The method for manufacturing the wiring member 1 includes preparing a reel 4 having a plurality of grooves 4a for accommodating a conductor 2 having a predetermined thickness and a width greater than a predetermined thickness, and the conductors 2 are arranged in parallel from the reel 4. A step of supplying the trunk portion 21, a step of bending the conductor 2 from the supplied trunk portion 21 by the bending device 5 to branch in the width direction of the conductor 2, and forming the branch portion 22; and the covering members 3A and 3B A step of preparing a pair of rolls 6 to be wound and accommodated, and covering the conductor 2 with the covering member 3 drawn from the roll 6, and a step of removing portions where the pair of covering members 3A and 3B are in contact with each other are included. .

(1) Step of supplying a conductor As shown in FIG. 2, the reel 4 around which the conductor 2 is wound is held by a holding member (not shown) and arranged in parallel with the width direction of the conductor 2.

  In order to manufacture the wiring member 1, first, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of conductors 2 are drawn from the reel 4 to a length necessary for bending the conductors 2. Note that the wiring material 1 in which different conductive materials are mixed may be manufactured by storing a plurality of different conductive materials in the reel 4 and pulling out the conductive material from the reel 4.

(2) Step of branching the conductor Next, as shown in FIG. 3, each conductor 2 is bent using the bending device 5 shown in FIG. FIG. 3 shows only a part of the bending devices 5. 7A and 7B show an outline of a bending apparatus, FIG. 7A is a perspective view of a fixed member, FIG. 7B is a perspective view of a movable member, and FIG. 7C is a perspective view showing a state in which the fixed member and the movable member are combined. FIG. 8A and 8B show the operation of the bending apparatus, in which FIG. 8A is a cross-sectional view showing a state before the conductor is bent, and FIG. 8B is a cross-sectional view showing a state after the conductor is bent.

  As shown in FIGS. 7A to 7C, the bending device 5 includes an arcuate surface 511a, a first protrusion 511 having a first flat surface 511b and a flat surface 511c following the arc-shaped surface 511a, A columnar fixing member 51 provided with a second protrusion 512 having a flat surface 512a provided with the same distance as the width of the conductor 2 and fixing the conductor 2 between the flat surface 511b; A columnar movable member 52 having a third protrusion 521 provided with a second flat surface 521a that moves along the arc-shaped surface 511a in a state where the conductor 2 is sandwiched between the arc-shaped surface 511a. . The fixed member 51 and the movable member 52 are installed on the same axis, and have contact surfaces 510 and 520 that come into contact with the fixed member 51 so that the movable member 52 can rotate. The fixing member 51 is supported by a support portion (not shown). The movable member 52 has a rotation shaft 52a and rotates by a driving unit (not shown) or manual operation. FIG. 8 shows a bending apparatus that bends the conductor 2 in the clockwise direction.

  To bend the conductor 2, first, as shown in FIG. 7A, the first flat surface 511 b of the first protrusion 511 of the fixing member 51 is brought into contact with the side surface 2 a of the conductor 2, and the second protrusion The flat surface 512 a of the part 512 is brought into contact with the side surface 2 b of the conductor 2 to fix the conductor 2.

  Next, as shown in FIGS. 7C and 8A, the side surface 2b opposite to the side surface 2a of the conductor 2 with which the first flat surface 511b contacts is in contact with the second flat surface 521a. The contact surfaces 510 and 520 are brought into contact with each other by combining the fixed member 51 and the movable member 52.

  Next, from the state in which the second flat surface 521a is in contact with the side surface 2b of the conductor 2, the movable member 52 is rotated around the rotation shaft 52a, and as shown in FIG. In a state where the conductor 2 is sandwiched between the second flat surface 521a and the arc-shaped surface 511a, the surface 521a is moved along the arc-shaped surface 511a to bend the conductor 2 by 90 degrees, for example. That is, the conductor 2 is bent by pressing the conductor 2 against the arcuate surface 511a and the flat surface 511c while the second flat surface 521a moves.

  Each conductor 2 is bent at a desired angle by a bending device 5 and has a shape having a trunk portion 21 and a branch portion 22 as shown in FIG. Note that some of the conductors 2 may be kept straight without being bent. Further, the bending device 5 can easily change the angle at which the conductor 2 is bent by changing the shapes of the arcuate surface 511a and the flat surface 511c and the rotation angle of the movable member 52.

(3) Step of covering conductor The covering members 3A and 3B are wound around the pair of rolls 6 and stored. As shown in FIG. 5, the pair of rolls 6 are held by holding members (not shown) from above and below the conductor 2 so as to be parallel to the width direction of the conductor 2.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the covering members 3 </ b> A and 3 </ b> B are pulled out from the pair of rolls 6 while supplying the conductor 2 from the reel 4. The covering members 3A and 3B overlap with each other at the end 20a and the end 20b, or a rectangular region surrounded by the end 20b, and cover the conductor 2 so that the ends 20a and 20b of the conductor 2 are exposed. Note that the conductor 2 may be covered by folding back the covering member 3 drawn from one roll 6.

(4) Step of removing the covering member Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the removal portions 3a to 3g where the covering member 3 is brought into contact with each other by punching with a mold or cutting with a cutter, a laser or the like are left as an adhesive allowance. To remove. Although FIG. 7 shows a state where the removed portion 3a is removed, the other removed portions 3b to 3g are similarly removed.

(Effect of embodiment)
According to the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(A) By using the conductor 2 having a predetermined cross-sectional shape and a width equal to or greater than the predetermined thickness, an increase in conductor resistance can be suppressed even when the wiring material is thinned.
(A) Since the wiring material 1 having no connection portion between the trunk portion 21 and the branch portion 22 can be obtained by branching the wiring material 1 by bending the conductor 2 to a desired angle by the bending device 5, the trunk portion 21 and the branch portion The manufacturing process of the wiring material 1 can be simplified by omitting the connection process with the portion 22.
(C) Even if the cross-sectional shape of the conductor 2 is rectangular, the conductor 2 can be easily bent by using the bending device 5.
(D) By making the cross-sectional shape of the conductor 2 rectangular, the conductor resistance can be reduced compared to a conductor using copper foil or a conductor having a circular cross-sectional shape.
(E) By pulling the conductor 2 from the reel 4 and branching the conductor 2 by the bending device 5 to form the wiring material 1, the etching process can be omitted in the manufacturing process of the wiring material 1. It can be simplified. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the wiring material 1 can be reduced. Moreover, since the dimension of the wiring material 1 is not restricted by the size of the photolithography apparatus used in the wiring pattern forming step, the wiring material 1 having a desired length can be easily manufactured.
(F) By passing through the step of removing the removal portions 3a to 3g of the covering member 3, the width of the trunk portion 21 and the branch portion 22 can be made the conductor covering width.

[Modification]
The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and implementations are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the branch portions 22 may be provided such that the plurality of end portions 20b have different distances from the center line 21a.

  Moreover, it can be set as the structure of inserting the edge parts 20a and 20b into the through hole of a connection member, for example using the conductor 2 with thickness further.

  Further, the wiring member 1 may have the conductor 2 bent a plurality of times by the bending device 5.

  In the present embodiment, the branch portions 22 are formed on both sides of the trunk portion 21, but the branch portions 22 may be formed only on one side of the trunk portion 21.

  The manufacturing method of the above embodiment can add, delete, replace, and replace processes without changing the gist of the present invention.

  The present invention is applicable to, for example, a voltage monitoring wiring material, a power transport line, a signal line, a mobile phone, a communication device, an information terminal device, a measuring device, a home appliance, and the like.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wiring material 2 Conductor 2a, 2b Side surface 3 Cover member 3A, 3B Cover member 3a-3g Removal part 4 Reel 4a Groove 5 Bending device 6 Roll 20a, 20b End part 21 Trunk part 21a Center line 22 Branch part 23 Branch part 51 Fixing member 52 movable member 52a rotating shaft 510, 520 contact surface 511 first protrusion 511a arcuate surface 511b first flat surface 511c flat surface 512 second protrusion 512a flat surface 521 third protrusion 521a second flat surface

Claims (3)

A plurality of conductors having a cross-sectional shape having a predetermined thickness and a width equal to or greater than the predetermined thickness are spaced from each other and arranged in parallel with the width direction. Forming branches by bending and branching in a direction intersecting the width direction;
Covering the trunk and the branch so that both ends of the plurality of conductors are exposed by overlapping a pair of covering members ;
Only including,
The step of forming the branch part by branching includes:
Fixing the conductor by bringing a side surface of the conductor into contact with the first flat surface using a fixing member having an arcuate surface and a first flat surface following the arc-shaped surface;
Using the movable member having a second flat surface, the second flat surface is brought into contact with the side surface of the conductor opposite to the side surface in contact with the first flat surface of the conductor, and the movable member is Bending the conductor by moving it along the arcuate surface of the fixing member with the conductor sandwiched between the first flat surface;
including,
Manufacturing method of wiring material. Further comprising removing regions where the pair of covering members are in contact with each other.
A method for manufacturing a wiring material according to claim 1 Symbol placement. The conductor has a rectangular cross-sectional shape;
The manufacturing method of the wiring material of Claim 1 or 2 .

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