JP6112415B2 - Wire Harness - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wire harness.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a wire harness used as a power feeding means for a sliding door of an automobile. The wire harness includes a conductive path formed by bundling a plurality of electric wires, and the conductive path is routed by an indefinite path that displaces a bent portion. The bent portion of the conductive path is displaced with the opening and closing of the slide door. However, if the radius of curvature of the bent portion becomes too small, there is a concern that the conductor constituting the electric wire is disconnected. Therefore, a plurality of rectangular tube-shaped piece members are connected in a daisy chain shape so as to be relatively displaceable, and the plurality of connected piece members are fitted to the conductive path. At the bent portion of the conductive path, the piece members come into contact with each other to thereby define the minimum radius of curvature of the conductive path.

JP2013-128369A

The manufacturing of the wire harness described above requires a step of connecting the piece members in a daisy chain shape after forming a plurality of piece part members, and a step of bringing the connected piece members along the conductive path, resulting in a large number of manufacturing steps. .
The present invention has been completed based on the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to reduce the number of manufacturing steps.

The wire harness of the present invention is
A flexible conductive path configured by bundling a plurality of electric wires and routed by an indefinite path so as to displace the bent portion;
A plurality of piece members made of photo-curing resin fixed to the conductive path by molding, and arranged in a daisy chain at intervals in the length direction of the conductive path ;
The bent portion is characterized in that the plurality of piece members are in contact with each other to restrict bending deformation of the conductive path .

  When the piece members come into contact with each other at the bent portion of the conductive path, further bending operation of the conductive path is prevented, and the minimum curvature radius of the wiring path of the wire harness is defined. Since the piece member made of photocurable resin is integrated with the conductive path if molded, the step of connecting the piece members to each other after the piece member forming step is also a step of bringing the piece member along the conductive path. Is also unnecessary. Therefore, the number of manufacturing steps can be reduced.

The top view of the wire harness of Example 1. Partial enlarged plan view of wire harness XX sectional view of FIG.

  (1) In the present invention, the piece member may be made of an ultraviolet curable resin. According to this configuration, the photocurable resin can be effectively cured in a short time with ultraviolet rays having a higher light energy density than visible light.

<Example 1>
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The wire harness W of the first embodiment is applied to the automobile 20 and is provided on a body side connector (not shown) provided on the body 21 and a slide door 24 that opens and closes the opening 22 on the side surface of the body 21. It is routed between the door side connector (not shown). The routing path (wire harness W) opens and closes the sliding door 24 between the body side bracket 23 provided in the opening 22 and the door side bracket 25 provided in the slide door 24 in the routing path of the wire harness W. Deforms along with. That is, as shown by the solid line and the imaginary line in FIG. 1 and as shown in FIG. 2, as the slide door 24 is opened and closed, the position of the bent portion B of the wire harness W is displaced and the radius of curvature of the bent portion B changes. It is routed by an indefinite route.

  The wire harness W includes a single conductive path 10 and a plurality of piece members 15 for defining the minimum radius of curvature of the wire harness W (conductive path 10) in the bent portion B. As shown in FIG. 3, the conductive path 10 is configured by bundling a plurality of covered electric wires 11 (electric wires described in claims). The covered electric wire 11 has a known form in which the outer periphery of the conductor 12 is surrounded by the insulating coating 13 over the entire periphery. The conductor 12 is formed of a stranded wire having flexibility obtained by twisting a plurality of copper strands (not shown). The insulating coating 13 is made of a synthetic resin material having flexibility. Therefore, the conductive path 10 can be bent and deformed.

  The plurality of piece members 15 have a predetermined interval in the wiring direction (the length direction of the wire harness W and the conductive path 10) with respect to the region between the body side bracket 23 and the door side bracket 25 in the conductive path 10. It is fixed in a daisy chain. As shown in FIG. 3, the piece member 15 surrounds the conductive path 10 over the entire circumference. Further, the cross-sectional shape of the piece member 15 perpendicular to the length direction of the conductive path 10 is substantially rectangular. The cross-sectional shape of all the piece members 15 and the outer peripheral dimensions of the cross-section are the same. Further, the length dimension of the conductive path 10 in the length direction is the same in all the piece members 15.

  The piece member 15 is made of a photocurable resin. The photocurable resin includes a monomer, an oligomer, a photopolymerization initiator (photoinitiator), and various additives. The photocurable resin is cured by light energy when irradiated with light in a liquid state. As the additive, a material that can obtain a predetermined hardness and rigidity required for the covered electric wire 11 after curing is selected. In addition, the photocurable resin is roughly classified into an ultraviolet curable resin and a visible light curable resin. In Example 1, an ultraviolet curable resin is used as the material of the piece member 15. The reason why ultraviolet curable resin is used as the material of the piece member 15 is as follows. The curing time of the photocurable resin is shorter as the density of received light energy is higher. Ultraviolet light has a higher density of light energy than visible light. Therefore, in order to increase the manufacturing efficiency of the piece member 15, an ultraviolet curable resin having a shorter curing time than the visible light curable resin was used.

  The wire harness W is manufactured by performing a photocuring process (molding process) after manufacturing the conductive path 10. In the photocuring step, a mold (not shown) in which one cavity for forming the piece member 15 is formed is used. At the time of molding, the conductive path 10 is positioned and set in the longitudinal direction with respect to the mold, and then a liquid photocurable resin (ultraviolet curable resin) is injected into the mold. Thereafter, the liquid photocurable resin in the mold is irradiated with ultraviolet rays.

  The photocurable resin is cured by the irradiation of the ultraviolet rays, and the single piece member 15 is molded with the outer periphery of the conductive path 10 being fixed. Thereafter, the conductive path 10 is removed from the mold, and the conductive path 10 is moved again in the length direction to be positioned again and set in the mold. Thereafter, in the same manner as described above, a liquid photocurable resin is injected into a mold and cured by irradiation with ultraviolet rays. The wire harness W is manufactured by repeating the above molding as many times as the number of the piece members 15.

  A mold having a plurality of cavities can also be used as the mold. In this case, the photocuring process can be performed less times than the number of pieces 15. That is, if the number of cavities is the same as the number of pieces 15, the photocuring process is only required once. If the number of cavities is less than the number of pieces 15, the photocuring process may be performed less than the number of pieces 15.

  Example 1 The wire harness W is configured by bundling a plurality of covered electric wires 11, and is electrically conductive by molding and a flexible conductive path 10 that is routed through an indefinite path that displaces the bent portion B. A plurality of piece members 15 made of photo-curing resin are provided in the path 10 so as to be connected in a rosary shape, and the bending part B abuts on each other to regulate bending deformation of the conductive path 10. According to this configuration, when the piece members 15 are in contact with each other at the bent portion B of the conductive path 10, further bending operation of the conductive path 10 is prevented. Thereby, the minimum curvature radius of the wiring path | route of the wire harness W (conductive path 10) is prescribed | regulated.

  In the wire harness W of the first embodiment, the piece member 15 made of a photocurable resin is integrated with the conductive path 10 by molding. Accordingly, the step of forming the piece member 15 and the step of integrating the piece member 15 with the conductive path 10 are performed simultaneously. Therefore, after the step of forming the piece members 15, neither the step of connecting the piece members 15 nor the step of bringing the piece members 15 along the conductive path 10 is necessary. Therefore, the number of manufacturing steps is small.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described with reference to the above description and drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.
(1) Although the piece member material is an ultraviolet curable resin in the first embodiment, the piece member material may be a visible light curable resin.
(2) In the first embodiment, all the piece members have the same shape and the same size. However, a plurality of types of piece members having different shapes and dimensions may be arranged.
(3) In the first embodiment, the cross-sectional shape of the piece member is a square, but the cross-sectional shape of the piece member may be a shape other than a square.
(4) Although the example which applied the wire harness to the sliding door of the motor vehicle was demonstrated in the said Example, the wire harness of this invention can be applied besides a sliding door.

W ... Wire harness B ... Bent part 10 ... Conducting path 11 ... Coated wire (electric wire)
15: Piece member

Claims (2)

A flexible conductive path configured by bundling a plurality of electric wires and routed by an indefinite path that displaces the bent portion;
A plurality of piece members made of photo-curing resin fixed to the conductive path by molding, and arranged in a daisy chain at intervals in the length direction of the conductive path ;
The wire harness characterized in that the bending deformation of the conductive path is regulated by the plurality of piece members coming into contact with each other at the bent portion .   The wire harness according to claim 1, wherein the piece member is made of an ultraviolet curable resin.

Images